A. Project environment: profile of the organisation and local community
" Outline the project environment for the suggested voluntary activities, including the local community where the project will take place (e.g. geographical, social and economical environment).
" If the host placement is located in a live-in community, please include the rules and conditions that apply also for the volunteer.

PROJECT ENVIRONMENT.
EVS project will take place in S. Domenico Community in Catanzaro Lido. It is a community for minors coming from families having difficult social and economical situations. It is the Court for Minors that informs the communty about the needy minors.They are host in the community for some months or years depending on their family situations or on their educational project. During their stay in the house, the minors are assisted by a specific staff composed of 5 educators, a social worker and two people who take care of the house. Each minor should follow an individual social project in order to reach specific aims and targets in some fundamental social fields like relation with others, family dimension, education and training. The staff is a permanent one and there is always someone during days and nights.

LOCAL COMMUNITY
S. Domenico Community is situated in a residential district in the south area of Catanzaro, in a detached house with a huge green area around. The district is 2 km far from the city-center and the public transports don't get until there. EVS volunteers will be host in the premises of the community, they will share a bedroom in pairs and they will have meals together with the staff and the hosts of the house. Volunteers will be asked to keep their room clean and tidy and they have to respect the same rules foreseen for the hosts. For example, they will not have an own key for entering the house beacuse the hosts too are not allowed to have one. Volunteers will not be allowed to keep valuables or money in rooms. The staff will keep safely all these items in the office.
Catanzaro is the main city of Calabria. The region is located in the southern part of Italy and it offers a great variety of geographical differences. Here, you can visit the last part of Appennino, the mountain chain which runs all along Italy. Futhermore, the region is surrounded by the sea and it offers some of the most beautiful coasts and beaches of the country. Catanzaro is situated at 400 meters sea-level on three hills. The city is in a good position for tourism: it takes 30 minutes to get the mountains (Sila Piccola, where you can find some important skiing points) and 20 minutes to get the coast and the sea on the Ionio side of the Mediterranean sea (Copanello, Caminia or Soverato are some of the most famous sea places in Italy). The city has a wonderful historical center and huge green areas like the park of biodiversity, Villa Comunale and the Siano pine forest. The city has 100.000 habitants and the main economical activities are in the service sector, trade and medium industry. In the summer there are always a lot of events like fairs, concerts or exhibitions that allows tourists to get in touch with the traditions of our region.


RULES
Our community is based on some basic rules which everyone is requested to respect. We know that some rules can seem strict but it is important to understand that they represent a guidance for our hosts. Respecting rules is a way to educate minors and to teach them how to live in a social context with others. For that reason, EVS volunteers will be requested to understand, accept and respect these rules. We ask them not to object rules with minors. Following we point some of these basic rules:

The Community is based on Christian values. However, hosts and volunteers are free to partecipate or not to religious events and celebrations. We don't absolutely want to impose religious practice.
It is forbidden to have violent or aggressive behaviours.
People are requested not to say bad words.
Everyone is asked to have a proper personal care and hygene.
It is not allowed to listen to music or television loudly and frequently.
It is absolutely forbidden to smoke, to drink alchool and to use drugs inside the community.
We ask to hosts and volunteers to be serious, sincere and honest.
It is not allowed to receive visits inside the community.


B. Proposed activities for EVS volunteers
" Describe what you can offer to volunteers in terms of service and learning opportunities.
" Please, explain what will be the role of EVS volunteers in the host organisation.
" Describe the activities in which the volunteers could be involved and the activities the volunteers could create in your organisation. Give examples of typical activities for the volunteers.
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES:
In their stay at S. Domenico Community, volunteers will have the opportunity to live a strong experience of social sharing and not formal learning.They will meet minors coming from difficult situations and at the same time they will learn which possibility to grow and to develop our community offers to young people. The community often hosts foreign minors, so volunteers will probably meet young people from other countries and cultures widening the multicultural dimension of the project. We ask volunteers to spend as much time as possible within the community in order to have a whole sharing experience with our hosts. Our social projects, indeed, are based on the idea that the ordinary life and routine is the best way to teach minors how to become indipendent and adults. For that reason, we ask volunteers to support our hosts in all their ordinary activities like studying, outdoor and free time activities and daily routine. Volunteers will also have the opportunity to partecipate to the activities the Foundation puts in practice in the local community in order to explain and make aware local people about our tasks and goals. EVS experience in S. Domenico Community will help volunteers to acquire and develop relational skills (to dialogue and to respect others, team-work ability, mediation); cultural skills thanks to the meeting with other cultures; organizational skills beacuse they will directly experience how to manage a similar community.
ROLE OF THE VOLUNTEERS:
Volunteers will not be considered as job substitution. They will be at the same time an help for our staff and an example and a company for the hosts. EVS volunteers will mainly be an adding value for the community from a cultural and human point of view. We hope that their stay could motivate our hosts to know and to meet other cultures and way of living. They will represent an example that cohabitation among differences is possible, especially if we want to give our support to the creation of an European citizenship.
ACTIVITIES:
At the beginning, volunteers will be introduced in the reality of the community and we are going to explain them its history and aims. Then, we will show them all our activities, in order to give volunteers a whole image of the daily work in the community. The volunteers could be involved in the daily house duties (eg. House cleaning and cooking), in supporting minors for their homework, in free time activities (sport, theatre, games...) and in the meetings of the staff to evaluate social projects. Volunteers will have the chance to know all these activities in order to understand, according with the staff, which ones are more suitable for them and for their interests. We also think to involve volunteers in the events and meetings we organize in the local community. These public meetings can be an opportunity for volunteers to tell about their EVS experience and their culture. When volunteers will be able to speak Italian quite fluently, they could organize every kind of activities according to their skills and abilities. We think that EVS experience should be not only an adding value for the community but also an opportunity for young volunteers to grow and to reflect on their future. So, we would like to give volunteers the chance of express themselves according to their interests and skills. We will ask volunteers to organize specific moments to tell our hosts about their cultures and tradition as an opportunity to widen their horizons. It is important that our hosts can develop values as tolerance and respect for differences since they represent the next citizens of European Union.
Volunteers will work 35 hours a week and no more than 7 hours a day. They will be free two days a week, not always on weekends and they will have 2 days off each month of service. Free days should be agree with the staff of the community.

C. Volunteer profiles and recruitment process
Please describe the profiles of volunteers you would like to receive in your organisation. Include information on how you ensure an open and transparent recruitment process as well as the overall accessibility of EVS to all young people. Consider further information about the type of sending organisation you want to cooperate with. This information can help the match-making between volunteer candidates, sending organisations and your organisation.
Città Solidale Foundation is ready to accept volunteers coming from all European countries without any discrimination. Volunteers should have a strong motivation and a deep interest for the community and its aims in order to live concretely and successfully the project. In the recruitment process, we will closely work with IBO, our coordinating association, in order to make the best choice as possible. We will firstly contact all the entrants (by e-mails or telephone) in order to evaluate their skills, interest and motivation for the projects. Then, we try to understand if they are open-minded and if they have good relational skills because it is really important to be flexible and sociable in oder to experience our reality successfully. Volunteers should be respectful of our hosts and their personal histories and honest especially with the staff. We ask them not to hide any problems or difficulties, especially in their relations with the hosts. It will be better if volunteers have driving license.
D. Special needs (if applicable)
If your placements are open to hosting volunteers with fewer opportunities, please provide information about the competence, experience and infrastructure and (human or other) resources available in your organisation to accommodate and support them.
The community has been working for 13 years in the social field, especially hosting people having diffiicult social conditions. The staff is extremely qualified and composed of several professional roles as educators, social workers and psychologists. They are always present in the community so we can guarantee a full support for people with less opportunities (through individual or group meetings). We will consider and take care of the different situations, supporting volunteers according to their uneasinness and difficulties. We would like that volunteers could have a positive experience in our community also increasing the value of their personality. Unfortunately, we are not able to host volunteers having physical disabilities.
E. Risk prevention, safety and protection
Please describe how you will guarantee a safe living and working environment for the EVS volunteers, how you will prevent risks and crises and how - in the case of EVS volunteers aged 16 or 17 - you ensure appropriate supervision, child safety and protection.
All the premises of Città Solidale Foundation, San Domenico Community included, are respectful of Italian law concerning people safety.
During their EVS project, volunteers will be involved in all the meetings concerning organization of our activiites. They will be assisted by a tutor, who will meet them weekly in order to discuss how the project is going on. Anyway, volunteers could always rely on someone of the staff, who is always present inside the community. Furthermore, the Foundation regularly organizes meetings with experts and psychologists in order to verify and support volunteers and operators who daily work in stressing and strong situations. Consequently, volunteers will have the possibility to express their feelings and difficulties about their experience in the community, since we know that the daily contact with our hosts can be stressful because of their difficult past histories. So, we want to offer EVS volunteers the opportunity to live a positive project giving them all the psychological, human and practical support they could need.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=42000436085