Som tu pre teba - I'm here for you

The volunteer program "I'm here for you" is focused on tutoring and spending time with children from socially disadvantaged families, children from selected crisis centers and low-income social services in Bratislava. The program is run individually, which means that one volunteer cares for one child throughout the program.

Trained volunteers are meeting with the assigned child once per week, for 2 hours, throughout the school year, directly on the premises of a specific facility. They help the child to prepare for school, write homework, repeat the curriculum together and spend time with the child playing games and talking about what has happened the last week. The relationship created between the child and the volunteer, is very beneficial for the child - he / she experiences a sense of acceptance, perceives a positive role model in the volunteer and helps the child's social integration.

The role of the volunteer in the program is to be a support but never a substitute for the parental role. The activity of a volunteer is limited to at least 1 school year. Tutoring does not take place during the summer holidays.

We implement the volunteer program in the school year 2020/2021 in the following facilities:

• Centrum pre deti a rodiny Repuls
• OZ Brána do života
• Nízkoprahová sociálna služba pre deti a rodinu Fortunáčik
• Krízové stredisko DÚHA

Only adult individuals can participate in the activities of the voluntary program. The process for selection of participants in the program is the following: there is an initial meeting with candidates for volunteering, completion of the basic contact questionnaires and personal interview, as well as subsequent initial training of the selected volunteers.

The basic requirements for volunteering are: slovak language (native speaker), above 18 years of age, patience, responsibility towards the program and the obligations arising therefrom, interest in working with disadvantaged children, willingness and possibility to devote 2 hours of time a week, attend trainings, adhere to supervision and feedback and to commit to one full school year.

We started the volunteering program in the school year 2016/2017, in Krízové centrum pre deti a mládež REPULS. The program was created with the financial support of the Kušík family. In the school year 2017/2018 we added two more organizations to the program, OZ Brána do života a Nízkoprahová sociálna služba pre deti a rodinu Fortunáčik. Since 2019, Som tu pre teba is also the partner project of the volunteering program Spojivko, which is implemented by the Centre of Volunteering in Banská Bystrica. In the school year 2020/2021, the program was extended to another facility, the Krízové stredisko Dúha. 

If you like our programm, you can support us here or contact us at ahoj@dobrovolnictvoba.sk.