Project environment:
Graz is the second largest city in Austria and it has about 270.000 inhabitants . It is located in the southeast of the country at a distance of 50 kilometers to the border of Slovenia and some 100 kilometers to the border of Hungary.
Being a university town many young people are living here and so it offers interesting cultural, social and sportive day and night activities.
Graz is well known for its extended historical centre and for its modern architecture. With its numerous park areas and surrounded by an extensive green belt it guarantees a great quality of life. Graz as european cultural capital 2003 provides now much more possibilities within "culture-life" and new interesting architecture buildings such as the "Kunsthaus".

We, the team of teachers, children and parents are looking forward to having direct and permanent contact to people from other countries. This contact would give us the chance of getting to know a different culture in a direct way, another way of living and of course a foreign language.
It is part of our school-philosophy to learn from daily experience rather than from books. Therefore learning is not limited to the classroom. There is a workshop, a kitchen, a library and a room dedicated to acting /role-playing and music, a computer-room and a sport hall. In addition to all that, there is a vast outdoor-area as well, including a playground, a sports-field and a forest. Such an environment offers ideal preconditions for the children to getting to know the culture oft the volunteer's home country in various ways. The volunteer can, for instance, introduce songs or dances which are typical for his home-country or maybe she/he takes advantage of the kitchen in order to cook typical dishes, of course he/she can also tell the children about his country's history, geography and customs. Most probably there are also some fairy-tales she/he can tell them or she/he simply decides to play with them. There are really many ways in which the volunteer will be able to integrate her-/himself into the workaday-routine in our school and in doing so, she/he will be attended and supported by our teachers. This will offer the volunteer the opportunity of getting to know many new and alternative forms of learning and creating an educational environment. In the parents work (parents-evenings and parents events) the volunteer should be integrated as well in our school events (festivals, performances) and if he/she wants it he/she can write articles in the newspaper of our school.Being in contact with children, teachers and parents of our school the volunteer gets to know a lot of the Austrian mentality and way of living.

Volunteer tasks:
The volunteer is supposed to cooperate with the teachers. He/she has the possibility to work with all pupil groups. The pupils are between 6 and 15 years old. The volunteer should enrich our daily work with his/her inputs concerning his/her home country.
There is a wide range of possibilities for activities for the volunteer in our school: arts, sports, music, dance, theatre, radio, games, but also just giving information about his/her country and people. One of the most important principle of our school is "learning by doing" and so there are many different ways how the volunteer can integrate himself/herself in our school and make together with the teachers activities for and with the pupils (e. g.: singing songs in his/her mother tongue, dancing typical dances of his/her home-country, cooking typical meals, introducing popular games that people in his/her country like playing, supporting the radio-shows of the pupils and bringing information/music of his/her country, making arts with the children in the "creative room", making projects about different topics about the home country of the volunteer, ...) Adjoining to our school there is a big outdoor-area including a sports - field, a playground and a forest. So there is plenty of room for the volunteer to support the teachers in diverse outdoor-activities (sports and games). Presently they are very keen on building their own little camps, so why not support them in this activity? The volunteer should cooperate with the teachers and should bring in his/her own ideas for his/her work in the school. He/she should also make his/her own projects, which will be guided and supported by the teachers, as he/she likes it. Such projects of the volunteer can be for example in the fields of music/dance, arts, sports, culture of the home country, radio or theatre. Which projects the volunteer develops depend on his/her interests and talents. In addition to all we would like the volunteer to participate in excursions and little trips and to take part in our winter- and summer-camps.We are also thinking of having two weekly meetings of the volunteer with the teachers of the groups the volunteer will be working with. This is to enable all parties to coordinate their individual activities with and for the pupils. There is a stuff meeting once a week to which the volunteer is invited.
Possible weekly itinerary:
Monday:
08:00 - 08:30: Morning meeting with teachers and the volunteer,
08:30 - 09:00: Meeting of all pupils of one group together with teachers and the volunteer, where all plans and requests are discussed,
09:00 - 12:30: Making activities together with teachers for children and developing own projects,
12:30 - 13:30: Reflection and preparation with the teachers,
17:00 - 18:30: German language-course for the volunteer

Tuesday:
08:00 - 08:30: Morning meeting with teachers and the volunteer,
08:30 - 09:00: Meeting of all pupils of one group together with teachers and the volunteer, where all plans and requests are discussed,
09:00 - 12:30: Making activities together with teachers for children and developing own projects ,
12:30 - 13:30: Lunch with teachers and children,
13:30 - 16:00: Making activities together with teachers for children and own projects

Wednesday:
08:00 - 08:30: Morning meeting with teachers and the volunteer ,
08:30 - 09:00: Meeting of all pupils of one group together with teachers and the volunteer, where all plans and requests are discussed,
09:00 - 12:30: Making activities together with teachers for children and developing own projects,
12:30 - 13:30: Reflection and preparation with the teachers
17:00 - 18:30: German language-course for the volunteer

Thursday
08:00 - 08:30: Morning meeting with teachers and the volunteer,
08:30 - 09:00: Meeting of all pupils of one group together with teachers and the volunteer, where all plans and requests are discussed,
09:00 - 12:30: Making activities together with teachers for children and developing own projects,
12:30 - 13:30: Lunch with teachers,
17:00 - 18:00: Meeting with mentor

Friday
08:00 - 08:30: Morning meeting with teachers and the volunteer,
08:30 - 09:00: Meeting of all pupils of one group together with teachers and the volunteer, where all plans and requests are discussed,
09:00 - 12:30: Making activities together with teachers for children and developing own projects

The working-hours for 1 week for the volunteer: 33 h

Volunteers Profile:
The volunteer ought to be interested in working with children. He/she is also supposed to show a certain interest for reform-pedagogical methods of learning and for alternative ways of creating an educational environment. Basic knowledge of the German language is required. We would also be delighted about a volunteer's talents for music, dancing, sports or handicraft.

Risk prevention:
Volunteers are never job substitution as they have a specific position within the project, without the responsibilities an employee would have. He or she will not take over tasks that are normally done by employees on a structural basis, but instead offer activities to the inhabitants for which the staff and employees do not have the time nor the capacities.
We will take care for:
o Introduction to the functionality and storage of the fire-extinguisher and our first-aid-kits
o Introduction to the regulatory framework for juveniles
o Initiation to our rules of the house
o The volunteer will get a list of all emergency numbers as well as the phone numbers of the members of the board and the full-time workers
o We furthermore guarantee that the volunteer will never be alone in daily service
o The volunteer will have a Mentor
There is the "law for the protection of youth".