Community Development Project in Barcelona

Overview

Voluntrainees in the Community Development Program in Barcelona work with an NGO which is dedicated to community building, so we are looking for people who share the same values, who want to create solidarity networks of people and we want the participants to commit to carry out the program, who are interested in learning new tasks that in the future promote their social and labor insertion and/or or that of their peers. Proactivity and interest in the project is an extremely important characteristic to participate in the project. The beneficiaries must be responsible for the tasks they carry out and must comply with the times stipulated.

Participants work in an NGO located in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Barcelona.The main goal is to fight poverty through Community Building, this
means that the NGO is covering a large scale of social and environmental services as Food bank, elderly/children care, homeless care, sustainable development (permaculture, underwater conservation etc.)

There are different circles of interest in which the project works: administration, marketing, human resources, maintenance, workshops, work with children, art and customer service, all of which are made up of volunteers. Participating in each of them allows volunteers to develop new competencies and acquire skills that prepare them to enter the labor field with a base of experience in each of the trainings related to their volunteering.

Volunteer Work Schedule

Between June 26th and September 1st the activities revolve around the summer school (called Casal de Verano) which we run in the center. The majority of the work during this time involves working with the kids so some of the workshops and training may be affected.

The volunteers will work 35 hours/week, this includes cleaning and maintenance of the living space. The working hours are Monday to Friday from 10 am to 6 pm. The day starts with Morning Glory: a 30’ routine including 15’ of physical activity, this can be yoga, stretchings, exercise, etc; 8’ of meditation and 7’ of positive writing.

Every day is planned around the necessary activities of the center:

Monday is check in day!
We welcome in the NGO the new voluntrainees to share community lunch at 1pm, Then we give to the newbies an orientation tour of the NGO. Then, they will have a training on the topic of the day until 17hs.
Then, they will go for a climbing workshop between 17:30 and 19:30.
Then they will go to recollect donation of bread between 20hs and 21hs to bring to the foodbank of the following day.

Tuesday:
Every Tuesday we start at 10am with the Morning Routine of wellbeing.
The first thing in the morning is prepare the area and disinfect the floor, tables and fridges which will come in contact with the food; inventory control and separate the food that expires soon. The logistics are very important and everybody needs to work together in this! We distribute the food to the local families and once finished we disinfect everything a second time.
Once we end cleaning everything, we gather to attend the meditation workshop.

Wednesday are days in which the volunteers work on the morning with elderly people then on the afternoon they get a training on different projects in wich they will have task to realise, for example: communication, administration, arts, maintenance and improvements, higiene, marketing, etc. There is also six hours of training per week: crosscultural of volunteership, human resources, food regulation, NGO’s finance, etc.

Thursday and Friday: every week either Thursday or Friday we have a partnership with other NGOs in Barcelona. Every Thursday we go to our organic farm in the mountains close to the NGO to share community life and work together on the farm before sharing lunch together. Every second Friday we go to the city center of Barcelona with another NGO and to hand out food to the homeless in the area.

From Monday to wednesday the days end with a workshop of either climbing, or yoga and meditation.

Friday afternoon we have a weekly meeting in order to plan the next week and also do some team building activities.

Weekends are off to enjoy Barcelona!

Volunteer Roles & Responsibilities

The main responsibility is to complete the daily tasks of the work schedule, be punctual and follow the rules of co-living.

Attend to and guide the local volunteers by assigning tasks to them and involving them in the activities
Participate in the food bank, different workshops and partnerships
Participate in all of the necessary trainings and workshops
To attend classes and workshops to fellow volunteers and people from the local neighbourhood