Following the tradition, MOVIT organized an on-arrival training at Lake Bohinj, from 17-21 of April, for the volunteers who have just arrived in Slovenia or have already spent a month or two of their volunteering journeys.

This training was supported by the National Agency of the EU Programmes and the Erasmus+: Youth and European Solidarity Corps. 

The purpose of the 5 days training was to help the volunteers to meet with other volunteers build relationships, learn more about Slovenia, and discover Lake Bohinj. The on-arrival training had an extremely diverse group, it hosted 18 volunteers from 14 different countries. The 3 EUSA volunteers also actively participated throughout the training sessions.

As in volunteering projects, everything is about non-formal learning, also methods that were used during the training were non-formal dynamics, role plays, working in small groups, project work, and walk&talk outside.
Since all participants were volunteersin, working on different projects with different skills, the best sources of knowledge and discovery for one another can be other volunteers. There was room for networking and the exchange of experiences and viewpoints, as well as support from the trainers.

The first day started with general information about the training, the different sessions, and the introduction between the volunteer and trainers. Additionally, the icebreaker activities were a great way to get everyone to talk to one another and form small working groups.

The second day started with a walking session around the lake, the aim of this activity was to ask various questions including volunteering, adaptation to the new environment and lifestyle, and social life.  This was followed by a session about project management, every volunteer has to accomplish their own individual project during their volunteering period that is why this useful and informative session was accommodated as a guideline for the personal projects in the future.

The third day was the most challenging and interesting day for everyone, this was Solidarity Day, and every formed group was required to create a project involving solidarity and the local environment.

The volunteers did not get any specific rules about the project only that they had to think outside of the box and be creative. In the end, 4 different groups formed and did projects on the topic of “ Saving Bohinj” collecting garbage around the lake and spreading awareness about the importance of the environment and kindness with positive notes, ThisAbility project- which involved games that helped to understand better the difficulties that some special needs people face with every day, SolidARiTy project which focused on music and art activities, and the last project was about staring conversations and giving cookies to locals & tourists. 

The following day, which was the 4th day, it was time for the project results presentations in an interactive way and sharing our experience during the solidarity projects. The afternoon session covered the topic of Intercultural environments and Diversity with creative learning tools.
The last day was about self-reflection and evaluation of the whole week as a team as well as an individual.

Overall, it was a wonderful opportunity to network, form new connections, and share experiences with fellow ESC volunteers who live in different cities and towns, as well as to develop a secure environment to talk about particular topics while learning about themselves and the value of volunteering during the 5-day training program.

European Solidarity Corps (ESC; former European Voluntary Service - EVS) opportunities with EUSA are possible because of the support from the European Union and Movit, the National Agency in Slovenia. EUSA Institute is an accredited organisation, with the European Solidarity Corps quality label.