WHO is CRES?

Centrul Regional de Economie Sociala(The Regional Center for Social Economy) is

a newly formed NGO activating the city of Craiova in Soth West Oltenia region of
Romania. The organisation was borne out of the desire of its members to have a more
structured framework trough which to be able to implement activities that would lead to
community development and promotion of social economy.
The mission:
CRES proposes itself to empower communities regarding self-management and long-
term development of social economy and public administration reform to support the
EU integration process.
The aims and objectives:
CRES is to actively participate in developing and strengthening the social economy
- To increase quality, to support the development, to lobby for recognition and support
active participation of organizations operating in the social economy;
- Information, training, mobilization and involvement of stakeholders in order to develop
entrepreneurship and associativity of the local communities in order to preserve the
cultural heritage of growth and living standards;
- Promoting social inclusion and social economy concept as flexible and durable tool for
economic development.
- Develop institutional capacity and management of associative structures to facilitate
access to resources in various national and international funding programs available.
- Promotion of European democratic values and European funding programs as
important resource in development.
- Increase opportunities and socio-professional integration capabilities of persons
deprived of opportunities.We are a youth organisation that promotes, supports and
facilitates the active participation, the responsible citizenship, the good governance, the
mobility and the exchange of good practices between the member organizations in
order to reduce inequality in our societies and to offer new opportunities for youth
development.


Description of the Get Involved! Group EVS
project
Project Ref: RO-21-070-2013-R2
WHY the Get
Involved! Project?
Centrul Regional de
Economie Sociala is a
newly formed NGO
activating the city of
Craiova in Soth West
Oltenia region of Romania.
The organisation was
borne out of the desire of
its members to have a
more structured framework
trough which to be able to
implement activities that
would lead to community
development and
promotion of social
economy.
The mission:
CRES proposes itself to
empower communities
regarding self-
management and long-
term development of social
economy and public
administration reform to
support the EU integration
process.
The aims and objectives:
CRES is to actively
participate in developing
and strengthening the
social economy
- To increase quality, to
support the development,
to lobby for recognition and
support active participation
of organizations operating







What will a volunteer do in the Get Involved!
project?

The volunteers of the Get Involved! Project will be directly involved in the
planning, organization and implementation of non-formal activities in
educational institutions in the city of Craiova, activities directed towards
the achievements of the project objectives.
The project will consist of 3 phases:

1. Preparation, Adaptation and Training Phase(PAT)
This stage starts from the moment the volunteers arrive in the country
and will consist of a month long Preparation, Adaptation and Training
programme (PAT) The program is designed to transmit to the volunteer
all the theoretical and practical knowledge about the project and
prepare them for the rest of the project. The PAT has 3 parts:
A 1 week training that starts from the day all the volunteers get
into the country. For this week we will all live together in an training
house and the programe will focus and getting to know eachother,
teambuilding, fun activities and getting used to the project activities to be
done, technical details and rules
After the training all the volunteers will go to their hosting
community for a period of 1 week and will get to know the community
with the help of their local mentor. In this weeks, assisted by the mentor
and the project staff, they will get to know the city, know the youngsters
they will be working with, the institutions that will help them and their
staff and generally get an idea of how the working environment is and
what are the challenges and opportunities
The last part of the PAT will be another 1 week training in the
training house where we plan the rest of the project and set up the
activity calendar in detail
In the Training and capacity building phase it is also included a training
organized by the Romanian National Agency(training called On-arrival
Training) that will also aim at preparing the volunteers from the rest of
their project. This training is part of the mandatory EVS training cycle
The EVS service will last 9 months
starting with 1st of October 2013

We have 9 available placements for
youngsters originating from
Programme Countries.

WHAT is the GET
INVOLVED! Project?
Get Involved! is a group EVS project
that involves 9 young volunteers
from Youth in Action Programme
Countries who will spend 9 months
working with non-formal education
methods in education institutions
form the city of Craiova in South
West Romania.
The project GENERAL OBJECTIVE is
to develop non-formal activities
that increase the level of European
active citizenship and civic
engagement of both the target
group and the volunteers while also
contributing to their personal and
professional development.
The volunteers of the Get Involved!
Project will be directly involved in
the planning, organization and
implementation of non-formal
activities in educational institutions
in the city of Craiova, activities
directed towards the achievements
of the project objectives.



How long?

Who can participate?





2. Community Action phase
In this phase the volunteers will get busy working on planning,
organizing and implementing non-formal activities in educational
institutions (high schools, youth club, community library etc) with
the purpose of raising the level of active citizenship and civic
involvement of the youth attending these institution. For this
phase the activities will be structured in:
a) Daily Activities The daily activities are activities
done in the educational institutions on a daily basis by the
volunteers like workshops/seminars/debates/ on active citizenship,
EU functioning mechanisms, participatory democracy, etc.
b) Scale Events - These are activities done in a limited
period of time that have a bigger scale than the daily activities.
These involve a lot of preparation and go beyond the involvement
of only the target group. The objectives of these activities are
multiple and benefit the project and programme, the volunteers
and the community altogether. The objectives of scale events are
to give visibility of the organization, the project and the YiA
programme in the community, raise awareness on certain topics,
create the culture of celebrating major European events, give the
volunteer learning opportunities in what concerns the organization
of bigger events that involve a lot of coronation and
organization. Example of such events to be organized: Europe`s
Day(to mark the international day of europe), International Day for
Tolerance; International Day of Democracy; World Day for Cultural
Diversity an event to celebrate diversity of culture and others
3. Evaluation and follow-up phase. This will be take place in
the last month of the project and will be orientated towards
evaluating the degree to which the project achieved it`s objectives,
the impact of the activities and planning the follow-up activities to
the project.
WHAT can a volunteer do in
the Get Involved! Project?
The main themes of the project are
European Active Citizenship,
Participatory Democracy and Civic
Engagement. The role of the volunteers
in the project will be to organize different
events that directly contribute to
increasing the awareness on these topics
using non formal methods of working
with youth such as:
- Presentation, Workshops, Seminars and
Training sessions on: Equal rights,
Democracy, European Institutions,
European Values Etc
- Promote Tolerance and Understanding
between youngsters from the majority
and other minorities (Rroma ethnicity,
etc.)
- Promote and implement inovative non
formal education for spurring active
citizenship and youth participation
- Language Sessions (English, French,
German, Spanish, etc)
- Art (painting, modeling, handicrafts, etc)
- Drama Theatre plays
- Sports & Dances
- Cultural Activities Countries and
customs presentations, dances, culinary
events, etc,
- Raise youngsters cultural awareness,
tradition and customs diversity
- Strengthen the role of the schools,
educational institutions as other
organizations in promoting and
implementation of activities that
encourage active citizenship and civic
engagement
- Develop and strengthen cooperation
relations in between the project partners
as well as other stakeholders directly
involved in the project (cooperation
between education institutions both on
local, regional as well as European level)



The project activities are designed in such a way that the project takes
the volunteers from the stage of LEARNER about the European Union
mechanisms, topics, values etc. to the stage of DOER in which the
volunteers get actively involved in running, managing and implementing
non-formal trainings and activities aimed at preparing the students for
the simulation of the European Union Council.
Not only will the project increase the volunteers understanding of the
European Union but it will also increase their capacity of implementing
non-formal activities and trainings, youth work, management etc.
The main defining feature of the Get Involved! project is its strong
learning dimension, it is a hands-on learning experience for every
participant involved.





SELECTION
Placements: 9 EVS placements
Age: 18 30 years
Nationality: Volunteers from Programme Countries,

Selection criteria: gender and geographical balance
- 1 place will be reserved for a volunteer that has IT skill (especially
web-site maintenance)
Education: education in a relevant domain for the project topics
(political sciences, international relation etc) will be considered a plus
but is not mandatory and we shall not refuse anyone based on this
criteria
- Volunteers need to have a genuine interest in Active citizenship,
participatory democracy, and civic engagement and be willing to learn
and share the information about the EU

Language Proficiency:
- at least a basic level of English is required (being able to make
herself/himself understood by the others
Able to communicate)
- Knowledge of Romanian would constitute a plus but will not
be a exclusion criteria
IMPORTANT

We are looking for active, open-minded, creative, innovative,
responsible and motivated volunteers who are interested in the
topic of ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP and will like to get involved in
activities that focus and aim at this topic.
The volunteers who apply for this project need to like and be
willing to work with YOUTH (aged 15 and up) for 9 months.
No kind of experience is needed to participate in this project but
we are looking for volunteers who are open to a LEARNING
EXPERIENCE, who value personal development.
If you dont feel attracted to the topic of active citizenship or
dislike youth work then the Get Involved! Project is not what you
are looking for.
Technical Details
Travel details for the
volunteers will be
coordinated jointly by CRES
and the sending
organizations.

The accommodation of the
volunteers for the duration
of the 9 months will be done
in rented apartments in the
city of Craiova situated in the
South West part of Romania.
We will be directly
responsible for assuring good
living conditions for the
volunteers by hosting them
in apartments that have all
necessary facilities(running
hot/cold water, adequate
heating, fully equipped
kitchen, etc.).

For communication all
volunteers will receive
Romanian phone cards for
their phones and will receive
monthly recharge of those
cards that will allow them to
communicate with the
project team, between
themselves or other phone
numbers in Romanian
without personal spending.

Local transport done in the
interest of the project will be
reimbursed by the
organization

Technical Details




Application Procedure:

- Motivation Letter motivating why the volunteers wants to join the project, what
recommends him for the task making specific reference to the project tasks
- A recent picture and the Curriculum Vitae (European Format - preferably)
- Support letter from the EVS accredited sending organization