Short or long term
International volunteer
International volunteering at Houens Odde
Short term volunteer
Houens Odde International Scout Centre is a part of the programme: European Scout Voluntary Programme. This is a programme for scout in the age of 18-30. The programme takes place during the summer and you will be a part of the centre camp staff, doing activities for the scout groups on camp at the centre. If you are interested in participating in this programme. please contact the office at
houensodde@houensodde.dk
Short-term volunteer:
As a scout, you can stay as a short term volunteer for 4 weeks. The weeks have to be during our summer period in (mainly) July, where our centre camps take place, and you will be a part of our International/Danish staff that are running the centre camps.
Economy
During your stay, we pay for your food and lodging. You pay for your trip to Houens Odde and back home, and for your insurance during your stay.
Facilities
As a short term volunteer for 4 weeks, and a part of our centre camp staff, you will be staying at the Activity centre. This is the centre where all the activities are concentrated. You will be eating with centre camp staff and sleeping in the dormitories together with the Danish and international voluntary staff.
Work description
Jobs for 4 weeks volunteers (and other volunteers), during the centre camp period:
Often the centre camps start in the end of June and ends in the beginning of August. During these weeks you will be a member of the Danish and international voluntary Houmen staff. This staff takes care of different activities for the scout groups, who are on the centre camp. The functions can be: sailing activities, handicraft activities, help planning the different activities of the week, working in the tractor team, or cooking for the staff.
During the 4 weeks of summer camp, Houens Odde often have from between 400-600 scouts per week. For more information look at: https://houensoddespejdercenter.dk/en/summer-camps/
Requirements
To become a member of the Houens Odde Voluntary Staff you have to be between 18 and 28 years old. As a scout volunteer, you need to be a member of an acknowledged association under either the WOSM or the WAGGGS. This must be confirmed at district and national level. You must be able to speak and carry out activities in English. We would like you to be independent and ready to make decisions on your own, be ready and open for new impressions, tasks and to make friendships across countries/cultures. It is an advantage, if you have a driver’s license, since many tasks demands assistance of tractors and other vehicles, and public transport to the city is infrequent.
Application
If you want to be a volunteer at Houens Odde Scout Centre, please send your CV and motivation letter to houensodde@houensodde.dk Often the deadline for applying is very open. If we decide to choose you as a possible candidate, we will invite you to an online interview, and we will make our final decision after the interview.
Long term volunteer
All year round there are international volunteers at Houens Odde International Scout Centre. They live at the centre together with the Danish Give A-Year scouts. You don’t have to be a scout at home to join the volunteer programme at Houens Odde.
The international volunteers reach Houens Odde through the EU supported programme: European Solidarity Corps, which is an offer for youth aged between 18 and 30 who want to spend 9 to 12 months abroad making voluntary service.
The volunteers are part of the daily work at Houens Odde and help making scout camps as well. At Houens Odde there have been volunteers from most of the world.
Do you also want to be a volunteer at Houens Odde International Scout Centre? For more information or inquiries on how to become an international short term or long term volunteer at Houens Odde, please contact the center office
Long term volunteer:
Here you can stay from more than 9 months and up till 1 year. (EU volunteers stay for 1 year and non-EU scout volunteers stay for 9 months.) During your stay, we will pay for your food and lodging, and pocket money every month. You will also get the possibility to join a Danish language class. If you are a scout and outside of Europe, you are participating in the European Scout Voluntary Programme. If you are from Europe, Tunisia, or the Caucasus countries you can participate in the European Solidarity Corps programme, supported by the EU. If you want to know more about the European Solidarity Corps programme please contact the centre office: houensodde@houensodde.dk
Economy
The voluntary staff receives free food and lodging, and daily supplies are bought on the centre’s account in different shops. Shopping and cooking are your own responsibility. You will receive a monthly amount of pocket money, which is decided by the ESC programme. If you are not a part of the ESC, you will have to pay your own ticket and an insurance that covers you in your free time during your stay. If you are a part of the ESC, you will need to find a support organisation.
Facilities
As a long-term volunteer, you will get your own room in the volunteer apartment. Here there are 6 rooms, so if you are more than 6 people you might have to share a room. You share the living room and kitchen with the other volunteers. If you have a driver’s licence, there is also the possibility of lending the cars of the centre in your free time.
Work description
You will be a part of a staff mixed between volunteers (6 volunteers) and permanent staff (8 staff members). The work of the centre will be coordinated once a week on the staff meeting.
Some of the things will be more routine work than others. – But the staff’s most important task is to provide good experiences, quality activities, and good service to our guests.
Jobs for volunteers, outside the centre camp period, are many and different.
The jobs at the centre are divided into:
- Daily jobs
- Monthly jobs
- Ad hoc jobs
- Volunteer project
The daily jobs need to be done every day, and they can be:
- Garbage round
- Toilet check and cleaning
- Buying food for the office canteen
- Deliver drinks to the guest canteens
The monthly jobs need to be done, depending on the season, once or twice a month. They can be:
- Building checks
- Checking and cleaning tractors/cars
- Grass cutting
- Cleaning different workshops
The ad hoc jobs are very different. They come day by day, hour by hour. Some can be planned; others are not possible to plan. They can be:
- Doing activities for our customers (scouts, school groups, kinder gardens, companies)
- Kitchen duties (cooking, cleaning, dish washing)
- Helping janitor with different maintenance job at the centre
- Putting up tents for customers
- Participating as a staff member in our scout summer camps or other scout events
- Participating in different volunteer arrangements together with our Danish scout volunteers
The Volunteer Project
As a volunteer, you also have the possibility of making your own project. This is a very good chance for the volunteer to make something that reflects his/hers interests and skills. The project must be for the use and fun of the customers at the centre. We prefer that the project is for the benefit of nature and environment of our centre. The project must also make our costumers aware of the ESC and the international outlet of the centre.
Most days will start 9 and end at 15. Then there will be kitchen duties some evenings and sometimes there will be late activities during the week and during the weekend
Requirements
To become a member of the Houens Odde Voluntary Staff you have to be between 18 and 28 years old. It is not a must to be a scout to b a volunteer at Houens Odde Scout Centre. But if you are a scout, you need to be a member of an acknowledged association under either the WOSM or the WAGGGS. This must be confirmed at district and national level.
You must be able to speak and carry out activities in English.
We would like you to be independent and ready to make decisions on your own, be ready and open for new impressions, tasks and to make friendships across countries/cultures.
It is an advantage, if you have a driver’s license, since many tasks demands assistance of tractors and other vehicles, and public transport to the city is infrequent.
Resident Permit
For some countries, you need a permission to enter Denmark. Normally the process can take up till 3 months, depending on which country you apply from. It is the centre that is in charge of the application process, and will be in contact with you during the process. It is not possible to apply for visa when you are working as a volunteer, and therefore the centre will be in charge of the application process.
Application
If you want to be a volunteer at Houens Odde Scout Centre, please send your CV and motivation letter to houensodde@houensodde.dk The deadline for the non-EU short term volunteer position is 1st of November.
The deadline for the ESC volunteers is December 1st.
The period for the non-EU scout volunteer runs from 1/3-31/12.
The period for the ESC volunteers runs from 1/8-31/7.
If we decide to choose you as a possible candidate, we will invite you to an online interview, and we will make our final decision after the interview.
What our former volonteers said:
Madleen said:
The work at Houens Odde Spejdercenter gave me the opportunity to not only complete practical work, it also made me a more independent person who developed skills during this year from which I will benefit my whole life.
Chawki said:
This has been an amazing time for me. I did not have that much time in the project since I couldn’t get my papers in order. And the time I was at Houens Odde went so fast. I thank the staff for teaching me so many things. I have received so much help from the ESC Coordinator. She was amazing