Placement

The protestant parish of Düren („Evangelische Gemeinde zu Düren“) is a corporate body of the civil rights and the biggest protestant parish in Germany. It has about 30.000 members from the Düren district in a otherwise rather catholic region.

The parish is marked by a very open and wide engagement, professional and honorary services in the social, cultural, intercultural as well as ecological area.

Its action is oriented in the complaisant process of peace, justice and protection of creation.

This becomes definite in the activities in which European volunteers are working: “Café International”- a meeting point for refugees from the city and district Düren, and a youth centre in a social focal point with a big share of youths with a migration background. The Café International is being coordinated by a full-time worker (Dipl. Social educational worker). The team consists of 8-10 honorary workers and trainees. The Café is embedded in the field ‘centre for social- and migration- advice’ with 6 full-time members of staff.

Düren has approximately 90.000 inhabitants and lies between Cologne and Aachen on the border of the Eifel and close to Belgium and the Nederlands. Düren was almost completely destroyed in the 2. World War.

Since many years we’ve been having European volunteers in our Café International and we have made good experiences.

Activities of the Volunteer

The Café International is an international meeting place for migrants with different origins, that is why we believe it is appropriate to include members of staff with different cultural backgrounds and language competences into our work.

Moreover the Café International provides a good learning field for young people.

The collaboration in the Café International especially includes help in the Café. Here the contact to visitors are of central importance. Events providing information and cultural events are taking place. The volunteer will work here, too.

On one afternoon in the week, when special offers for women will take place, the volunteer will help to look after the children. Other areas in which the volunteer will work are public relations work as well as various small jobs in order to support the visitor of the meeting point (e.g. help with application forms). So that the volunteer gets an insight into the specialist field as well as other fields of the social work, visits to other areas are possible and wished.

Altogether the work is built up in such a way, that interests and wishes are taken into consideration in the concrete planning of the work. If the volunteer develops his own small projects according to his/her own interests, this will be supported.

We expect a reliable, sociable person, who is interested in other cultures.

We have made the experience that self initiative and the ability to work independently make the integration and working connections much easier. Work in a honorary team requires the willingness to help and team spirit. A great amount of work in the Café International is the communication inside the team as well as with the clientele. Because of this, knowledge of different languages (e.g. French, Turkish or others) can be brought into the work very well, but they are not precondition. Also it is an advantage, if basic knowledge of German exists.

The volunteer will be living in a separate apartment. Under these circumstances supervision cannot be guaranteed, that's why volunteers under 18 years will not be taken on. The volunteer will regularly be in touch with the person to turn to of the project. He/she is both the person, who guides and instructs the volunteer and the person to turn to for everyday problems. In case the relationship between the volunteer and his/her supervisor develops in the direction that no trusting contact is possible, there is still the responsible person of the hosting organisation as another possible person to turn to. This person stands outside the work of the project. He/she will already be in contact before the departure of the volunteer and will lead through a meeting with a group of volunteers at the beginning of the voluntary service. The meeting takes a few days. Approximately every two months there will be a personal talk with the person of the hosting organisation. With this personal meeting, he/she is able to guarantee that the volunteer is fine and that the volunteer could develop a trusting relationship to the people in his/her project. Just shortly after the middle of the voluntary service, the hosting organisation visits the project to ensure that the general conditions of the EVS and the "Activity Agreement" are being realized in the project. In case that there is a serious problem, the hosting organisation will try to intervene and visit the project again. There is regular exchange both between the volunteer and the hosting organisation and between the project and the hosting organisation.