The school:
In autumn 2008 we moved to another school building, after we had to leave the old one we are currently working here, but it is definitely not our last stop and we are still looking for a fix place to be able to stay longer or maybe forever.
The building itself is based on two floors.
Downstairs with the areas for cooking and eating, creating (lots of different colours and materials to work with), building (tools, wood, different stuff), moving (room used to jump around, fight, climb, ball plays,…)
Upstairs the areas for maths, languages, biology, geography, room for the small children (6-10), room for the older ones (10-15), music (piano, guitar, drums, different percussions) and piano.
School area:
The school area itself is outside the city. 15 minutes by foot. 5 minutes by bicycle.
The area is sourrounded by lots of companies, so it doesn`t seem to be the best place for a school, but we made the best out of it, and it was the solution we had to chose in order to be able to stay somewhere. A playing ground with football occasion is about 3 minutes by foot. We can say that we go there daily in the warm months.
The river " Drau" is about 5 minutes away by foot. We also use to go there for playing, discover new things and making bonfire.
City of Lienz
Lienz is the city where the school is located. It is a community of 13.000 people with lots of freetime possibilities. Very particular with its sourroundings. Spectacular dolomite mountains in the south of Lienz and only a stonethrow to the 3000 m mountains in the north.
In the warm months you can take a bath in the cold rivers, but also a lake within the woods a bit outside of Lienz. Wonderful opportunities to hike in the mountains and great possibilities to explore steep woods, rocks, rivers and mountains.
There are two areas for skiing, sledging, snowshoe walking.
In winter there is also an ice skating possibilty, as well lots of backcounty and snowboard occassions.
The infrastructure of Lienz, as the center of Eastern Tyrol is pretty good. Nice city centre. From time to time there are concerts. On the weekends you can check out the nightlife and discos. Nightlife as such in Lienz has its own style and it could probably be more interesting. But it`s about everybody`s own perception.
The next bigger cities are Innsbruck and Klagenfurt. Both about 3 hours by train. The adriatic sea is about 4 hours away. Venice can be reached in about 4 hours by train. Slovenias capital is about 4 hours. Daily connection to Vienna about 6 to 7 hours. The Italian border ( South Tyrol) is about 40 minutes away. Munich is about 5 hours by train. Salzburg about 4 hours by train.
Lienz is in the middle of the alps, the highest mountain of austria, the Großglockner is about 30 minutes far by car.

Time Schedule
We start on Monday 8.30 a.m. and school lasts until 1 p.m.
When everybody has arrived we start with a reunion in which we announce planned things for the week and give important informationto the children. After the reunion the people spread themselves over the school. The day starts. During the day the children involve themselves to different kinds of activities. Some of them are painting, some are making music, some are writing, some are reading, some are f.e. attend ing an offer of maths, some are cooking, some are going outside,…
There are lots of activities, where the children involve themselves and sometimes they struggle, some are crying, some complaining, some are shouting, some laughing, some inventing new games, some are lost in games, some are learning to write….
The adults also spread over the school. One of them is responsible for the area downstairs, one for outside, one for upstairs, one for the older children, another one for the younger ones, one is making an offer in English, another one is telling a story, one is making an offer in cooking, another one is sitting alone in the music room and playing the piano because children don´t need him currently. One is playing with the children and another one is trying to find an occupation for her/himself because he/she isn`t involved in activities currently. The main part of the adults is to organize things, to put up new ideas, to try out and of course to accompany the children with their needs.
That`s how days can look like. Some days we go out full of happiness other ones we leave sorrowly, some days we leave with lack of motivation, other days we leave powerfully as a tiger. That's "Schulwerkstatt", that's life, the work can make you feel sad,feel happy ,feel full of joy, feel fulfilled ,feel empty. It can make you feel a strong human but even feel a week human. "Schulwerkstatt" provides a space for lots of feelings and emotions, we just have to be open to it. Sometimes it`s easier sometimes harder.
During the week there is usually one offer in which we explore other areas. For example swimming, visiting companies (bakerman, carpenter, electrician,…) , climbing, cycling, making a bonfire etc. This offers usually take place on Wednesday. There is space to go outside everyday.
The schoolday lasts from 8.30 a.m. until 1.00 p.m. this year. The weekends are free.
As a school the legal vacations of the regular school are also valid for us. As such we do not operate for two weeks around Christmas and Easter. We also do not operate in school in July, August and first September week. Spread over the whole year there are from time to time long time weekends, because the weekends are connected with a holiday and so 4 day holidays can are possible from time to time.

Proposed Activities
Our offers
We can offer the school itself as a big big cake, full of possibilities of learning and self development. As a fact it will be the work with the children itself which we can announce as a big possibility to create new imaginations, ideas and ways of a being together with children. We can offer teamwork, daily (half an hour) reflections and weekly meetings within our team where we reflect the happenings and the come togethers with our children. Twice a year we have a weekend meeting in which we use to go on a refuge in the mountains, in order to work out new ideas and talk about the things we are experiencing in the "Schulwerkstatt".
We can offer an environment full of open spaces where all kinds of ideas, as funky they may be, are welcome.
For a volunteer we concern it important to visit the weekly meetings, which normally last 3 hours.
The daily reflections, as well as the weekend meetings are not a must, but a volunteer will be welcome for sure.

The volunteer`s role
The volunteer will be part of our school and what it is including (children, team, parents, free-time acvtivities, meetings).
The role of the volunteer during the school time will be "TO BE" . TO BE and give what he/she is able to , based on the individual experiences. We concern this as the most important part of a volunteer.
For sure a volunteer can start his/her own offers. For example: Prepare cards and games about his/her country, or if he/she has been to other countries or is interested in introducing other countries to the children he/she can certainly prepare materials and stuff about these ones as well.
To start a kind of language course would be another possibility.
Any particular skills you have you can introduce to the children if you want. For example: pottery, any kind of making music, poetry, cooking, tree climbing, story telling, or whatever comes to your mind.
Important to know is that the offers we make can be attended voluntarily. There is no duty to go there. As a matter fact sometimes it happens that we are making offers but no one is attending them.

Activities
Generally the opportunity is given to be envolved in all kinds of school activities, according to what the Volunteer wants to to.
We are cooking, painting, writing, singing, reading, calculating, swimming, climbing, music make, story inventing, building, football playing, creative school community. All kinds of activities are open to the volunteer if the time is ready for it and suitable.
A Volunteer can for example be part in different kinds of role games, creative avtivities or education activities /reading, maths, foreign languages).
There are lots of open spaces where a volunteer can bring to life his/her own ideas and activities and show to the children and involve them as such.

Volunteer`s special tasks
Give language courses
Make your own offers and projects
Making own offers and own projects will be another task of a volunteer. Therefore there is a lot of space. It depends on what a volunteer is up to. For example he/she can make offers in geography, biology, chemics,… Therefore the volunteer will need to do the preparations on his/her own.
It is also possible to raise any kind of creative projects (music, theatre, painting, …)

Volunteer Profile
The volunteer's profile for our project is a very loose one because we want to address as many young people as possible. The EVS placement is open to all young people between 18 and 30 years of age.
We would like to host a volunteer who:
…enjoys working with children aged between 6 and 15.
… can inspire others.
…likes to develop and to realize his or her own.
…accepts ideas, proposals or initiatives from children .
…is self-confident and willing to learn dealing with conflicts.
…has a friendly and self confident attitude towards children.
…is communicative, open-hearted and open-minded.
…is willing to learn German.
…likes to work in a team.
…knows how to work self-dependently.
…is willing to learn and practise self-reflection.

With this project we would also address young people with fewer opportunities:
It´s just necessary to have a higher education.
No matter where the volunteer comes from.

The recruitment process for the EVS in our organisation is well planned and transparent.
All our details are in the SOS EVS database.
All volunteers who send us their application will be considered.
The coordination office on Innsbruck will receive the applications and forward them on to us.
We are making our decisions about the volunteer in the team.
When we have made a selection of 3 best candidates, we are going to contact them and ask them more specific questions to figure out who has the biggest motivation to participate
The final decision will be made together with the team and managing director.

Risk Prevention
Mentor. Risks and crisis
For the beginning we guarantee a Mentor that will introduce the volunteer to the area of work and living as well. Someone that will guide the volunteer and give information about things that should be known and things volunteers want to know. Someone who will make offers for free time and show to the volunteers interesting places and activities that can be done and visited.
For sure volunteers will be involved in all kind of activities that are going on at our organisation (parties, meetings, reflections, bazaars,…).
In order to prevent risks we will introduce the volunteer to things and situations that may seem particular mentionable for you and us as well as possible.
A volunteer at our place will be one more part of our organism, so it is sure that there will be someone to talk to him/her when needed. We imagine that especially the beginning can be very exciting and there will happen some situations where there is need to reflect and talk about.

Our partner network in every EVS project includes the mentor of the volunteer, the responsible person for project issues and the managing director and the coordinating organisation.
The volunteer will have the possibility to contact any of these persons if he or she has any questions.
The mentor is responsible for all personal issues and the integration of the volunteer in the local community. There will be at least weekly meetings with the volunteer and mentor during the whole project, depending on needs of the volunteer.
The managing director will take care for all professional questions.
The coordinating organisation is going to be a partner for the volunteer in overall issues concerning the project. (Keep in touch with the volunteer, with the sending organisation, organising monthly meetings for volunteers, stay up to date to the project progress, etc.)

The volunteer will also take part in Pre Departure Training and On Arrival Training and will be very good prepared for the service and all rights and duties the volunteers have will be known before the project starts. Beside this the volunteer will be accompanied by the Sending Organisation all the time.

The volunteer will be instructed in all necessary methods and information concerning risk prevention in our house.

The accomodation
We regard it as an important point to give you information about the accommodation.
We haven`t yet chosen a accommodation for a volunteer. We are concerned to inform you about this topic as soon as we have clear information.
Most probably the volunteer will be accommodated in the city of Lienz or at least close to the city. It is intended to provide an own accommodation with own possibility of cooking.