Serbia: ESC: Favoriser l’apprentissage de la langue français par les activités d’éducation non-formelle

About the local hosting organization

As a non-governmental association of citizens, "Jules Verne" is a multicultural center, with focus on non-formal education, intercultural activities; youth exchange projects and artistic projects for children and young people. It also ensures the promotion of youth involvement in the local community, with special focus on the French and Serbian cultures and languages. We are proud to say that we are holders of the European quality language label for 2021 and 2022. The association is located in a family neighborhood of Novi Sad of almost 30,000 habitants. Our main target groups are children and young people, as well as youth workers and future teachers. 1) Our regular activities consist of: - Hosting activities for local and international volunteers (since 2007 we have hosted more than 80 international volunteers (ESC and SCI) and sent around 20 young people abroad). - Organizing the bilingual kindergarten (20 to 25 children from 3 to 7 years old) - Our kindergarten has been accredited by the Ministry of Education since 2015 and represents an alternative pedagogy where the child is at the center of education. Our pedagogy mainly revolves around observing the interest of the children and making it a priority. We set an environment allowing children to learn by exploring and doing things themselves; we let them be autonomous with their learning; give them enough freedom and space to be a responsible and empathic person within the group; and we promote the early learning of a foreign language. -Organizing French language classes for children, youth, and young adults (from 3 to 22 years old) aiming to teach them a foreign language through conversation workshops, creative workshops, games, theater, storytelling, dance, improving their IT competencies etc… They are separated into different groups (3 to 10 persons in the group) depending on their ages and language capacities. ·Organization of at least three youth exchanges (K1 action) for 50 young persons in each activity; usually during one year we host one project and we participate as a sending partner in two projects (sometimes more). - Organizing each year the European Language promotion and the European Day of Languages held on the 26th of September, an event that: raise awareness of the broad variety of languages in Europe promote cultural and linguistic diversity encourage people of all ages to learn languages (easier to connect with people, to find a job and to help business growth) - Collaboration with different associations in Europe and in other regions in order to participate in different Erasmus+ programs – mobility of youth leader and teachers (trainings, job shadowing) ·Collaborating with local organizations such as OPENS and NVS on the promotion of youth mobility, activism, non-formal education for youth or youth workers. To ensure the promotion, we set up info points about ESC projects, training, conferences, meetings, and take part in resource café events. ·Cooperation with kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools and associations on the topic of teachers’ qualification (organization of trainings and participation on conferences around the storytelling, use of games in learning a foreign language, project learning environment, developing digital and IT competences and about exploring nature with children) ·Developing the e-material (booklet) in order to improve the quality work of teachers, youth workers and volunteers (quality hosting procedure, education of the volunteer, digital competencies of the volunteers, online kit of activities with children) ·organizing local volunteering - since January 2007, we have been hosting 6 locals volunteers each year. 2) Occasional activities Every three years, we organize a festival called "Jules Vernes’ illuminations", an international itinerant festival (in Serbia, in Belgium, France etc.) of light, music and lanterns (created by a group of our youngsters in order to give to others young people from our suburb the motivation to have an impact on their daily life, to gather the youth, children and their families. · Organization of intercultural activities - intercultural dinners, dancing and musical evenings with traditional clothes, movies, and art. · Cooperation with the university in order to develop education in general: organization of internships for the students, development of the teachers and students’ abilities to use different methods of non-formal education in their work. In doing so, students can obtain extra points for their diploma. We would like to host the volunteers from September or January for 10-12 months. Future goals in next 6 years: create the festival of storytelling in our local community more activities in our suburb Jules Verne is accredited for volunteering projects on local and international level and has been accredited as an association of interest for the youth by the Ministry of Labor and the Serbian Ministry of Sport and Youth.

Presentation of the programme

The main activities of the volunteers will be the organization and realization of French language classes through creative and artistic workshops and non-formal education methods with children, teenagers, youth and adults. The activities for French speaking volunteer will consist on: • Work in the bilingual French - Serbian kindergarten, • Organizing French lessons for children through games, communicative situations, explanation of vocabulary, music, explanation of cultural point of view, cooking with them etc. • activities in art, theater, music, telling tales, video and photo projects, dance, stage presentations, creating decorations, costumes • creating games, preparing drawings for activities • organization of intercultural activities • Looking for new partners • Participation in youth exchange projects, working on the website, Facebook, • Promotion of the youth Mobility

About the accomodation

The volunteer will share an apartment with other ESC volunteers or local students, but it will have his/her own furnished and equipped single room. The host association will take care of all charges except the phone bill. The volunteers will receive monthly money 200 euro - for food to prepare food himself/herself (all the necessary facilities will be provided at the flat) + Breakfast (at 8:30) and snack (at 11:30) in the association when he / she works in the kindergarten. 180 euros – (6 euros par day) for pocket money 20 euros for transport + bicycle

About the leisure activities

1. Preparation training 2. On arrival training - SALTO SEE, 3. Mi term training - SALTO SEE, 4. Orientation training: get introduced to specific projects and activities of Centre Jules Verne that they will be supporting, roles of all persons in Jules Verne, way of the functioning 5. Training about rules in the Centre: Upon their arrival the volunteers shall receive information about all administrative rules in Centre Jules Verne (position of the volunteers, their responsibilities, sanitary rules, rules in the apartment etc 6. Linguistic support: Language lessons of Serbian

Requirements

The Participant profile: No special criteria on gender, age, cultural and geographical background or other competencies, Personal interest and motivation for working with children and adolescents, interest in pedagogies of learning languages, art, literature, dance, theatre, circus or inter-cultural learning workshops would be very important for this project. No specific knowledge is required. We will be looking for volunteers that are: anti drug and anti alcoholic, open-minded; interested in long-term partnership; ready to bring/develop innovative ideas and new approaches; team players;Deadline: 09/08/2026 12:00