A week in Norrbyhuset
Have you ever thought about what does a volunteer actually DO at their workplace? I can’t answer for everyone, but I can give you a peek how a volunteer’s life can look like in Norrbyhuset - a meeting place with youth activities:
Mondays are for staff meetings - like in a lot of youth centres. It is a good way to start a week, when everyone's gathered around and we go through the questions that have popped up among the group. (Not of course forgetting the fika! You can’t write a blog post without fika!) After the meeting, we still have time to open the house for visitors, even though it is a shorter day for them.
Tuesdays can start off with studying Swedish and coming to Norrbyhuset afterwards. At the house, there’s homework help, language café, helping in the library, playing cards with the kids or table tennis with the youngsters... You might have a certain room/place in the schedule, where you need to be in - for example in the "reception” welcoming everyone - or you could be going around helping, where needed.
On a Wednesday you can start your day in the office checking emails and planning for your activities - maybe even writing an evs blog post ;) When the visitors start coming in, it's good to move in to the “verksamhet” (= activities/functions) to help out there. There might even be an event that needs preparations. We have had author visits, theatres for children, NorrbyDagen, Finland Day, party for women (on women's day) and many more...
On Thursdays you might work an evening shift. There is also the meeting with the youth workers about youth activities and how youth work is organized in the house. After that you might have your own activity for the visitors. I have done handcrafts with kids, arranged a table tennis tournament with staff and had reading for dogs, for example.
And Fridays we close earlier (at 16 o'clock), so they are usually a bit more quieter days. There's some more time to finish your things in the office, catch up with colleagues and help those visitors who find their way in. Or maybe you want to even use one of your vacation days to have a longer weekend.
(And every Saturday is a family day in Norrbyhuset, and you can find yourself working every fourth one. Doing your own activities or helping other staff members - maybe you even have a visitor who wants to create their own thing.)
Every day of the week starts with either a morning meeting (for day shift) or a “handover” meeting (for evening shift), where we go through, how we feel and what is going on in the house that day. Every evening we end with “logging" the day - going through if there has been something special happening and how did we deal with it / how could we improve.
Some other weeks there might be trainings about violence prevention or meetings with other EVS volunteers. You probably will do other projects, as well, outside of your youth centre.
Every week looks always a bit different and that is what keeps it interesting!
- Katja