A. Project environment: profile of the organisation and local community
The Arche Tirol is a communitiy of handicapped and not handcapped people, who live and work together - based on its international charta, which says, that every person has an unique importance. The Arche Tirol was founded in 1992 and is a Christian - ecumenical communitiy.
In a professional team the voulunteers live and work, take care of and look for people with handicaps. The aim is to integrate people with learning difficulties into normal life and to learn from each other The main rule is not to do something for somebody, but to do it with somebody.
At the moment 10 persons (Gries and St. Jodok) with mental diseases are living in a shared
Apartment house. We care for and look after them. Our main philosophy is not only taking care of
them, but also to offer relationship and a home. Nearby the living apartment there is our
workshop, where our occupants work.
The main tasks of the community are to share daily life, to eat and to work together, to play and to
sing, to do shopping, make excursions and holiday trips. We try to create a family atmosphere
and unstructured social existence.
We try to participate actively in the life of the local town and stay in regular contact with the
people and the public. We also welcome visitors like school classes ...
The community of Arche has many international contacts and a lot of other Arche - projects exist
around the world.
Since several years we have a second community in St. Jodok, near Gries, where persons with
handicaps are living there with staff and volunteers.
Our rules are: to reflect life in all its various colóurs, to be above culture and confessions, to continue learning, to be open to the world outside, to deepen existing relationships. We try to adapt to the rhythm of life of our occupants by doing everything very slowly; every activity is important and takes time ( a dinner may last for 1 hour for example), our occupants have the possibility to take their own decisions according to their daily feeling with our support , we want to widen their horizon. Our motto is: "Help me to do it on my own!"
Gries am Brenner is a village of about 1200 inhabitans. St. Jodok is a village of about 500 habitants. Both villages are situated on an altitude of about 1200 m and near to the Brennerpass, which is the border between Austria and Italy. Both villages are surrounded by mountains and offer a lot of sport possibilities, like snow-sports, mountain biking, hiking, etc. There is still a strong cultural life in the small community. The Arche is a very important institution for the villages. This is one oft the strongest benefits for the occupants and the volunteers as well.
Events of the local community are visited by the people of the Arche and events of the Arche are visited by the natives. The Arche is a centre of contacts and personal meetings. So, for the volunteers it is really easy to get in touch with the inhabitants. Some employers oft the Arche are from the village.
It is a traditon that the volunteers from Arche are invited to participate in sport events , for example handball. Here the volunteers have the possibility to come in contact with young inhabitans.
Innsbruck, the capital of Tyro,l with about 120.000 inhabitants, can be reached by car or train within half an hour.

B. Proposed activities for EVS volunteers
To work and to live with disabled persons is really different. It is necessary to be open, to be sensible, to be interested in persons life. For the Arche the idea to invite a volunteer to stay in the project was made to bring different people together. The volunteers tasks are depending as before mentioned on their personal skills, possibilities and needs. People as the occupants are happy about young persons which are interested to participate.

The EVS lives together with assistants from other countries. This is very interesting for young people. Here she/he can meet different cultures.
The EVS in Arche Tirol don`t live alone. She/he lives together in an apartment with other assistants . So she/he can learn German also in his/here leisure time: learning by doing. There are two opportunities for accommodation. The first is that the volunteer lives in the same hose where he/she works or in an other house across the street where other workers live. This gives the chance to the EVS to choose if he/she wants some distance to the work or not. But the contact to the employees and occupants is anyway permanent.
When EVS live together with other people - handicapped or not - she/he also learns much about his/her own persons. The Arche Tirol wants to be a place of human growth.
The Arche Tirol is a place, where young people learn to live and to work with handicapped people. If someone wants to go to a school or university later, this will be good practice.
The volunteer will be a member of the team with own ideas and motivations which will be considered like from the other team members. This is a opportunity for the EVS to learn a lot from experienced workers, but also the chance for the "old" employees to get a new point of view.
Our experiences are showing that this close contact in the team helps to integrate the volunteer very fast, not only in the team and organisations but also in the local community.

Tasks and activities:
1. We try to give our occupants offers during the day according to their character, abilities and desires. During the week we organise workshops in the morning and in the afternoon. For example we offer the following activities: painting, form sculptures, repairing and producing furniture, making pottery objects and so on. With all those things they need permanent support, where the volunteer could help them. Volunteers could bring new creative ideas and suggestions.
2. The volunteer is invited to realise their own projects and involve occupants.
3. We try to offer spare time possibilities. Volunteers are invited to accompany our occupants to use free time for sport and culture. Walking through the beautiful landscape of the region, visiting exhibitions or accompanying to events.
4. Very important for us are celebrations (traditional celebration, birthday or moving in day,...). A volunteer could for example help to organise a party or something like that. The volunteer gets an idea about culture and habits of Tyrolean life. New ideas are always welcome.
5. Besides this our occupants need to go outside, to go for a walk, see a doctor, do shopping or just visit someone. Therefore they have to be accompanied by the volunteer and/or someone from our staff. The volunteer could enlarge the possibilities for them to go outside whenever they want.
6. There is also work to do inside the house together with our occupants. The occupants need help with all of the little things in life, so the volunteer helps to wake them up, to clean and dress themselves, to have breakfast, lunch or dinner, help them to bed and so on. This means also supporting our staff in housework tasks like cooking, washing, ironing, cleaning, shopping.
7. For permanent evaluation and preparation we have regular house meetings, team supervision and psycho therapeutical advice. In all those things the volunteer has to participate.


The most important thing for us is, that the volunteer gets integrated in our daily work, gets into relationship with us/our occupants. The volunteer spends time with our occupants and stays with them in various living situations, for example, in the houses or in the workshops. The volunteer is never on his/her own, but always supported by our professional staff. The volunteer supports us in our work.
A regular day is difficult to describe because every day is new and different, but a timetable could be as follows:
7.30 -8.00 breakfast with team
8.00- 9.30 wake the occupants, help them with the morning routine: wash, dress and breakfast
9.30 - 12.30 possibilities for the day: accompany occupants to workshops, assist them in drawing and handicaft-work, one of our occupants likes skiing, another one needs to be accompanied to the doctor.
12.30 -13.30 lunch
13.30 -18.00 break
18.00 - 21.30 we start with a litte review of the day, then we prepare the dinner and eat together. After lunch we watch TV, play games, make music or sing, read stories. And afterwards we accompany our occupants to bed, help them with washing, read them a good night tale.
Percentages:
Routine: washing, dressing 10%
Eating together: 10%
Day tasks (workshop): 30 %
Evening programme (playing) 15%
Realise own project 15-40%
Team meetings 10%
Support in cleaning, cooking 10%

The volunteer would work 5 days/week and have 5 weeks holiday within 12 months. Free days are variable, due to situation of organisation and volunteers preferences.

C. Volunteer profiles and recruitment process
The Arche Tirol is open for all young people, independent from religion, confession or sex. For us it is important, that someone is open for people with handicaps and that she/he will build relationship with them. For us is also very important, that someone is open and want to learn from handicapped people. If someone has experiences, trainings, educations with people with handicapped people it is very good for us. A basic knowledge of the German language would be helpful, as well as pratical abilities, flexibility and an average health condition and toughness. It is not nescessary to be religious, but the volunteer should be open to accompany our occupants to a holy mess.
The volunteer shold be interested in meeting new people, learn a new language, culture. They should also be motivated in work with handicaped people.

D. Special needs (if applicable)
n/a

E. Risk prevention, safety and protection
The EVS gets an "on arrival training" from the National Agency.
When he/she arrives in the Arche Tirol the volunteer gets an introduction in the idea of the Arche, the rules and the activities of the Arche Tirol. In the first month she/he participates in works (cleaning, shopping,) primary she/he looks how the assistants live and work with the occupants. This time is also necessary to build relationship. After the first month the volunteer should be able to take part in our daily routine (washing, dressing). He takes part in the Monday-meetings, where the assistants talk about the work for every week. The volunteer also has a mentor. Regulary she/he can speak with this mentor (problems, needs) or reflect the daily life and work in the Arche Tirol. The volunteer also takes part in house meetings and supervision.
There will be also a Mid-Term Training with other EVS in Austria.
The volunteer will get a lot of support from all sides. From the team, because they will be there almost all the time, but the volunteer will also have a chance to pull back if they will need some privacy.
The project co-ordinator will take care about the professional issues. There is also a possibility to consult our psychologist who is responsible for out team.

The coordination organisation is involved in the whole project and will support the hosting organisation as well the volunteer. They will also co-ordinate regular meetings for all EVS at this time who are in Tyrol, so they all can exchange their experiences in a non-formal atmosphere.