A.
The aftercare hospital Tannheim at Villingen-Schwenningen has a number of 131 beds and about 140 staff members, trainees from the university of cooperative education, volunteers from the german voluntary social year program and conscientious objectors. It was put into operation in 1997 and is a modern clinic with departments for physical therapy and psychosocial pedagogics. The clinic has ist own school where children get lessons during their rehabilitation. Teachers from all types of schools give pupils and students support to keep up with their grade of school. The lessons take place in small groups (2 to 5 students) or in one-to-one lessons. For recreational and leisure time activities there are a lot of possibilities: indoor swimming pool, sports hall, climbing wall, sauna and firness room. In addition there are a billiard room, playroom for families, library, TV-rooms and Internet-café. Outside facilities are football ground, therapeutic riding, petting zoo etc.
The town of Villingen-Schwenningen is situated in the headwaters area of the Danube and the river Neckar, between the Blck Forest and the elevated plain called Baar in the south western part of Germany. The county town is the biggest City and regional centre of the Schwarzwald-Baar district where 82.000 inhabitants are living. Social life in Villingen-Schwenningen is characterised by active societies and associations. More than 300 registered and membership associations are animating cultural life: choral and musical societies, gymnastic and sports clubs, cultural associations etc. Villingen-Schwenningen is within easy reach by train via the Schwarzaldbahn from Offenburg and the Gäubahn from Stuttgart. Public transport in the central town is provided by city bus lines of the minuicipal transportation services. Since 2003 the town is part of the Schwarzwald-Baar public transport system and is connected to the circular railway system of the counties of Schwarzald-Baar, Rottweil and Tuttlingen.

B.
Volunteers will work alongside qualified staff members of the psychosocial and pedagogical department as a supernumerary assistant in organizing support and leisure time activities. Volunteers could develop their own ideas and specialised skills, e.g. graphic design, mechanical skills, music making, computer literacy etc.
In the beginning volunteers will only assist the groupleaders, later they can take on more responsibility - as far as admitted by legal liabilities.
Emphatically volunteers are invited to bring in their own ideas. Staff members will appreciate all initiatives to develop additional proposals for leisure time activities and will support planning and realization. Volunteers could develop their ideas for new games, activities or stories into a personal project if they so wished - creative ideas are always welcome.
Major tasks in which volunteers can be actively involved are:
· assistance and support for children and young people in group activities
· organisation of occupational therapy like doing handicraft, singing, music playing
· assistance in walkaways and excursions
· preparation of leisure time arrangements
Volunteers are invited to participate in internal vocational training seminars.
Volunteers are expected to accomplish a fulltime voluntary service of 35 hours per week. Overtime doing will be balanced by additional freetime.
Volunteers can take part in a language training for European Volunteers arranged by the coordinating organisation. The aim of the language training is the command of oral every day speech with a special focus on the terminology of child care and youth work. Through language training the volunteer should be enabled to manage typical situations of daily life they will be confronted with during their voluntary service.

C.
Volunteers should be open-minded to work with youngsters being chronically and critically ill. It's necessary for volunteers to be sociable and outgoing, to have enthusiasm, and to be tolerant to foreign cultures. They should be able to interact well with different groups of people. An enthusiastic, responsible and flexible attitude towards the work is very important. Experiences in child care and youth work would be helpful, but not a prerequisite. To get easily in touch with the staff members as well as the children and their parents, a basic knowledge of german language would be helpful. Volunteers should be able to get involved into the staff and to contribute to the work. Volunteers should be interested to deal with german culture and to learn to manage everyday situations in german language. The sending organisation should assure a good preparation for an assignment of the volunteer in a foreign country. A preparatory visit would be helpful. A driving license class B could be helpful.

D.
Volunteers with special needs could be accepted after consultation with the hosting organisation to find and to agree appropriate opportunities of voluntary activities
E.
The hosting organization and the coordinating organisation provide continuous monitoring, including easy access to the contact persons (Tutor), regular dialog with the volunteers, in which the options for personal development and the interests of the volunteer are being discussed.
Volunteers will be informed before starting their project about their rights, regulations in the host organization, consequences of unacceptable behaviour.
To prevent crises from occurring in the first place, volunteers will be given any training necessary for them to carry out their tasks.
In terms of risk and crisis prevention it is very important to keep all persons involved in the project informed to be able to act immediately in the case of a crisis.
However if problems occur, volunteers have different people to contact and discuss problems with. The different people are pro-active in seeking area of concern and actively finding solutions to the issues arising.
The line manager in the respective working group is on hand daily for problems, the director of the hosting organisation is accessible for volunteers every day and the co-ordinator is available by e-mail and phone at every time but meets the volunteers weekly or biweekly during language training.
Weekly volunteers can meet during language training participants from other EVS-projects from the region to exchange experiences.
Volunteers wil have the opportunity to stay in contact with their family and sending organization via e-mail or telephone at least on a weekly basis.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=6001181436