Project environment: profile of the organisation and local community

The hosting placement Church Schools (here after only CS) is one of the 50 centers of the organization Slezská diakonie - Silesian Diacony. It consists of nursery, basic and secondary schools in which children/students with mental and combined handicaps are provided with a special education. The nursery school is attended by kids aged from 2 - 5 years, basic school by kids aged from 6 -14 years and secondary school by young people aged from15 - 35 years. They attend a rehabilitative educational programme. It is important to emphasize that most of the basic school pupils have severe handicaps. Some of them have combined handicaps. They are immobile, have problems with verbal communication or need to wear nappies. In the secondary school the average class has six pupils with various levels of handicaps (light to medium) who are taught by teachers with the aid of pedagogical assistants. The school of placement is located in two buildings close to each other and near the city centre. At present there are 19 employees at the school. The school has three other branches in different towns of the district.

The hosting placement is located in the Moravia-Silesian region (North-Eastern part of Czech Rep.), in Èeský Tìšín (www.tesin.cz, www.cieszyn.pl). Èeský Tìšín is a town with about 30,000 inhabitants and belongs to the Euro-region. The town lies on the Czech-Polish border on the bank of the Olše river, near to Slovakia. Because of its location you can meet people of Polish and Slovak nationalities.

According to the legend, the town was founded in 810 by three brothers: Leszko, Bolko, and Cieszko to commemorate their reunion after a long parting. The first written mention of the town dates back to 1155 and the town Charter was granted between 1217 and 1223.

Èeský Tìšín is a town with lots of green areas, fine trees (monuments of nature), woodlands and nature reserves. The town is situated in the pleasant environment of the Beskydy mountains which provides good possibilities for enjoying the outdoors in the summer and winter.

In the town are several other possibilities for leisure time activities. You can go to the cinema or theatre (performances usually in the Czech or Polish language). The town library and the Cultural Centre organise several exhibitions and lifelong learning activities, e.g. lectures. Internet is available at the above-mentioned institutions and the Internet Cafe. For sport activities you can choose among bowling, squash, swimming and skating. There are also several playing fields used by children, teenagers and adults in their leisure time activities at the secondary schools in the Czech part of the city and a complex of high schools in the Polish part.

It is located in the pleasant environment of the Beskydy mountains. The Beskyny region provides good possibilities for the practicing the summer and winter sports.

The towns of Tøinec, Karviná, Havíøov, Ostrava are nearby and offer many other possibilities for cultural and sport activites.

Proposed activities for EVS volunteers

The hosting placement, CS, wants to host two international volunteers. The volunteers will be considered as members of a team at the schools. It is important for potential candidates to realize that these activities are first an alternative education system rather than common activities in social work. Volunteers will help kids with all stages of handicaps.

During the learning process, volunteers will have possibilities to gain practical hard skills (Czech or Polish language, PC skills,...) as well as soft skills (communication, empathy, intercultural self-awareness), to learn through the internal reflection or individual training courses during service and by exchanging their experiences with staff members. They will learn empathy by working with handicapped kids requiring special care and treatment. They will learn alternative ways of communication and being patient (results from work are often seen after few months or years). It will be a great occasion for them to get to know an special education methods (e.g. how to approach and take care of kids with various kinds of handicap)and education system in Czech Rep. The volunteers will additionally have trainings held by the National Agency and the coordinating organisation, Silesian Diacony. The main goals of these trainings are to define expectation, to reflect on experiences and knowledge, to learn social and intercultural values and to evaluate the program. The Silesian Diacony commits to offering support to the volunteers and supervisors through telephone contact, scheduled visits to placements and seminars to review and reflect the experiences of the voluntary service.

The volunteers will participate in all routine daily activities except those which require special social and psychological training. The volunteers will work independently but with support and observation from the staff, especially intially due to inexperience and language barriers. The volunteers will be a valuable extra resource for the school's activities and are not intended to replace existing staff or fulfil staff's current duties.

There are a variety of the activities for the volunteers:

1. Helping pupils in pedagogic process under leadership of teachers: drawing, singing, working with PC, listening to relax music, motion games, swinging kids on swings, training of getting dressed, sewing, playing music instruments (50%)

2. Helping with serving food and feeding handicapped kids, cleaning after meal, changing sheets of linen (20%)

3. Helping immobile pupils in work and displacement: walking with kids, moving to other classes or places (20%)

4. Helping teachers in class-rooms: storing and selecting educational instruments, preparing aids, creating school decorations (10%)

These activities will be run at two branches of the Church Schools, both in the same city. Volunteers will work 3 days in one school branch and 2 days in the second school branch. At the beginning both volunteers will work together to settle in most easily. Later, they can work separately if desired. The volunteers will be integrated into their social work and will get professional and personal support from the members of the staff. A main aim is to involve the volunteers in activities of the organisation and also the daily life of the local community to better understand the working culture.

Time schedule of Church School is very similar to common school schedules. This means that there are lessons lasting 45 minutes or 90 minutes with short or longer breaks according to difficulty. Lessons are running from 8.00 to 14.00 and above mentioned activities are repeated or taken in turns. Detailed time schedules will be stated at the beginning of school year and it will be introduced to volunteers at the beginning of the voluntary service.

The activities of the volunteers can be adjusted according to their interest and abilities. Their placement encourages creativity and flexibility. Work activities are prepared, run and evaluated by their supervisor.

During the second half of the project Church Schools offers the volunteer the opportunity to realize their own project in the field of pedagogy and education for pupils with special educational needs, especially in special-interest or rehabilitation activities (e.g. organizing sport activities - bowling, visits in hockey stadium; music performances). The size of the own project will depend on the volunteer. The criteria of the project includes: 1. Own idea, 2. Idea discussed with the staff, 3. The children and the local community are the actors, not only receivers, 4. Volunteers are participating in learning process. Staff of the host organisation advise volunteers as needed.

There also will be an opportunity to visit of the other projects provided by Silesian Diacony in the region to gain an overall view of the organisation and the standard of care.

The hosting organisation provides the volunteer special support through a supervisor and a mentor. The supervisor will be a designated staff member at the placement. The supervisor will encourage the volunteer in the development his own project and offer continual support of the volunteer during the project. The mentor/tutor (friend) will support the volunteer in his free time; help him to socialise, build partnerships and participate in activities of local community. If the volunteer has any personal problems or needs assistance, not explicitly related to the work, he/she can contact the mentor at any time.

In addition to the specific tasks of the placement, the volunteer will be challenged to get to know Czech culture and language, to take intercultural initiatives, and to plan and carry out events. The placement will help volunteers with the integration in the local community. The volunteers can make contact with the other international and national volunteers and through the active participation in the local events, better understand the lifestyle and the origin of local Czech and Polish communities. They will also get a reflection on cultural diversity and intercultural awareness of the different nationalities living in region Silesia (Czech, Greek, Roma).

Volunteer profiles and recruitment process

The volunteers come from different countries, social background, and church denomination, but share a desire to serve and grow. The volunteers need to be willing to integrate into the School's life, having a high interest and motivation to work with disabled kids with really severe and often combined types of handicap. Volunteers should be able to work in team, to accept the special needs of disabled kids, as well as offer their own ideas and experiences, has sufficient amount of patience, flexibility and creativity. Very important is a willingness to learn Czech language to overcome a language barrier in communication with clients especially. It would be beneficial if volunteers can play any music instrument or sing, have creative or art skills. Other important qualities include: a heart for working with disabled people and their relatives, openness and good communication skills.

Candidates are asked to send an application form, motivation letter, curriculum vitae, and 3 reference letters prepared by a person who knows the potential candidate through both formal and informal activities.

Risk prevention, safety and protection

Upon arrival volunteers will be picked up by the mentor or supervisor; who will provide her/him with a support for the whole hosting time.

The volunteers will attend an on-arrival seminar, where the project will be introduced and they will be able to meet the project coordinator and project supervisor. Upon arrival the volunteers will also receive an intensive language course (56 hours) and will continue to recieve 2 hours a week throughout their service.

The volunteer's mentor will show the volunteer his new home and will assist him to cope with changes. He will also give them the important information about the community and the area. The supervisor will introduce the new working place to the volunteer and he will explain to them details about the work.

Before starting any activity the supervisor will also inform the volunteer about the level of risk of each of activity. Every month the volunteer and the supervisor will have a supervision session, where they will talk about the work, improvement and training as well as personal problems, which they can discuss in working area.

The project coordinator will be consistently in touch with the supervisor, mentor and the volunteer (attendance at meetings, written or phone contact), where he will observe and evaluate volunteer's attitude in any critical situations in the working place or outside the work. If project coordinator will contact straightaway his/her mentor or supervisor and they will resolve it. If the problem cannot be resolved the project coordinator will operate according to directions of Silesian Diacony.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=26000207901