Volunteer work in Group 484 provides the following opportunities:
- Doing socially-useful work and fulfilment of personal and professional goals,
- Active participation in solving problems of vulnerable groups and other social problems,
- Active participation in changing and improving local communities and society,
- Education and professional improvement,
- Gaining working experience and recommendations for future employers,
- Student internship,
- Gaining friends but also business contacts...
... and many other things!
Group 484 volunteer club has its activities in all towns where Group 484 projects are realised. The volunteers are mainly high school and university students but there is not age or any other restriction.. Our oldest volunteer is 85 years old. The scope of volunteer activities corresponds with the activities of the organisation. The following are possible fields of volunteering:
- Concrete support to the vulnerable population: workshops, humanitarian assistance, informative and legal assistance, learning about institutions in the local communities, looking for scholarships and jobs, medical checkups, education and informing...
- Research work: conceiving research methodologies, creating, conducting and processing questionnaires, “desk research”, legal analysis, writing policy papers
- Advocacy activities: campaigns (street actions, media campaigns, etc.), conferences, consultative processes (meetings, round tables)
- Youth programmes: workshops, researching everyday history, work in multicultural communities
- Administrative and logistic support to the realisation of projects: writing contracts, contacting participants of activities and hotels, supporting the work of finances and administration
- Activities of supporting the functioning of the organisation: gathering information on Group 484 activities and regular update of the website; conceiving and creation of Group 484 promo material; empowering and further developing of the volunteer group; establishing cooperation with profit sector
These are some of the experiences of volunteers in different projects:
Psychosocial support to forced migrants in collective centres
The project empowers forced migrants (refugees, IDPs and returnees under readmission agreements), particularly the most vulnerable ones, accommodated in collective centres to “take their lives into their own hands”, to seek support from the local community and contribute to its development. The project is realised through psychological counselling of individuals and families, integration workshops, cultural and sports events and professional re-trainings.
In this project, the task of volunteers is to establish contacts with families living in collective centres, through interviews and with Group 484 coordination, and in that way to learn about everyday problems of every family. The volunteer activities are most often related to the work with elementary and high school children, aiming at their more active and faster integration in the community, at improving their motivation and responsibility for their own lives. Therefore, we organise workshops where we work on developing creativity, potentials and abilities of these children.
Public events
Group 484 often uses various opportunities to publicly point to the status of forced migrants. For example, on the occasion of the World Refugee Day in 2008 in Kalemegdan in Belgrade, there was a programme that showed capacities and potentials of children who, regardless of their poverty, can contribute to their communities with their creativity and work. Children from collective centres in Mirijevo and Resnik, as well as returnee children from the Palilula municipality participated in the programme, accompanied with their families, facilitators and volunteers from Group 484, representatives of institutions from the Palilula municipality and all those who visited Kalemegdan on that they and who joined us.
Cardboard houses, collecting paper and waste are most often associated with poverty in Serbia. Through this programme, we demonstrated that the collected, recycled and hand made paper can be used creatively as a decoration but also for practical purposes. Together with other visitors, the children created various products out of recycled paper, elements from nature and colours, i.e. ideal town, everyday life products, clothes, postcards and other souvenirs.
Towards the White Schengen List
”Towards the White Schengen List” is the project that Group 484 has been realising for many years, dealing with the process of fulfilment of necessary requirements for abolishing visas between Schengen countries and Serbia. Within this project, volunteers are responsible for conceiving and realisation of the campaign focused on youth, with the aim to inform them on the process and to assist them in channelling their frustration related to their inability to travel. For three years, the central segment of the campaign has been taking place at the EXIT Music Festival.
Seminars and conferences
Volunteer work in Group 484 also includes education programmes. These seminars are mainly focused on education of young volunteers and familiarisation with the problems of forced migrants, as well as with methods of work in multicultural surroundings.
For example, the seminar in Sremski Karlovci held in August 2008, gathered high school students from IDP collective centres in Mirijevo and Resnik. Fifteen young people gained volunteer skills and learned how to provide support to their peers and others and how to recognise volunteerism as own benefit. In this way, Group 484 volunteer team was increased by fifteen new members, which is to the benefit of the organisation and the new volunteers as well.
If you are interested to volunteer fill in the volunteer form or contact us.
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