Leading a summer camp in Europe with ARSP

Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) is starting off a new year of summer camps and is looking for voluntary leaders for the international summer camp program! We are planning more than 20 projects, including Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic and France. Young and older people from all over the world live together for two or three weeks, getting to know each other and working towards a common goal.

• What is it about?

Projects, carried out by international groups, involve working on and renovating memorial sites or Jewish graveyards or renovating buildings related to the victims of National Socialism. It is also possible to work with disabled people or support organic farming.

A summer camp does not only involve practical work. An equal part of the project consists of intensive learning about the history and existence of the respective working place. The nature of this educational experience varies from project to project, but always has to do with the history of the twentieth century, especially with National Socialism, its history, development and impact on life today. The voluntary commitment involved in a summer camp helps to raise consciousness against current-day anti-Semitism, racism and social exclusion.

• Application profile

We are looking for team leaders, who are 18 years and older, who would like to prepare and lead a summer camp. In most cases a summer camp is led by two team leaders. You will bear responsibility and should be willing to prepare workshops, for example, about the history of the work site. You should have at least a good knowledge of the language spoken in your favoured project’s country. Preparation for a summer camp are intense: You will need approximately two weeks to prepare the project (starting from March) and around one week for follow-up measures.

Leading a summer camp is not only an interesting intercultural experience; the team ledaders must also be reliable and proactive. You should be interested in meeting a lot of interesting and motivated people.

If you are interested in the topics of National Socialism and the history of the twentieth century and if you have experience working with international groups or you want to earn this experience, please apply for the job of team leader. You can send your application to the ARSP office by 5 January 2018.

• Timetable

After we have reviewed the applications we send out invitations to participate in the training seminar by the end of January 2018. This seminar for team leaders will take place near Aachen from March 8 - 11. The ARSP summer camps take place from the beginning of May until the start of September. The shortest summer camp lasts a week, the longest three weeks. The last seminar you will take part in is the evaluation seminar, which will take place in Lübeck from September 21 – 24, 2018. Participation in both the training seminar and evaluation seminar is obligatory.

• Assumption of costs

ARSP will pay the costs for taking part in the training seminar and evaluation seminar which includes travel expenses, board and accommodations. Team leaders are not paid a salary, but in exchange for leading a summer project, team leaders earn lots of experience, take part in great adventures and get to know many interesting volunteers.