UPLIFT YOURSELF BY UPLIFTING HUMANITY

Long-term European Solidarity Corps volunteering project

For Real Change Makers

Starting July 2021

IN 1 YEAR, BEAT 10 CATEGORIES

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT || ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND FINANCES || DIGITAL || COOKING || TEAM-
​WORK || EVENT PRODUCTION || GARDENING || MANAGEMENT || OUTDOOR || CONSTRUCTION

Gain valuable life skills for your own use
Help others to do the same
Create a sustainable accountability system
Implement your own initiatives
Be involved in and involve the local community
Become a change maker
Return home inspired and an inspiration

IF THIS IS US...
Piedzīvojuma Gars (Adventure Spirit) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation, which aims to develop and promote adventure and experiential learning methods. On a daily basis we help teams and individuals to grow, so they can achieve their best. We use outdoors and adventure as tools for others' success, and developing training programs is our passion. Every year we help hundreds of young people to find a clear path towards success and happiness. Adventure Spirit often serves as a platform for experiments and new ideas of our clients and members. It can get challenging, but nothing is more exciting than to list the diverse roads taken by our member initiatives. Dinners in treetops, tree house building, dance hikes, 24h challenges, foreign expeditions are just some of the hundreds of projects done by Adventure Spirit and our amazing members. All these events are connected through our core values of perfection, inclusion, safety, cooperation and nature, which are also the values we base this project upon.

Where do we work?

Our office is located in Riga centre. Here we have a comfortable area for work, including several stations for more serious photo/video editing, as well as for informal evenings among colleagues and friends. Next to the office is our storage, where all our equipment is stored (cameras, ropes, bikes, games, etc.).
Next to our office is Gravity Hall - a room for workshops and trainings. Almost every day something happens here: dance or theatre trainings, personal development lectures, poster and repair workshops and other events that you will be able to participate in or even lead yourself. 
Many of our team building programs happen in our adventure park, where also our treehouse is located. Here we also host youth exchanges and training courses. It is a remote space with beautiful nature and peaceful surroundings.

...AND THIS IS YOU...

  • You are between 17 and 30 years old (at the time of the start of the project)
  • Ready to commit to this project for a whole year (with a chance to have a vacation/days off to go home for holidays or just travel around)
  • You come from Greece, Czech Republic or Bulgaria
  • You haven't participated in any other long term EVS or ESC program
  • In need to improve practical life skills
  • Willing to gain entrepreneurial skills
  • Open-minded and tolerant
  • Organised and consecutive
  • Flexible and willing to adapt to basic protocols
  • Able to work independently and together with others
  • Motivated to work on the individual and group development of young people aged 13-25
  • Willing to continuously learn new things, reflect and evaluate your own development
  • Outdoors and adventures sounds fun to you

...WE MIGHT JUST BE A PERFECT MATCH!​

Volunteering in Piedzīvojuma Gars can provide you with a vast amount of experiences and practical skills - ''life skillz''! However, it will be your decision what skills and experiences to gain. Here are just a few of the many perks being a volunteer in PG has:
  • Event planning and coordinating skills. If you find yourself up to the challenge to take initiative and responsibility to create your own events and/or programs
  • Game development and gamification skills. We like to turn simple experiences into all kinds of games, and you have the possibility to learn new and exciting ways how to do that
  • Outdoor activity skills and experiences (hiking, kayaking, slacklining, climbing, camping...). We love outdoors, we love adventures and we love camping - all tools we use when working with groups. If you crave for the wild, we can teach you the best ways to enjoy it
  • Digital design skills (web maintenance, photo editing, graphic design, video editing etc.). We like to have nice videos and photos. For games we love nice drawings and diagrams. Do you feel like learning some digital design skills? 
  • Saws, axes, electricity, screws, nails and paint - those are all beloved things for us, letting us to create our dreams and shape our surroundings. We don't throw away, we fix. We make new games and materials with tools we have. We build tree houses, because in childhood we wanted one. These crafty skills can free your mind and break down borders in your life! Ready to get your hands dirty? We have all the tools just for that
  • Leadership and friendship skills. Group and individual development is our goal. How to be a good leader, how to be a supportive friend and how to combine those two, are topics we often find ourselves teaching to others
  • Group dynamics. You will experience this process on yourself, observe others and most importantly you will have the chance to learn to deal with group dynamic processes in everyday situations. Team building games and activities could become an important part of your tool-kit!
  • Youth-work experience is definitely on the list. Almost daily we meet hyper active kids who need guidance to be more friendly to each other, or lost youngsters who are not always sure where to head next in their life
  • Latvian hospitality, traditional cuisine and culture. We will make sure you experience our traditions, taste our best foods, see our best sights, and enjoy a relaxing evening in our sandy beaches. By the way... Did you know that our sunsets and sunrises last WAY longer than in Central and South Europe and are SUPER colorful?

BECOME A GUARDIAN ANGEL FOR OUR ADVENTUROUS YOUNGSTERS

We are an organisation that is always growing, and lately we have come to welcome new members all across the country. However, the actual work and core team at the moment is based in the capital of Latvia - Riga, and these youngsters are hard to keep engaged without reinforced support, couching and mentorship. 

We need YOU to become a guardian of these adventurous souls, overlook their progress, nudge them a little bit here and there, check in on a daily basis and be that spark of motivation they might just be missing to really set out for creating their own grand initiatives and projects!

As one of their guardian angels in a team of six you will be on a mission to create a system for monitoring our members and volunteers, as well as establish measures by which to achieve member accountability to their projects and organisation. Allowing them to realise - no matter where or with whom they are, THEY are the organisation, THEY have the power to create the change they want to see in the world.

AND BE SUPPORTED AND CARED FOR, TOO

We will:
  • Provide you with an apartment / room (might be shared) with all necessary facilities
  • Refund your local travel expenses (up to €30 / month) and provide you with a bicycle to get around the city
  • Refund food expenses up to €160 / month + during programs and activities we usually provide meals
  • Give you pocket money up to €120 / month
  • Hook you up with a mentor in order to make your being here more meaningful
  • Arrange a coach to help you reach your goals
  • Follow up on your development and constantly provide you with new opportunities and adventures
  • Make sure that you receive full health insurance
  • Take care of your safety
  • Refund you travel expenses to and from Latvia up to €275 (360€ for greek participants)

ARE YOU EXCITED?

Become a Catalyst for Growth

THANK YOU

Life Skillz is a European Solidarity Corps (ESC) project co-financed by European Commission program "Erasmus+: Youth in Action", in Latvia it is overseen by Latvian National Agency Jaunatnes Starptautisko Programmu Aģentūra.

PARTNERS 

SMOKINYA FOUNDATION, Bulgaria
ROES COOPERATIVA, Greece
ASOCIACE DICE, Czech Republic 
PIEDZĪVOJUMA GARS, Latvia