Cultural Games: Play-based learning experiences for children
focussing on global awareness through cultural storytelling
YFU Flanders organizes Cultural Games (in Flemish: “Cultuurspelen”) in local communities in the entire Flanders region to promote intercultural awareness among children and the youth in general. Our Cultural Games are based on experience with intercultural communication, and are suitable for all children from the age of 4 to 12. YFU Flanders wants to make children who take part in our Cultural Games aware of various aspects of intercultural communication, such as identity, stereotypes, etc. Cultural Games are specifically aimed at educating children about cultural differences and the importance of respecting and appreciating these differences. Children who participate in Cultural Games will become aware that there are children just like them that grow up in different, potentially less privileged circumstances and that we need to support each other in order to improve our society as a whole. Our ultimate goal is to create more understanding for the world and for others by supporting a spirit of solidarity and cooperation.
Description of position
Planning of workshops taking place during school holidays.
Communication with daycare centers and other youth organizations to discuss the details with the contact person (date, location, size and age of participant group, preferred game) and book the Cultural Games sessions.
Recruit, train and assign jobstudents to facilitate the Cultural Games.
Prepare the required sets of Cultural Games materials for the jobstudents at the office and use in the Cultural Games sessions with children.
Participation in Cultural Games workshops and document the process of facilitation for later evaluation of games. This might lead to the development of new games filling a gap in our range of possible Cultural Games sets.
Follow-up of workshops and contact with organizations.
Building customer relations with the organization to create a network of returning customers, making them stakeholders in the project.
Keep track of the filled out evaluation and registration forms returned by the jobstudents.
Document the progress within the project and learn more about subsidies projects such as this one.
Optional tasks, these result from a professional work environment and office behavior.
Taking part in YFU volunteer activities. Organized by YFU volunteers.
Depending upon your skills, interests and ideas, there is room for a wide variety of creative tasks.
Qualifications
● Proficiency in Dutch or Flemish is key. Mastering the Dutch language quickly is essential for your communication tasks. Upon your arrival in Flanders you will enroll in a language course. A base level of Dutch is not required but will be taken into account.
● Experience with intercultural exchange of any type is expected to guarantee a sense of belonging.
● Experience in working with children aged 4 to 12 is important, or a pedagogical background and willingness to practice these abilities.