This month, the ESC volunteers enjoyed spring at its finest. They took advantage of the great weather and had picnics, were on treasure hunts, city tours, organised and attended various online and offline events. In a word, they weren’t bored at all.
April started with a great learning opportunity for the volunteers. They had the chance to organise a giveaway for the local youth and see how their audience reacts. Shortly after, another two volunteers, Miriam and Esther, joined the Youth Centres UP 2 project. On this occasion, all the volunteers have visited and examined the Youth Centres in the city.
Spring revied their motivation, and they were excited to jump into work. Even the less creative tasks seemed easy and fun to do. So they finished the Community Engagement guidelines, created a partnership database for short-term volunteers and sent out offers. They regularly post on Facebook and Instagram fun and exciting things about themselves and their activity in the project. Feel free to follow them!
As mentioned before, they had experienced spring at its finest, which means they had many outdoor activities. They started the month with a nice friendly picnic, then participated in a treasure hunt in the Youth House to find out more about the building. Then, Ion organised a city rally in which the volunteers and employees discovered Timisoara through a treasure hunt. At the end of April, a cycling event (by Centrul de Tineret Martirilor) near the Bega River to promote outdoor sports in the spring took place. Also, the volunteers took part in a significant project: they distributed flyers and posters in the city to inform local people about the Vaccination Marathon at the end of April.
Regarding the current pandemic situations, they also had many online trainings, events and workshops too:
Online travelling – event organised for the local youth together with the youth workers from FITT, where they presented Turkey and the Turkish culture;
On Arrival Training – a week-long training for the volunteers, where they learnt, among others, about the roles in their project, cultural differences, cultural iceberg, non-violent communications, etc.;
Public Speaking – an online event that introduced the local youth to the world of confident speaking.
The month ended with a tremendous non-formal event between the volunteers. They tasted different national foods of their countries at the International Dinner.
We’re looking forward to taking all the good vibes of this month and turn them into good energy in the following period!
As most of the long-term ESC volunteers from the project Set the Tempo are gone, we are glad that they have left behind some fantastic local volunteers who are happy to share their experience of working with them in the youth centre Aradului.
Read the testimonials here:
I really enjoyed being a volunteer at the youth centre. I am so glad I chose to join because I got the chance to meet new amazing people like Katsia, Arus and Emilia, and all the participants in our activities. I am so happy because I could do the things I am interested in and implement some of my ideas, such as the Eco Club. The youth centre brought me a little bit of hope and some happy days during these hard times.
Alice Oprea
It was my best choice. I think choosing to be a volunteer here changed me as a person. How I see things, how I deal with problems and challenges, how I talk to people I just met. Katsia and Arus are the people I want to thank for this experience the most. Without them, nothing would’ve been the same because they were there for all the activities, and they were behind them as well.
Emilia Mihuț
Here at Aradului Youth Center, I had a wonderful opportunity to engage in our community. Especially at the art club, where I got to learn and evolve my drawing skills with the help of the amazing volunteers. Even though we started meeting online, it still feels like we are together and sharing each other’s drawings.
Diana Ghilezan
The art club really helped me draw more often, meet new artists and explore my creativity through drawing themes. Overall, it is a nice experience, and I think more young artists should attend it.
Anisia Falniță
It was an awesome experience!! I met a lot of cool and friendly people. The vibe was so cosy and inspired me to create!! The space was beautifully decorated, and we had music in the background, which fit perfectly with the atmosphere. I really enjoyed the time spent there!! ✨💞
Thea Marconi
I had discovered the Youth Center Aradului in the summer of 2020 when I got involved in the project named “CiviCultura” (theatrical workshop), which was an amazing experience, and I think that was the moment when I had met Katsia and Arus, the most friendly and serene people you can ever meet. At first, I didn’t have any idea about the place of the CiviCultura event, it was a cosy place, and I didn’t pay much attention. After few weeks, I understood the concept of having a place for youth in order to develop different skills for =free= or just spend some quality time learning in a social context. Amazing. I started to follow them on Facebook, and from there, I discovered the future events that got my attention: Public Speaking workshop (this was my favourite so far, the girls coordinated the activity so well, I didn’t even feel the distance made by online events, it was so real, it was the activity that I would love to repeat, also big up for Daniel Bocsan, the man who taught us the ‘power of words’ ), Yoga Sessions online (nice activity to maintain the health) and the Art Club (where creativity is blooming). From each activity, I learned something, and I am very thankful for the experiences they have offered me, for the friendship, for the skills.
Eliza Cheşa
My experience with Aradului Youth Center is a very positive and nourishing one. To begin with, Katsia and Arus were very open and curious about my proposed ideas and very dedicated to making them happen once we agreed to start yoga classes. Their commitment and cooperation were admirable. The facilities we used are well looked after and well managed. Not only we managed to create a community where we moved and shared experiences; I feel like I gained life-long friends. Thank you for the opportunity to collaborate with you!
Oana Rotariu
Centrul de Tineret Calea Aradului helped me make new amazing friends, learn many things, and offered me a community where I can exchange my ideas and learn from others. Having the chance to be in a creative and friendly environment really helped me step out of my comfort zone and say yes more often to new experiences. Meeting the volunteers and getting to know them made me more aware of how lucky we are to be living in Romania, as many of us don’t realize this (me being one of them). I found tremendous value in getting to know more about different cultures and seeing that even though we might have different traditions and ideas, we are more alike than we think. I really hope that the youth will take this chance provided in their neighbourhoods and step out of their comfort zone; it will really expand their horizons.
Ionuț Vișoi
We are so glad that Alice, Emilia, Diana, Anisia, Thea, Eliza, Oana and Ionuţ felt great and fulfilling to work with the ESC volunteers. If you are interested in taking part in the local community work, feel free to contact us.
Instead of sunny spring weather, cheerfulness and motivation, March brought moodiness and motivation drop to the ESC volunteers. But, as soon as the sunrays appeared, the work resumed.
The beginning of March seemed hopeful to everyone. Two more volunteers, Fatih and Armando, arrived (you will read about their arrival’s experience soon) and the now four boys thought they could start to work with full steam. But the circumstances were not nearly such excited as they were.
Unfortunately, Timisoara entered quarantine again. Just like the weather and the public vibe had become moody, people’s enthusiasm has dropped as well. Our ESC volunteers’ motivation was minimal. They continued to work on their daily tasks and attend the Romanian classes, but they were not in the mood for creative activities, which is understandable, regarding the situation.
But the sun rose as a saviour for them. Even though the local quarantine extended at the end of March, the four volunteers immersed strength from the sun’s rays and began to plan. They researched group activities and community engagement ideas in order to prepare fantastic programs and projects for the local youth. They also had a creative and very effective meeting about how to promote a survey among young people. For increasing the number of completions, they scheduled, together with FITT, a giveaway for the local youth.
Compared to how hard things were at the beginning of the month, the volunteers got into the end-of-month project with momentum. We hope this enthusiasm will follow them in April too.
Although February was a short month, our long-term ESC volunteers were highly productive. They started having Romanian language classes, participated in several trainings and workshops, created databases, and many more.
Alpie, our newest volunteer in the ‘Youth Centres UP 2’ project, participated in a week-long training called “On arrival” where he met other volunteers that came to Romania at the same time.
Our two volunteers had several marketing and organising-related activities this month:
an Excel training where they have mastered the basics of the program
a SWOT analysis workshop where they learned how to create a SWOT analysis, and with the help of some ex-volunteers they have even created one for the Youth Centres UP project, based on their experiences and expectations
a meeting about marketing practices, and how to use them in social media. They even put into practice their knowledge by posting on the Youth Centres UP social media accounts and writing some blog articles as well
the two ESC volunteers created a database of organisations with the possibility of having a partnership and a mail list of high schools from Timisoara for the same purpose
This year FITT wants to create 10 more youth centres in Timisoara. So, our long-term ESC volunteers shared a form on the Youth Centres UP Facebook page to ask the local youth about their needs. It was necessary for us to have a clearer image of how to arrange these new centres in order to meet the expectations of the youth and be accessible to all youth.
