Project Environment
EURO<26 is a rather independant departement of Akzente Salzburg.
The aim of the EURO<26 Jugendkarte Österreich is the development of the European Youth Card EURO<26 in Austria and the youth card related to EURO<26 in order to create a very useful tool for young people living in and travelling through Austria. We want to offer young people aged under twenty six special access to transport, accommodation, leisure activities, culture, sport, services and benefits of whatever nature which might contribute to their development, mobility and the improvement of the quality of their daily life.
EIght staff are actively involved in the process of the youth card development of EURO<26 and its regional counterpart S-Pass.
We are member of the European Youth Card Association (EYCA), which is the head organisation for EURO<26 youth card organisaitons in 43 European countries comprising more than 4 million cardholders and 150.000 discount providers. The head of our department has been chairperson of the EYCA Communication Group until very recently.
The environment for the suggested voluntary activities is in the city of Salzburg at the social profit organisation/association Akzente Salzburg which is predominatly busy working for and with young people including the EURO<26 youth card.
EURO<26 youthcard has met many young people enjoying EVS. Many of them participated actively when we were holding focus groups to do qualitative in-house youth research and an international perspective was required. More than one of these young people abraod that decided to stay longer in Austria got a temporary part-time job at the EURO<26 office which was all the time of mutual benefit. Some international volounteers also got more or less involved as participants or assistants in the two major EYCA EU-projects (Europe for a Change I and II through the PRINCE Programme) concerning the EU enlargement that were managed by the EURO<26 departement of Austria..

Proposed Activities
Offers to volunteers:
We offer the environment of a professionally working office that has a social topic to deal with.
The service we can provide is to show and integrate the volunteer in our every day working processes and into a team of ambitious young people that are driven by commitment and creativity. Our team is young and dynamic and this will be a good atmosphere for a volunteer.
Learning opportunities are also very practical, e.g. how to use our databases (uploading and searching); how is the process of issuing youth cards that are manufactured by third parties or in-house, media-making and dissemination; to learn about the networking of European, national and international youth cards under various aspects like a joint website; how to promote activities at youth events, how to assist international projects; how to work on an own project and many more.
Of course the volunteer will receive the benefits we offer to our young people or staff members (reduced theatre tickets, open-air cinema at Akzente Salzburg in the summer, …)

The role of the volunteer?
S/he will be actively watching the different tasks, get them explained and depending on the issue be able to execute them with the supervision of other staff members. Practically we will try to involve her/him in a variety of working aspects; emphasis will be made according to the abilities of the volunteer.
Typical activities will be:
- to collect the written feed-back of EURO<26 cardholders through different campaigns, contests and youth research and to update the existing files.
- to contact the young cardholders via phone or at promotion activities when the youth card actively approaches youngsters to inform about the benefits of the EURO<26 world in Austria and beyond. Here the contact through a young international volunteer will be perfect
- to prepare such promotion activities
- contact to the discount providers and evaluation through the eyes of an internat. volunteer
- to investigate/write articles for the youth card magazine/newsletter (internat. touch is appreciated)
- to communicate with our international partners on international projects
- to support the liveliness of content at our homepage (depending on the interests of the volunteer)

Example of a typical week:
Monday:
9 - 11:00 Team meeting, discussion on the out of routine tasks of the week
11 - 13:00 update of the event database with the new press releases of the weekend
14 - 18:00 Connecting to project partners and communication to international partners
Tuesday:
9 - 11:00 checking applications for EURO<26, dealing with cardholder-feed-back
11 - 14:00 search/write for EURO<26 newsletter or magazine
Wednesday
9 - 10:00 posting and blogging at website(s) - internet communication
10 - 13:00 work on own project (e.g. own section at homepage)
14 - 18:00 editorial research for EURO<26 partner events and contests
Thursday
9 - 12:00 preparation of promotion activities for young people
12 - 14:00 photo archive and search/write for online publication/newsletter/magazine
Friday
9 - 11:00 update of event search engine

Volunteer Profile
A multicultural background, an interest in the youth card with all its sparkling qualities are the best case prerequisites for us. Also die ability to think European but act local, integrated into the sourrounding networks are helpful.

Beneficial qualifications:
Knowledge of German and English would be an advantage, but is not a must. Basic knowledge in computer applications would be helpful. Most inportant is that the volunteer is communicative, an overall reliable, creative and a pro-active person that is happy with moving in networks and willing to contribute to strenghten them with her/his own commitment

Risk Prevention
The departement of Akzente international is very much experienced in providing a save living environment for EVS people. The youth card department is in general a clean and safe place.
It is clear the a volunteer needs special attention to support the integration process in the working and living area. This can in our mind best be given by regular meetings, questionning the situation and supporting easy coming solutions.
We do not plan to host volunteers aged 16 to 17 years old.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=32000317301