A. Project environment: profile of the organisation and local community

The mission of the service is to support people with intellectual disability. The houses provide an alternative way of life in community, with individualized attention customized to the needs of the individual. We considered very important to keep the family ties and friendships, which is why we encourage all these people to take part in the educational processes.
The volunteer will provide support to improve the service and the quality of life of the people who are taken care off. In no case will it mean saving time from the personnel.

Since the mission of the service is to attend to people with intellectual disabilities, the presence of the volunteer will help provide a more close and personal service.
For those volunteers with training in social work the program from Amapns can provide a global view and training in:
- Inspiring principles of the social care policies (equality, integration..)
- Legal and regulatory framework of the care for people with intellectual disabilities in Catalunya.
- Types of centres and services.
- Planning of the services according to the different degrees of disability.
- Development and Planning of the care for people with disabilities.

For volunteers with or without experience in social work
- Living full time with the people with intellectual disability.
- Living full time with the instructors of the different services.
- Through this experience the volunteer will develop an attitude of solidarity towards people with disabilities, and becomes an agent of awreness for society.
- Learning of non verbal communication systems.
- Learning of the planning of adapted activities.
- Learning of adapted activities like music therapy, judo therapy, fiostherapy, adapted theatre….
- Getting to know of the local surroundings through the different planned leisure activities.
- Sensitivity towards other people.

Manresa is a city of 72.328 inhabitants (2005) located between the metropolitan area of Barcelona and the mountain and farming communities of the interior of Catalonia. The city has experienced a big population growth in recent years, because of immigration. More and more people are also moving to Manresa from the metropolitan area, because of cheaper housing.
Manresa enjoys a dynamic cultural and associative life. The city has more than 300 entities, clubs and associations which in many cases are the real designers and executives of cultural and artistic programmes, of social and assisting initiatives, of training programs and socio-cultural activities, etc..

B.Proposed activities for EVS volunteers
After the volunteer has adapted and integrat4ed to the project, we asses his or her situation to determine how well he or she has adapted and in which activities the volunteers feels more comfortable and finds more satisfactory, in this way we hope to meet the volunteers expectations.

For example: if the volunteer is developing an activity of support to theatre, we will asses by his or her attitude and aptitude, wether this activity is satisfactory or needs a change.
Since the volunteer will have by then an impression of the centre, he or she can also suggest taking part in some activity of their liking.

For example a weekend trip.
Once the assessment is finish the rest of the stay will be planned jointly with the volunteer, to timetable all the activities.
1.- During the first month of stay our organization will support the volunteers in two basic aspects:
a- Getting to know the community where they will be living
Visiting the different premises where Ampans provides services, a total of 15 different locations. In this way the volunteer will acquire a global view of the different activities develop according to age and degrees of disability.
b- Training in the field of the intellectual disabilities at a theoretical level and with practice.
Written and audio documentation will be provided.
The volunteer will take part in in short stays in the different services to get familiar with the real day to day activity of these services. For example spendinf the morning in the school or in a work centre.
2.- From the second month and during 15 days we will start jointly with them a project of activities where their participation will be crucial; it will consist on the planning of leisure activities, sports and activities of the daily life in which each volunteer will be able to contribute his knowledge, abilities or culture.
3.-Once the activities have been designed we will go on to develop them.
4.-25 hours a week are designated to support the planned activities (day trips, cinema, swimming pool, sports, individual support to people with high level of autonomy for cooking, shopping, bathing...).
5.-We will establish a time of 2 weekly hours for documenting activities that have been carried out, their assessment and revision.
6.-Every 15 days the volunteer will meet with his mentor for a general assessment of his/her activities and also to allow him/her occur to express opinions, problems, needs etc..
7.-The volunteer will be given the chance of 2 weekly hours for learning Spanish or Catalan language.
8.-The activity of the volunteer will be developed over 5 days of the week that could be from Monday to Sunday. An activity calendar will be defined. The periods of holidays will be: 5 days in Christmas, 3 days in Easter and a month of holidays in summer (June or September).

An example of a timetable for the activities could be:

Monday
9-10:30h
Help to residents with berkfast, hygine, transport.
11-13h
Helping theatre group, with the rehersal and taking part in the play.
Decorating the satge with the residents.
13- 14h
Transport to homes.
Helping with the cooking, setting tables etc..
Lunch with residents.

Tuesday
9-10:30h
Help to residents with breakfast, hygiene, transport.
11-13h
Support to the PE group. Exercises and rehabilitation.
13- 14h
Transport to homes.
Helping with the cooking, setting tables etc..
Lunch with residents.

Wednesday
9-10:30h
Help to residents with breakfast, hygiene, transport.
11-13h
Supporting the swimming pool group. Specific exercises .
13- 14h
Transport to homes.
Helping with the cooking, setting tables etc..
Lunch with residents.

Thursday
9-10:30h
Help to residents with breakfast, hygiene, transport.
11-13h
Supporting the swimming pool group.
13- 14h
Transport to homes.
Helping with the cooking, setting tables etc..
Lunch with residents.

Friday
9-10:30h
Help to residents with breakfast, hygiene, transport.
11-13h
Helping with a trip of the group to familiarise the residents with their surroundings.
13- 14h
Transport to homes.
Helping with the cooking, setting tables etc..
Lunch with residents.
The volunteer can take initiative in many of this activities like: cooking some typical dish from his/her country, or contributing with some speciall hability like music.

The basic activities will be:
- Development of leisure activities in the house (music, sports, crafts, walks...)
- Promoting communication and relations between the residents
- Supports to the residents for the accomplishment of the domestic tasks
- Supporting the residents with their grocery shopping (supermarket, bakery...)
- Supporting the residents to organize communitarian exits (cinema, restaurants, discos, trips...)

C. Volunteer profiles and recruitment process
Personal profile:
- Motivation for the project.
- Empathy and sensitivity towards people with communication difficulties.
- Ability to adjust, initiative to make proposal for leisure activities.
- Dynamic personality.
- Ability to transmit the culture of the volunteer.
- Minimum knowledge of Spanish language: it is justified by the necessity to establish a direct personal bonding with the beneficiaries of the projects, that do not have linguistic knowledge of other European languages.
- We will give priority, but never in an excluding form, to those volunteers with experience in the field of intellectual disabilities or those that have an interest in training in the sector.

E. Risk prevention, safety and protection
With it being a project of attention to people with a profile that requires a special attention of supervision and prevention of risks, the volunteer will work in surroundings highly protected and with all the safety measures.
Regarding the development of activities outside, the volunteer will have the AXA insurance, will also have information of the Health services in Manresa and will have mobile telephone his/her mentor tutor in Consell (coordinating organization ), as well as the telephone of AMPANS.
The volunteer will have a follow up not only on his/her activities but in all aspects of his/her life to prevent crisis situations.
They will share a house with other volunteers which will allow for more people to be aware if there was a crisis situation.
We are not planning in taking volunteers under 18. But if that were the case special care would be taken to monitor their free time in prevention of sexual practices of risk and certain narcotic consumptions.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=30000834168