Verein Jugend und Gesellschaft

YUNIT is an open access youth club offering a universal service for all young people aged 9 -18. We are based in the small town of Schwaz, in Tyrol. We offer generic youth club sessions, youth led projects and targeted workshops. Our overall aim is to provide a safe space for all young people to come and enjoy themselves and to support their personal, social and emotional development. Anti-discrimination, inclusion and participation is core to our practice. Our work is always evolving to meet the needs of our young people and by having a youth led approach we are able to creatively work as a team to ensure an engaging and stimulating experience. In our open access sessions young people can use our facilities: pool table, table tennis & table football, air hockey, darts, X-Box / Wii, TV, PC's, board games, arts & crafts materials or hang out at the bar where we serve soft drinks, fresh fruit and snacks. The youth club itself has 2 floors, on the ground level is our main area where you can find all of the facilities listed above. There is an extra girls room for gender work too. We also have a large basement where we host live music events. The basement is kitted out with a bar, a stage, DJ and LJ desk, beamer, lighting & sound systems and can be separated into 3 rooms. We sometimes use the basement for project work too. Outside we have a small court yard with a raised bed which we use when the weather is good. Some of our more structured project work has included a girl’s group, Austrian - British intercultural learning project, rock climbing / bouldering, archery, cooking projects, music projects and event management for our monthly live music events. The girl’s group, rock climbing / bouldering, cooking projects, music projects, and event management for our monthly live music events are ongoing projects that happen periodically throughout the year. The Austrian - British intercultural learning project which started in 2020 and is expected to run until the end of 2022. From there we will make an assessment whether this continues, it could be possible that a different intercultural learning project is developed. Our targeted work has included workshops and discussion-based activities covering: education, employment & training (EET), substance misuse, identity & politics, healthy relationships and crime & staying safe. These are examples of possible workshops that could be facilitated again, depending on the needs of our young people. We are always open to the idea of developing more targeted workshops. Being an open access youth club the volunteer's main role will be to interact with our young people to create a fun atmosphere. This could be done over a game of pool, playing cards, creating a fun activity of their own or just simply having a chat. Having a volunteer with a good sense of humour and positive energy is ideal for our youth club!