Long-term volunteering opportunity in the western part of Austria
Project details
- Number of volunteers: 1
- Duration: October to June (changes possible)
- Topics: Creativity and Culture, Community Development, Education and Training, Literacy and Media
- Hosting Organisation: Stadtbibliothek Dornbirn, Dornbirn, Austria
- Supporting/Coordination organisation: aha – Jugendinformationszentrum Vorarlberg Dornbirn, Austria
Open opportunities
Open opportunities (vacancies) and information about the application can be found on the European Youth Portal: All opportunities | European Youth Portal
Project description
“Stadtbibliothek Dornbirn” is one of Western Austria’s (region Vorarlberg) largest public libraries. The building was opened in January 2020 and is full of discoveries for young and old. The library makes over 60 000 media available to a wide audience, including books, CDs and DVDs, magazines and games – both analog and digital.
Besides borrowing media, you can visit the library to read and browse through books and magazines there, enjoy some fair-trade coffee or use the technically fully equipped study rooms. Furthermore, the new building includes a Gaming Zone which not only offers a variety of Nintendo Switch games but also hosts gaming tournaments. The digital offer ranges from e-books and e-audios to the movie streaming site "Filmfriend” and the “Pressreader” for newspapers and magazines.
Our volunteers work in close coordination with the team in all operational areas. Those are customer contact when lending books, answering questions or providing general information as well as supporting the media inventory or the team in organising events.
All volunteers experience the cultural world in Vorarlberg during their stay. They peek behind the extensive and diverse work of a library and the cultural partners in the region.
Being a volunteer at Stadtbibliothek Dornbirn is an experience, it provides a chance to work independently and to learn more about the work with different media and different people of all ages and backgrounds.
Tasks of the volunteer
The volunteer will work five days a week, 34 hours a week including German course. S*he will have two days holiday per month.
The volunteers’ main focus is the library for children and young people. Here they are offered a space to become creative themselves. It’s possible to organise workshops, activities, discussions, projects with and for teenagers. The list is long and except for budgetary constraints there are no limits to creativity.
However, this is an offer, not a must, and volunteers can always choose to support the team with their daily tasks as well, instead of taking on their own events. We take our volunteers seriously as experts in being young and invite them to help us choose which media, books, mangas, films, CDs etc. are going to be acquired for the youth library.
In the daily contact with the young people, s*he will increase her*his social skills and (trans-) cultural competences. By helping with our projects and activities, the volunteer will learn project management and practice teamwork.
Volunteer profile
Our volunteers should like to work with kids and youngsters and should be interested in youth cultures and different media and media topics: literature, games, analog and digital media etc.
They should be interested in communicating with other young people and be prepared to take the initiative to get in contact with them. They should be flexible and be motivated to take part in our library work, our activities, projects and workshops.
Practical arrangements
The volunteer will live in a student accommodation, where also other volunteers, students and residents of different backgrounds live. The accommodation is organised by the hosting organisation. The volunteer will have a room with an own bathroom ensuite and share a kitchen and common rooms with the other residents.
The infrastructure with trains and buses is very accessible and frequent. Additionally, s*he will also have a bicycle at her*his disposal. The volunteer will receive a ticket for free use of any public transport in the whole region of Vorarlberg during the complete duration of the ESC project.
Support during the voluntary project
Close support is important to us. The volunteers are not only mentored in finding their way around the library but we also provide access to activities, to important addresses and contacts in the Vorarlberg region.
S*He will have regular meetings with her*his tutor in our organisation to talk about the development of the project, task assignments, general wellbeing, problems, wishes etc.
The Supporting/Coordinating Organisation will hold a monthly evaluation meeting with all volunteers in Vorarlberg. At the end of the project, we will evaluate the project together with the volunteer: to see what s*he has learned and which competences s*he has gained and as a result fill out the Youthpass. Furthermore, there will be a final personal evaluation meeting with the Project Coordinator at the Supporting/Coordinating Organisation.
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updated 09/2025