VESHTINA IN ACTION

(info pack)

Project: short-term EVS;

Duration: 30 days + 2 travelling;
Dates: 2 June 2018 – 1 July 2018;
Place of project activities: Balchik
Participants: 108 (54 programme countries + 54 partner countries)
Countries: partner and programme
Working language: English
Hosting organization: Veshtina Municipal Center, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Contacts: youth@inthepalace.com ; +359 2 441 03 02;

Person in charge: Tsanko Vasilev

I. HOSTING ORGANIZATION
Municipal Center Veshtina mission is encouragement and development of contemporary
artistic expression as well as management of projects that will promote modern art.

"Veshtina" has as its main objectives the development, preservation and promotion of
spiritual values, education, science and culture; support the development and protection of
human rights and civil society; personal development and social integration; development and
enrichment of cultural life.

Ever since its establishment in 2005 the organization's main focus is on promoting the work
of Bulgarian and foreign artists and on activities that will develop the contemporary
audiovisual culture.

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Some of the Municipal Center's main activities is planning and executing IN THE PALACE
International Short Film Festival, Balchik in partnership with “Format SFF” Foundation and the
annual audio-visual training program PLUG-IN.

Other major initiatives are educational program "Filmer Forge", the annual youth exchange
program "Dissection of democracy" under Erasmus +. By means of expression of film and new
audio-visual technology, the youth exchange raises awareness on youth opportunities and
positive effects on cultural cooperation, democratic citizenship and informal education,
planning and organizing several workshops in directing, scriptwriting, editing, cinematography
and also implementing regular curated screenings of innovative independent authors film
works.

Besides organizing its annual event, VESHTINA has a variety of social, cultural, educational and
information activities and works with many other initiatives in the field of contemporary
culture, audiovisual training and cultural cooperation, partnership and networking with young
people.

Since this year our organization starts to work also as a music promoter and is in charge with
the preparation of few musical concerts.

II. PROJECT INFO & ACTIVITIES

The aims of the project correlate with the idea of providing opportunities for achieving and
confirming key youth competences in the field of culture and arts and mostly the audiovisual
sector of operation. Here are just a small number of skills, learned and confirmed under the
project's conditions. They are as follows: organization and presentation skills, free
communication in an international environment, encouragement, creativity, teamwork, etc.

The skills mentioned above as well as the volunteer project priority of involving socially
disadvantage youths are going to be in a straight connection with the aims of the program and
the National Center's policy. In detail, the aims of the program and the Center's working policy
include fight against youth unemployment and poverty, active participation in the public and
cultural life as well as social partnership and support to the informal education.

***

The volunteers will be actively included in all the Veshtina Municipal Center activities, related
with the organization and implementation of the 15th edition of IN THE PALACE International
Short Film Festival and its satellite programme.
The main IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival event will be held in Balchik
between 23.06. – 30.06.2018. in the former residence of the Romanian Queen Marie
Victoria of Edinburgh and consists of several main components:
 Competitive programme in 4 genres : fiction, documentary, animation, experimental
 ON FOCUS programme

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 Q&A sessions
 Filmer Forge educational programme
 Pitching session
 Film industry market
 Videolibrary
 Kids programme
 MUSIC PALACE FEST – side musical programme

The volunteer programme IN THE PALACE Veshtina In Action offers 108 young people from
different Programme and Partner countries the opportunity to get an insider’s look at the
organization and working process of established cultural and educational event.
The project is implemented by Veshtina Municipal Center, hosting organization and
coordinator of the programme. The volunteers are going to spend 30 days in Bulgaria in
order to participate in the preparation and conduct of the event in Balchik.
Volunteers are engaged in tasks related to the promotion of event, getting familiar with the
atmosphere and the venues of the event, and tasks that aim to develop their creativity in the
fields of cinema, journalism, design and photography. Leading goal is to quickly adapt to the
environment and to form a specific attitude for the upcoming event. Analysis and
assessment of personal qualities and interests is also important, since, based on them, the
distribution of the activities will be done.
In the phase of actual conduct of the event, the tasks of the volunteers are related to specific
details in organizing event. In this way they will be able to explore in detail the organization
of a major cultural end educational event and to acquire new knowledge and skills.
After the event is over, volunteers are enrolled in carrying out the post-implementation
promotion campaign, self evaluation, and dissemination of results. The aim of the project is
to allow young people interested in audio-visual arts and culture to participate in the
organization of these events.
Detailed description of the activities:
1. Phase of the preparation of the events
 Getting familiar with the history and the concept of the festival and with the main venues
of the event.
 Getting familiar with the programme of the event and their different modules.
 Creation and implementation of a social media strategy with the goal to promote the
events and the volunteering project.
 Distribution of promotional materials.
 Creation of digital and physical promotional materials (promotional videos, posters, etc.)
that will be used during the event.
 Preparation of the educational ateliers that will be carried out during the events.
 Preparation of the venue of the events – cleaning, branding, decorating, etc.

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2. Phase of the actual conduct of events:
 Implementation of the final promotional wave.
 Providing content (text, photos, videos, graphics) for daily updates on social media.
 Interviewing filmmakers and participants, writing reviews and articles about the films,
making cultural-studies researches about the social tendencies and issues in the
contemporary audiovisual art, taking pictures and shooting videos and reporting on the
event in their respective countries and in social media

 Preparing daily event reviews with graphic materials of every activity – photos and videos.
 Assisting in the organization of all parts of the events – screening sessions, educational
ateliers, etc.
 Controlling the access to events locations and managing the info-point – providing detailed
information about the events, welcoming the guests and participants, preparing and
providing badges for the accredited guests, coordinating the communication between all the
events’ departments.
 Preparing the event locations for different activities and making sure that they are clean
and in order at the end of the day.
 Providing IT support and technical assistance.

3. Phase after the actual conduct of events:

 Cleaning the events locations.
 Support for the arriving and departure of the official guests of the events.
 Implementation of post-events’ promotional campaign.
 Analysis and evalutation of the events.
 Self-evaluation.

Volunteers

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Workshops, educational ateliers, role games, etc.

Project activity locations

III. ACCOMMODATION

The volunteers will be accommodated in dormitories, hostels or hotels that the organization
has already worked with, in shared rooms with the other volunteers participating in the
project. Places of their stay will be located in the town of Balchik, in a walk distance of the
working places.

Participants in the project are responsible for keeping living and working area clean. During
their participation in the project volunteers are responsible about the equipment in the living
place. They need to act in a good manner and follow the generally accepted norm of behaviour.

IV. POCKET MONEY & MONEY FOR FOOD

Volunteers will receive assistance for food and by 3 or 4 Euro/day (depends on the country) as
Individual support. The instalment will be paid within the first 10 days of the month.
Currency: 1 Euro = 1.95583 lev (BGN).

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 V. WORKING DAYS AND VACATIONS

During the project volunteers will be working in full time working week + 1 hour lunch break
per day.

Weekends are days off. In case of implementation of different activities in projects which are
going during the weekend these days will be lately compensated.

Volunteers have 2 vacation days per month. They are able to use all the vacation days all at
ones (need to be discussed and confirmed by supervisors first).

VI. TRAVEL EXPENSES

Travel costs can be reimbursed to the volunteers, based on real expenses: all receipts and
invoices need to be provided. Eligible travel expenses are travels by plane, train and bus
(project does not cover traveling by taxi). The amount of reimbursement is fixed by the
program as given below:

Programme 290 euro

countries
Partner 335 euro
countries

VII. PARTICIPANTS PROFILE

Interested in culture and arts;

Easy adaptable;
Social;
Positive;
Tolerant;
Helpful;
Teamwork;
Active and initiative;
Planning and organizing;
Responsible;
Ability to work under pressure;
Ability to work under deadlines.