Belingual volunteers are parents of multilingual families who enhance the well-being of multilingual families with under school-aged children by making Belingual activities possible through volunteering. Belingual volunteers can run language clubs in their home language or help with organizing the clubs, they can facilitate virtual reading circles, organise local events for families that speak the same home language or help develop Belingual Family Network activities by going the Family Network Steering Committee.
|
For more on Belingual volunteer opportunities
|
ARE YOUR OUR NEW LANGUAGE CLUB VOLUNTEER?Belingual language club volunteer training
The next volunteer trainings will be organized on 3.3. at 10-14.30 (Familia office) and 4.3. at 17-20.30 (ONLINE). If you have any questions, you can reach us at belingual@familiary.fi
|
|
WHO CAN BE A BELINGUAL CLUB VOLUNTEER?
|
Volunteers of all languages are welcome, from all over Finland! We would love to start a club in a new language, in a new place! We try to make sure there are 2-4 volunteers running each clubs to share the responsibility and workload. At the moment, we are looking for volunteers to help with the following clubs:
|
WHAT DO CLUB VOLUNTEERS DO?
WHAT DO I GET OUT OF IT?
- You take part in the Belingual training
- You plan the club activities with your team and coordinate with them to make sure there is always at least two parents responsible for each club meeting. Preparing for each club, every other week should take about half and hour to an hour.
- Together with your team or volunteers, you lead the a 2-hour club, every two weeks using the materials and guidance provided by the Belingual team.
WHAT DO I GET OUT OF IT?
- You will give your child the opportunity to meet other families who speak your home language, and share your culture, make friends and strengthen their feeling of belonging.
- Training , support and new skills for supporting your child's language and identity development on a safe and fun environment
- Tools and materials developed by professionals
- The Belingual team will help with finding a club space, advertising, manage registrations and provide some funding to cover costs of materials
LANGUAGE CLUB VOLUNTEER TRAINING STUCTURE
The training consists of three parts and takes a total of 8,5 hours to complete. There are several dates to choose from for each part. The training will be held in English and/or Finish according to participant needs.
Part 1 : Introduction to the Belingual Model and your role as a club volunteer: A self-study video lecture and short assignment (approx 1,5 h to complete) Part 2 : How to run a Belingual Language Club -Face to- face at Familia or online (3 h including break). Choose from either face-2-face training at Familia* or remote training via Zoom. *Childcare will be provided during face-to-face training if needed. Part 3 : Planning workshop with your team face-2-face (2 h) The total duration of the training is approx 7 hours. During the training you will also receive some of the materials needed for the clubs and meet your team of 2-4 other volunteers. |
SIGN-UPThere are no prerequisites to take part in the training, however, you will be required to complete the full training and your suitability to act as a Belingual Club Volunteer, will be assessed through out the training.
training content
|
BElingual Language club VolunteerIf you can't find the activities you want for your children, make them happen yourself! Belingual Language Clubs are family clubs in different minority languages for families with under school- aged children. Each club is led by a team of 3-4 volunteers, mainly parents of the children taking part in the club. Children always participate with their parents. The clubs take place every two weeks, lasting 2-hours each time. Families play, sing, do crafts and other fun activities together in their language.
Club volunteers are parents who want to give their children the opportunity to experience their home language and culture in a community and to meet other families who speak the same language. The clubs are guided by activities developed by experts, but each club can bring in their own culture and make it their own. |
BELINGUAL family network steering commitee memberBy families, for families The Belingual Family Network Steering Committee is a group of parents of multilingual families who come together 2-4 times a year to help steer the direction of the Network. Together the help us develop the activities that the Network carries out, how we communicate with families and help ensure that our activities are developed for families, with families.
If you are interested in joining the Steering Committee, get in touch with our Belingual Coordinator. |
other volunteer opportunitiesWe all have something to offer our communities! There are many ways to get involved for example:
|
INFORMATION AND SUPPORT FOR OUR VOLUNTEERS
We have a growing and active Belingua volunteer community. Without our volunteers, our language clubs would not exist. We support our volunteers throughout the club season. When you join the volunteer team:
- You will be added to our Belingual volunteers WhatsApp group where you can ask for support and discuss your club with the Belingual team and other volunteers.
- You can participate in our "Skills Building" workshops for volunteers where we invite experts to respond to the development needs expressed by our club facilitators. This year we are organising two workshops (more information below)
- You will have access to support materials and recordings of the workshops
- You will be invited to participate in a monthly Volunteers Café organised for all Familia volunteers as well as to our bi-annual volunteers days
BELINGUAL VOLUNTEER SKILLS BUILDING WORKSHOPS
The Belingual Volunteer Skills Building workshops aim to increase volunteers' confidence in running their clubs. The topics and experts invited are based on feedback from volunteers on areas where they would like to develop their skills. In the workshop, an expert will give a presentation about the topic. After a 30 min presentation, participants can ask questions and discuss the topic. All workshops will be recorded and volunteers will have the opportunity to access the presentations later.
Past workshops:
|
Workshop 4: Dialogic reading with young children
When: Saturday 17.2 at 12.30-13.30 Where: Teams Reading with a multilingual children strengthen their vocabulary and gives then tools to better express themselver in all their languages. Often we read to children instead of reading with them. Dialogic reading helps bring children into the story and facilitate their active participaction in the story whilst strengthening their language skills. Susan Nyangena is an early-year educator with 15 years of experience working with children. Susan is an expert in dialogic reading and in this workshop she will introduce the basics of dialogic reading and how to involve children in the story according to their language level and age. Workshop 5: Picture cards to support language use in the club When: 20.3. at. 17.30-18.30 Where: Teams The workshop will introduce different ways to use picture cards to support childrens vocabulary aquisition and engage children as part of language club activities. To help our experts design a workshop that meets your needs, we would be happy to receive your questions or examples of situations you would like support with. So please take a few minutes to fill in this form so we can make sure the workshops meet your needs! |