The St. Josefshaus Herten was founded in 1879 and is an experienced institution working with handicapped peole. From the beginning up to now the staff members are following in their work the principles of human dignity. Today about 690 mentally handicapped people are living in the facilities of the St. Josefshaus.
The structures of living in the St. Josefshaus respond to the difficult living conditions of the residents to overcome the restrictions caused by disabilities.
The structures of the living groups with familycompleting or replacing function vary from group to group and comply with the degree of handicap of the residents.
To be able and to be allowed to work is an essential part of life for human beings. Therefore the St. Josefshaus offers more than 400 working places in various sheltered workshops.
European Volunteers are expected to keep the rules of our work with young people:
- acceptance of handicapped children and 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
- to be motivated to develop future prospects for handicapped children and young people
- to be courageous to act creative and flexible

The town of Rheinfelden is situated at the southern foothills of the Black Forest in the border triangle between Germany, France and Switzerland. It is located about 15 km eastward of Basel on the northern riverbank of the Upper Rhine, just accross from the swiss town with the same name. The town of Rheinfelden is the second biggest community of the district of Lörrach and the middle level centre for the surrounding commnities.
The town of Rheinfelden founded in 1922 owes its development to the building of the first hydroelectric power plant in Europe (1895-1898); which became the basis for the establishment of some energy-intensive factories. Since it's official founding in 1922 the population increased steadily and at present there are living 32.250 inhabitants.
Rheinfelden (Baden) offers a great variety of sports and leisure time facilities completed by offers in the field of culture as well as of special events.
The town of Rheinfelden is connected by several bus lines to the neighbouring communities. By the regional commuter train system it is connected to the towns of Basel, Lörrach and Waldshut.
To ensure regional mobility European Volunteers get a monthly ticket which is valid for all public transport associations of the administrative district of Lörrach , on weekdays from 14:00 h, during weekend and school holidays the ticket is also valid in the neighbouring administrative districts of Schwarzwald-Baar, Offenburg, Freiburg and Waldshut-Tiengen.

B.
Learning opportunities:
During their activities volunteers will learn about social and emotional necessities of disabled children and young people.
Volunteers will gain competences in social care for disabled children and young people.
Having sole responsibility for design and realisation of leisure facilities will enhance self-assurance and self-confidence of volunteers.
Integration in a foreign culture and the self-determined life of the local community will afford volunteers a personal orientation and increase the development of future perspectives.
Participation in internal professional development activities will provide volunteers with specialised knowledge of the health care and nursery system.
Volunteers can take part in a language training for European Volunteers arranged by the coordinating organisation. The aim of the language training is the command of oral every day speech with a special focus on the terminology of social care. Through language training the volunteer should be enabled to manage typical situations of daily life they will be confronted with during their voluntary service.

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 ideas for new games, activities or stories into a personal project if they so wished - creative ideas are always welcome.
Volunteers are expected to accomplish a fulltime voluntary service of 35 hours per week. Overtime doing will be balanced by additional freetime.

C.
The volunteer should have an interest in social work and should be open to interact with disabled children and young people who are threatended with social exclusion. Previous knowledge of work with disabled children and young people could be helpful.
It's necessary for the volunteers to be sociable and outgoing, to have enthusiasm, and to be tolerant to foreign cultures. Volunteers should be able to act on their own initiative, but also cooperate in a team.
Volunteers should have a basic knowledge of German and the willingness to learn german language.
A driving license class B would be helpful.
Candidates should describe their motivation for a voluntary service in this project in a detailed motivation letter. Important are neither national or social background, gender, language skills nor level of education, but a convincingly motivation.

D.
Volunteers with special needs could be accepted after consultation with the hosting organisation to find and to agree appropriate opportunities of voluntary activities.

E.
The host organization provides continuous monitoring, including easy access to the contact person (Tutor), regular dialog with the volunteers, in which the options for personal development and the interests of the volunteer are being discussed.
To prevent crises from occurring in the first place, volunteers will be given any training necessary for them to carry out their tasks.
Volunteers will be informed about their rights, regulations in the host organization, consequences of unacceptable behaviour.
In terms of risk and crisis prevention it is very important to keep all persons involved in the project informed to be able to act immediately in the case of a crisis.
However if problems occur, volunteers have different people to contact and discuss problems with. The different people are pro-active in seeking area of concern and actively finding solutions to the issues arising.
The line manager in the respective working group is on hand daily for problems, the director of the hosting organisation is accessible for volunteers every day and the co-ordinator is available by e-mail and phone at every time but meets the volunteers weekly or biweekly during language training.
Weekly during language training volunteers can meet participants from other EVS-projects from the region to exchange experiences.
Volunteers wil have the opportunity to stay in contact with their family and sending organization via e-mail or telephone at least on a weekly basis.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=6001471614