About Us

Compass Organization for the European Youth Community

        The organization was founded in 2005, as a social non-profit organization, but before this we were active for 2 years as an informal group. Currently it has 600 active members. Our target audience are children and young people between ages 12-20. Our age appropriate programs are specially designed to fit each age group we work with, and they are targeted especially for socially challenged youth and also to those who have a health disadvantage. Our programs have a strong role in the individual development of the members of the community as well as developing the community itself. According to our founding documents: we help the local Hungarian youth integrate in the system of opportunities given by the European Union. We help them and our society truly become an active member of the European Union.

 Our achievable goals include the introduction of the volunteering activity, because volunteering is the reflection of active civic european involvement. According to our founding documents, our public benefit activities are: Child and Youth Protection, representation of interests, education, skill development, providing information, social assistance, promoting social equality, environmental- health- and consumer awareness and protection, training for the labor market of the more disadvantaged layer of society, career orientation, teaching through sport, useful freetime activities, drug prevention, activities that help ease the generation gap, relationship building activities between cultures, promoting geographically- mentally- physically- economically disadvantaged individuals. Crime prevention programs, helping abused children and parents. In order to achieve these objectives, we organize the following activities:

        1. We provide free counseling to young people at the beginning of their work career, we organize labor market- and occupational counseling, also carrier orientation development, preparing for job experience. We do all this 5 times a week, for roughly 2000 young people on a monthly average, in Somogy county middle schools, on Kaposvár University, 9general schools in Kaposvár and 2 in Somogy county (5 times a week, 2 schools per day, minimum of 50-100 people per school, 20 days a month=2000).

        2. In our Youth center (Füredi u. 41) we have interavtice youth clubs on various topics on a weekly basis (dance, photography, environmental awareness, interculturality, volunteering, foregin languages, skill and competence development).

        3. In our office in Plaza shopping center in Kaposvár, we target the youth wandering around the center. We organize forums, informative presentations about EVS, national volunteering programs, about labor force, and many more.(see service below)

        4.With our outreach services we give age appropriate information and details and conditions about our international projects, and youth exchanges for different age groups (middle school, highschool, university students, the unemployed). We managed to involve
more and more young people on our international projects (we are a member of Kontakt 21 youth network with headquarters in Brussels, TDM International, and we are working with over 100 international organizations). Our aim is to advertise the opportunities given by the youth exchanges also to the underprivileged children, because these programs require not only the participation but cooperation of the young people, thus developing their competences and strengthening their social relations. In 2013 we had the opportunity to send and delegate young people and specialists in groups of 4-6 to international projects abroad.

        5. Ability quest: We organize competence developing activities for young people, ages 6-18, that are based on non formal pedagogy methods. The activities are lead by the volunteers and youth workers here at our ogranization, under the supervision of educators. We work with children on competency developing starting from age 3, in kindergartens. With the older children we work also outside school time.

        6. Facilitating the social inclusion of young people in Kaposvár program’s aim is to improve the competences, life qualitiy, to inform the young people living in the Kaposvár subregion. Our specific undertaken tasks was to help improve the target group’s social integration, school situation, carrier orientation, helping them intergate themselfs better on the labor market, also to expand their social relations, boost their social implication, educate them on strengthening the bond between cultures, increase tolerance, and prepare them for family life.

        7. Training centre, active between 2009 - 2013 as an accredited adult trainging facility. Our accreditaton number was AL-2115. During this brief period we organized 8 trainings, for example for youth helpers, education development for educators, environmental awareness, psychosocial training, labor market trainings for the socially challenged, youth leader trainings, and more. Due to the immense challenges given by the newest legisltation for civil organizations, as of 2014 we are no longer an accredited traning facility.

        8. Internship opportunities for the Andragogy, Sociology and Youth Assistance students of Kaposvár and Pécs University. Through the multifaceted ctivities of Compass organization the students can gain necessary practice and experience much needed for their future carriers.

        9. Our Youth Centre and Youth Information Office provides an active info point service. We are open to helping the young people struggling to find solutions to their everyday problems, catering to their informational needs. For this, we have gathered a lot of information about services, and service providers, that offer assistance in the EU, nationally, and also locally in the Kaposvár region and subregion. As a EURODESK partner office, we are able to provide information on EU program applications, information on carrier and labor market opportunities as well.

The office provides the following services:

      - Free internet use

      - Use of our small professional library

• Information services
• Youth in Action Program, Erasmus + Program: European Voluntearing Service, national and international trainings, training courses, seminars.
• Carrier counceling, psychological
• Further learning opportunities
• Employment counceling
• Life-coach counceling
• Lifestyle counceling
• Legal advice for students, in person and via email
• Advice about applications
• Travel-related advice
• Scholarships
• About organizations and institutions that provide help, organizations dealing with crisis situations
• Recreational events and activities
• Job opportunities
• Volunteer work, application opportunities for paticipation in these programs
• EU- corner: constant counceling service about EVS, with the help of our ex EVS volunteers returned form their projects, and also the volunteers doing their projects in our organization
• Drug prevention (three members of our organization are qualified youth workers in the domain)
• Health prevention presentations for children and youth, sexual health education and advice, with the help of medical students and doctors
• Directory of national and local offices (timetable information, basic information, representatives, etc)

Development Activities

• Activities about self- knowledge
• Learning about teachin-learning methods and techniques
• Learning a foreign language with the help of non formal teaching methods
• Activities that aim to awaken an environmentally conscious lifestyle
• Competence development for young leaders
• Tutoring, mentoring, also remedial teachig for primary and secondary school students
• Creative klub activities
• EVS club
• Drama club (dramapedagogy)
• Dance club (the drama club and the dance club have the opportunity to preform in front of an audience)
• Art club

        10. Experiences gathered in the volunteering domain: We are a registered hosting organization, presently counting approximately 600 members, and we have cooperation agreements with mostly young volunteer between 16-25. We cooperate with our our young volunteers on our freetime activity programs, and helping organize other events of the like. Our organization is a distinct consortium partner of Kaposvár city. Due to this special distinction, extraordinary volunteering performance is expected from us on the cultural, sport, youth, and also freetime activities and events of the town. Some of these events: International Youth Football Festival, European Youth Week, Consumer Awareness Roadshow, Painters City Festival, Halfmarathon International Running Competition, the events from Virágfürő, Vivicitta Running Competition, labor market evetns and situational evaluational events (questionnaires,focus groups, conversation interviews).

        Within the framework of the European Voluntary Service (EVS), we are and accredited sending, hosting and coordinating organization. Our organization has started the recognition of voluntarism, raising awareness about its importance 9 years ago amongst the Hungarian volunteers. In our experience in orderfor our youth to truly become active and capable citizens of the EU, it is indispensable for them to know foreign languages, to gather international experiences, to get to know foreign cultures and to overcome cultural boundires and stereotypes.

        We take our work very seriously, because we are convinced that society is in great need of active participation and responsible young people. In these projects, the volunteers from abroad bring new energy into the local young community, guaranteeing the use and practice of foreign language. The local volunteers can and must use foreign language when they travel abroad with projects, or when doing community work, thus gaining life and work experience and contacts, and they also develop their personality and competences. Once returned they can be useful members of society, they can be the leading force of community events. The foreign volunteers hosted by our organization can participate in the Youth Center’s activitis and events.

In the year 2013 we have sent 11, and hosted 60 volunteers within the EVS program. Our organization hosted the most volunteers in Hungary, over 350 people. We would like to motivate the local Hungarian youth through the example of our own volunteers, to participate in the Erasmus+ program and take advantage of the oportunities given. They would thus experience new worlds, they would get to know themselves better, test their limits and resources, so they can better conquer the labor market and so they can be more successful in their carriers.

        11. Our labor market remedial programs in Csurgó subregion are aimed at the disadvantaged and very disadvantaged residents of these communities, so they can remedy their situation and chances for integration on the labor market. Our organization, as an accredited training facility, organized various trainings, prepping and psychosocial counceling that played a big part in keeping the participants in the program and to make the work more enjoyable.

        12. During our „Miénk itt a tér- social town-rehabilitation in Kaposvár” program, we catered to the folowing services:

• Spreading the concept of volunteering, volunteer training
• Organizing freetime activities and events: running competitions, family days
• Job fairs, carrier couseling
• Arts and crafts activities
• EVS club
• Other clubs: consumer awareness, the doctor answers, health prevention presentations

        13. Social town-rehabilitation in Kaposvár: „Nostru”. Organizing freetime activities on the terriory inhabited mostly by the romani community, relation-building between cultures.

        14.We perform volunteering services in the „Borostyán” motherhouse, where single parents or young mothers in extremely difficult social situations can find temorary care and refuge in the house provided by the foundation. It helps against child poverty and abuse, supporting equality of chance and rights between women and men, fighting against family violence. The organization proposed to help the disadvantaged groups and to mitigate the complexity of disadvantages that burdain them; they try to ensure equal opportunities for all ethincal groups, also to help resocialize the young adults no longer recieving state care, as well as helping disadvantaged students with school issues, to catch up.

        15. Our organization performs volunteering service at the RÉV – Remény az Élhetőbb Világért (Hope for a more livable world) Specialists community for new chances- organization. The purpose of this orgnaization is to help and support the socialy challenged individuals, families, groups. Helping, teaching, tutoring socially challenged children, youth groups, individuals. Training and helping the specialists that also help these groups of people. Dealing with the complexity of within family violence issues, prevention with the ones involved as well (victim, assailant, specialst).

        16. Consolidating the communication between the youth and the decision makers and city officials of Kaposvár. We have been working together for a long time with the city’s officials, civil and youth representatives. Our volunteers have met on several occasions with the town mayor and his assistants.

        17. Promoting lifelong learning and encouraging mobility, promoting sport and cross-sector collaboration. Our organization does a lot to expand the opportunities for international mobility and experience gaining of our coworkers, partners, specialists. The orgnaization performs individual work in this matter, here are the last 3 years statistics: 2011- 27, 2012- 62, 2013-60 times we have delegated Hungarian young people and spacialists abroad within the Youth in Action Program. We advertise these opportunities on a daily basis in high schools, general schools, in the university and also on our website and Facebook page. Also foreign language knowledge is extremely important in out opinion, so we find that helping develop the young peoples language competencies in a must.

Grundtvig: We offer the oportunity to eldelry (over 50) participant to expand their knowledge about foreign countries and cultures. In 2 years, 6-6- Hungarian-Turkish senior volunteers travel to each others country, for a period of 3 to 8 weeks. The senior volunteers perform activities that for them are means of learning, and for the hosting organization (or wider community) has no financial gain whatsoever from this activity.

We find learning through sport activitiesare very relevant. We regularly organize activities in schools and in our youth center with athletes. Our goal is the power of example and educating through sports. We were actively participating also organizing many sport events like: Kaposvár Dombjai Halfmarathon, K&H running competition. Through volunteering, the young people get to know and love differents kinds of sports, while doing community service.