Description of Host Organisation:

The "Sozialwerk für hörgeschädigte Kinder und Jugendliche e.V." (Charity organisation for hard hearing chil-dren and young people) supports as a non-profit making association primarily pupils of the Vocational Educa-tion and Consultation Center for the Hard of Hearing in Stegen. This includes also hard of hearing children and young people, who are cared for in the frame of Early Intervention and Special Needs Education in other institutions or families.
In 1970 the former State School for Deaf and Hard of Hearing went into service. Today it is called "Vocational Education and Consultation Center for the Hard of Hearing".
At present more than 300 deaf and hard of hearing Students are visiting the supra-regional school. It has about 40 classes and 3 groups in pre-school.
In addition about 330 children are provided professional support services in the early intervention program, in satellite classes or in off-campus mainstream settings.
More than 50% of the children and students are living from Monday to Friday in the Boarding School, be-cause of the long distance to their homes.
In the affiliated pre-school hard of hearing children are cared and supported if they can not attend child care institutions in their home town or village. Until reaching school readiness they get the opportunity to make use of their hearing abilities and to develop their language capacities by selected pre-school education in small groups.
The catchment area of the Vocational Education and Consultation Center comprises the southwestern area from the Lake of Constance to the french border and from the swiss border to the northern part of Baden. Students of the graduate school are coming even from german speaking foreign countries, in particular from Switzerland.
After the morning classes the boarders meet in their group homes for lunch; external students have lunch in the refectory and return at home after afternoon classes. In addition supplementary classes, home work sup-port and activities of daily life are offered to external students.
After home work the students take part in several support activities: sportive and environmental study groups, groups to promote personality and soft skills, workshop for bicycles, animal keeping, pupils meeting, disco etc. An Internetcafé is run as a student company.
Education to autonomy and personal responsibility are important objectives. Regular consulting for educators ensures early detection and treatment of developmental disabilities. Therefore a high value is set on close collaboration with parents.
Through closeness between school and residential accommodation a continuous exchange and close coop-eration is possible. Special importance have building-up and development of language as well as progression and promotion of abilities to communicate.
Extensive cooperation with resident schools and associations as well as complement offerings of instruction open up students a lot of possibilities in the fields of sports, fine arts, computer experience, as well as sports like canoeing, judo, swimming, tennis, badminton, basketball, soccer and skiing. Joint adventures with public schools complete these measures and promote social integration.

Description of locality:

The community of Stegen is situated in the outskirt of the town of Freiburg in south-west germany, not far from the border-triangle between Germany, France and Switzerland.
The community consists of the former independant villages of Stegen, Eschbach and Wittental and extends eastwards of Freiburg in the Dreisam Valley. The area of the boundary comprises 2.632 hectare between an altitude of 340 and 870 m above sea level.
The community of Stegen has altogether 4.400 inhabitants, who are mostly working in the proximate towns of Freiburg or Kirchzarten. The gainful occupation of people living in the higher areas of the community are de-termined by natural conditions. Besides tourism agriculture and forestry is the most important economic fac-tor.
Apart from the Vocational Education and Consultation Center for the Hard of Hearing with Boarding School there is situated a primary and secondary school in Stegen, a primary school in Eschbach and the state ap-proved catholic grammar school St. Sebastian. Furthermore there are two kindergardens, a communal library, a local branch of the adult education center Dreisamtal and an ecumenical community center.
Essential for the public life of the small village is the well developed diversity of local clubs and associations. At present there are 30 active societies, which vitalise the sportive and cultural life in Stegen. There are sev-eral music and sports associations, a traditional costume and a carnival association etc.
The proximate university town of Freiburg (200,000 inhabitants) provides a broad offer for leisure time activi-ties.
On weekdays there are at regularly intervals between 6:00 h and 23:00 h (on Sunday from 07:30 h) bus con-nections to the proximate railway station of Kirchzarten. From Kirchzarten there are train connections be-tween 6:00 h and 23:00 h to Freiburg and to the Black Forest region. On the railway lines Basel-Freiburg and Freiburg-Offenburg trains are running hourly or every 30 minutes during rush-hour traffic. Last return to Stegen from Freiburg 22:40 h. There is a well developed bus traffic system to touristic centres of the higher Black Forest.
Volunteers get a monthly ticket which is valid for all public transport associations of the administrative district of Freiburg, on weekdays from 14:00 h, during weekend and school holidays the ticket is also valid in the neighbouring administrative districts of Lörrach, Offenburg, Villingen-Schwenningen and Waldshut-Tiengen.

Motivation to host European Volunteers:

The hosting of an European Volunteer offers the chance for a multicultural approach to youth work in the Vocational Education and Consultation Center for the Hard of Hearing with Boarding School. Through contact with the volunteer the pupils and students will get to know about another country and another culture, in re-turn the volunteer will get to know german language and culture.
Mutual learning will broaden the horizons of the pupils and children as well as the volunteers and staff mem-bers.
The volunteer should enrich the educational work activities by new ideas and perspectives.
To offer young people an interesting field of informal learning, where they can get involved and get to know main features of social work with aurally impaired people.
Whilst with us volunteers will be given the opportunity to gain an understanding of our education system in both informal and formal settings.

Learning opportunities:

The volunteer could find out about his/her abilities and potentialities.
The volunteer could experience herself/himself as a part of a team, where all members are working on an equal footing on the same task.
The volunteer will gain technical and vocational skills in social work with aurally impaired people.
The cooperation in a social project will afford the volunteer a vocational orientation and a perspective for the professional life.
Having sole responsibility for design and realisation of leisure facilities will enhance self-assurance and self-confidence of the volunteer.
Participation in internal professional development activities will provide the volunteer with specialised knowl-edge of the educational system.
Integration in a foreign culture and the self-determined life of the local community will afford the volunteer a personal orientation and increase the development of future perspectives.

Role of the volunteer within the project:

The assignment of European Volunteers will not substitute a regular job in this project. The activities of a volunteer should expand and deepen the existent facilities for educational work. The volunteer should enrich the leisure time activities with new ideas and perspectives.

Tasks of volunteers:

Volunteers get the opportunity to contribute - under guidance of staff members - to the support and leisure time program of the school and residential home. Volunteers can introduce their own ideas and abilities like computer literacy, graphic design, mechanical skills, music playing etc.
In the beginning the volunteer will only assist the groupleaders, later she/he will take on responsibility - as far as admitted by legal liabilities.
Emphatically volunteers are invited to bring in their own ideas. Staff members will appreciate all initiatives to develop additional proposals for leisure time activities and will support planning and realization. Volunteers could develop their own ideas for new games, activities or stories into a personal project if they so wished - creative ideas are always welcome.
Major tasks in which volunteers can be actively involved are:
- Assistance and support for virtually impaired and blind pupils and students in school and leisure time
- occupational therapy like doing handicraft, singing, playing music
- attendance at school field centers and study trips
European Volunteers are expected to keep the rules of our work with young people:
- acceptance of young people in their particular personality
- ability to cope with strain by challenging behaviour
- full cooperation with staff members
- loyal and responsible acting according to the particular objective of our work
- loyal and responsible acting according to the particular objective of our work
- to be courageous to act creative and flexible
Like all staff members volunteers are expected to carry out some work of routine like:
- in assisted living groups: going shopping, housekeeping and support of homeworks
- in the field of leisure time activities: support in organisation and realisation of all kinds of activities
- service and maintenance of materials and equipments
- active participation in lasting several days leisure time activities
Volunteers are invited to participate in internal vocational training seminars.
Volunteers are expected to accomplish a fulltime voluntary service of 35 hours per week. Overtime doing will be balanced by additional freetime.
At the volunteer's own request can be offered learning opportunities in other departments of the institution like housekeeping, canteen kitchen, caretaker etc. Especially in the beginning the volunteer will pass through all departments of the institution to familiarize himself/herself with the structure and the functioning of the organi-sation (not longer than 3 weeks). After this introduction the volunteer will support mainly the work with young people.
The hosting organisation offers the candidates to spend 4 or 5 days in an preparatory visit on-site so they become familiar with the projects program and understand their responsibilities. For this preparatory visit, the hosting organisation pays food, lodging and an allowance of 100 Euros to cover travel expenses. After this visit the candidates can decide without any obligation whether they want to participate in the project.

Support:

The head of department nominated by the managing board will act as the main tutor for European Volunteers in the Vocational Education and Consultation Center for the Hard of Hearing with Boarding School. He will support the volunteer from the first contact to the delivery of the final report. He will prepare the application together with the sending organisation and the volunteer. He will take care for practical preparations in the host organisation and prepare the arrival of the volunteer. During the voluntary service he will support the volunteer in all administrative affairs (announcement at the registry office, applying for residence permit, opening an account with the bank, insurance affairs etc.). In case of difficulties and problems, which can not be solved in the hosting project, he will act as the leading contact person. Regularly he will hold evaluation meetings with the volunteer and the responsible person in the hosting project.
The hosting organisation will send the volunteer to the on-arrival training and the obligatory mid-term-meeting organised by the National Agency.
The volunteer can take part in a language training for European Volunteers arranged by the hosting organisa-tion. The aim of the language training is the command of oral every day speech with a special focus on the terminology of child care. Through language training the volunteer should be enabled to manage typical situa-tions of daily life they will be confronted with during their voluntary service.
Apart from language learning the language training serves as a weekly meeting for European Volunteers from several EVS projects situated in the region.
Every month a day of studies will be organised vor the volunteers, where the volunteers can seek advise for their choice of occupations in future, meet counselors from universities and colleges, visit the European Par-liament in Strasbourg, go on excursions, or take part in cultural events. The content of this program will be discussed by the group and participation is left up to the volunteers.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=6000912315