This blog post was written by Joseph, the volunteer from Klub Kultury Przegorzały.
“A year that could only be described as one big adventure.”
Have you ever wanted to spend a year of your life immersed in creativity and non-stop adventures? Have you ever wanted to improve yourself in countless fields, such as graphic design, event organizing, time management, working with different age groups, and much more? This might just be the project for you!
The IntegrART project prides itself on promoting integration through ART and CULTURE. The volunteers work to engage the local community through personalized activities and workshops. What does this actually mean? Let me guide you through the details!
Every volunteer brings their unique skills and talents, which they use to create events for the local community.
Let’s look at some current volunteers:
Daniel (Aspen Grove) volunteers at the cultural institution Dworek Białoprodnicki. It is our biggest and most prestigious club, offering numerous possibilities with its variety of instruments, recording studio, TV studio, and more. Given these favorable circumstances (and Daniel being a musician), he has been hosting music creation workshops, singing sessions, and board game evenings in the Dworek Dungeon! That’s not its real name, but let’s pretend it is.
Anastasia volunteers at 27LO High School. If you think volunteering at a high school isn’t cool or fun, you’d be mistaken! 27LO is one of the coolest high schools I’ve ever seen, with weekly events, League of Legends tournaments, city-financed televised rap battles, and more. The volunteer at this school takes lots of pictures, writes social media posts, and conducts their own classes, such as German conversation hours.
I volunteer at Cultural Club Przegorzały. With my interest in art and music, the events I organize reflect that. I have has conducted manga and comic creation workshops, sticker creation workshops, curated several exhibitions, and played in local concerts at the club. Working at Przegorzały typically involves writing social media posts and articles for the IntegrART project.
As you’ve probably noticed, all the positions are quite different, and each club or high school has only one volunteer. You can read about all of the clubs in the INFOPACK.
When writing about yourself in the Application Form, be sure to specify any special traits you possess that could be useful for creating events and classes.
Past volunteers have conducted cooking workshops, gardening workshops, lightsaber activities with kids, and much more. The world is your oyster, and you can do almost anything you want. However, that doesn’t mean it’s easy or relaxing!
Often, the question arises: What does the average day look like?
It’s a good question, but the answer is complicated. As I mentioned before, each volunteer does something completely different, so the days themselves vary greatly.
While the volunteer at 27LO High School might wake up early to be at school for a morning class, another volunteer with an event starting at 5 PM might wake up much later.
While one person might have physical, sports-related events, another could be conducting purely art workshops.
Some clubs are calm, while others are always bustling with people and activities.
One constant is that you create your own path in this project.
Everyone usually works in an office to write their projects, social media posts, and plan their holidays.
Speaking of which, it’s important not to view this project as a holiday gap year. Yes, each volunteer gets holidays to explore Poland or visit their home country, but don’t expect to be here just to travel around Poland and Europe.
Our volunteers must be motivated and driven to create and engage the local community with various events and projects.
APPLICATION FORM
Now, for those already interested and ready to fill out our application form, here are some main rules to follow:
Elaboration is important when writing. Even if the question has a “yes” or “no” answer, try to respond with at least a couple of sentences.
For example, to the question “Would you describe yourself as a self-reliant person?” it’s much more desirable to receive a longer, more honest answer than a simple “Yes, I am.” Tell us how you have been or haven’t been self-reliant in the past, what you did about it, or what you want to do about it this year.
Another important aspect we want to see is your honest personality. Don’t try to portray yourself as an idyllic version of who you want to be someday. Tell us who you are right now, with all your perfect imperfections.
The project has seen too many individuals who didn’t turn out to be the same person as stated on their CV or Application Form.
Finally, for questions about the project itself, do some research beforehand. Show that you have checked the Instagram or Facebook page and that you have some knowledge of what this project involves.
TO CONCLUDE
This project is an absolute goldmine of experiences and self-development. I could not be happier with the decision I made to join the IntegrART family!
If you feel that you would like to be a part of the next 6 volunteers here in Krakow, Poland, please send your CV and Application Form to esc@dworek.eu
We will be eagerly waiting for your applications!
