The basics of international volunteering, the rules for creating your own projects, the secrets of successful communication with public – all this will be taught to Zaporizhzhia youth. Thanks to the victory in the competition “We are the city”, the “Caritas” Charitable Fund opened the first “School of Volunteers” in Zaporizhzhia.
A month before the opening of the school, the Caritas Foundation volunteers conducted informational work with students. They presented their project in all higher educational institutions of the city. Many students and active youth responded to this initiative. Applications for training at a school of volunteers filed 79 people. Of these, the organizers selected 30 of the most active.
Yuri Vdovtsov, author of the project:
We decided not to recruit a large group of students. This way, you can better explain all aspects of volunteer work and personally engage with everyone. We selected these students very simply – we looked at their motivation. Each participant completed a motivation letter. So we could see who has more inspiration and ideas to help and develop the city. But we do not forget those who did not pass the first set. In November or December, reopening classes are planned.
Iraisat Magomedalieva, coordinator of the competition “We are the city”:
In the seventh season of the contest “We Are the City”, every tenth project was related to volunteering. This suggests that every day more and more Zaporizhzhia citizens show an active civic position and these initiatives, most often, are submitted precisely by young people. Thanks to this project, active residents of the city will be able to find themselves, unite with like-minded people and do something useful for our city with us.
In addition to lectures from well-known Zaporizhzhia public figures, students of the School are expected to take practical classes: together with the employees of the Caritas Foundation, they will visit the Nadezhda orphanage and hold an eco-cleanup on Khortitsa Island.