SVE - L'Europe au pied de la Haute-Loire

Municipalité de Berat ALBANIE - www.bashkiaberat.gov.al

The municipality of Berat is the local public institution in the city of Berat. the city of Berat has a population of 98.000 inhabitants and it is located in southern Albania. Environment, youth and cultural heritage are three priorities of the municipality. The city of Berat is a World heritage historic city since 2008. The historic landscape blends in with the natural landscape forming an impressive city. In this project there are three departments engaged, the Urban Planning department dealing with the environment, the cultural heritage department and youth department. The municipality of Berat runs a Youth center where youth in the city engage in different fields, such as environment, intercultural competences, foreign language learning etc. A youth group has been set up in the youth center which deals mostly with environmental issues. The name of the group is Outdoor Ambassadors. Youth meet once or twice per week and plan and organize activities such as city cleanups, awareness raising activities showing movies and pictures of our local environment as well as creating art and playing outdoors in order to engage more the community. The activities focus mostly in the historic center and on the river which are the two most representative assets of the city. In addition, the municipality runs a community center for development in the historic center where different activities are also organized with youth such intercultural exchange, community activism, technology classes etc. The municipality also supports youth to develop their intercultural competences through the support it provides for the French Alliance Berat where children learn French language and culture. Very often students from the French alliance collaborate with students from the youth center in projects tackling different areas such as environment and heritage. Every year students organize and collaborate to implement a cultural heritage restoration camp. The camp runs for two weeks with the participation of young people from France who are members of different scout groups. All youngsters meet, exchange and work on site to improve the environment and the historic fabric of the city.

1) The main activity the volunteer will address river management, as defined in the collaboration program between SICALA and the Municipality of Berat. In the Youth center of Berat, the Volunteer will work with the Outdoor Ambassadors of Berat, creating activities addressing river protection and sustainable development. Every week, together with the youth center specialist the volunteer will help with the organization of a recycling class. The volunteer will work with youth towards the development and Implementation of the Youth Raft project. The project foresees the development of boats with plastic bottles. This activity will recreate a traditional national activity which was done in the past. The partners in the project will be project coordinators and many organizations from Berat. Its aims are to increase awareness and to create a traditional activity.

2) The volunteer will also work in the community center for development in the castle of Berat. Together with youth in the development center the volunteer will work for the development of the International Cultural Heritage Restoration Camp. The volunteer will work for the creation of the new syllabus, definition of activities and training topics. The volunteer will work on average once per week with youth in the historic center. Other topics will include waste management in the historic center and awareness raising activities.

3) The third activity will include the development of intercultural competences. The volunteer will work with the French Alliance and will teach every once per week students topics on French language and culture. The volunteer will elaborate on the topic that will be decided in collaboration with the teacher. Albanian students will also prepare topics on Albanian culture and language.

4) Recycling class and The Youth raft (Young people in the historic center in collaboration with the Margarita Artisan Center; Outdoor Ambassadors and Peace Corps; Roma and Egyptian Community)

5) Environmental management in the historic center (Community Center for Development; Municipality of Berat).