A. Project environment: profile of the organisation and local community

PROJECT ENVIRONMENT

Stevninghus is situated in the southern part of Denmark, only 15 kilometres from the border to Germany. The nearest village, Kliplev, with some shopping possibilities for daily needs, church and trainstation is 3 km away and the nearest town is Aabenraa 15 km away. Aabenraa is small city which provides all shopping opportunities, pedaestrian streets, cinema, occasional musicevents, educational centres, hospital, sportsfacilities, beaches, coffeeshops and surrounded by forests.

We stress that Stevninghus is at the countryside, and that going to the city is not something that can be done every day. To get to Åbenrå or to other parts of Denmark requires that the volunteer must grab the bike and ride to the mainroad to take the bus, or to the trainstation. Stevninghus is sorrounded by very beautiful nature; a large lake, forest and farmingfields.

LIVING SITUATION

The volunteers will have their own room with shared kitchen, bath and toilet. Volunteers will normally eat together with the camp manager, and as such be integrated into Danish family life, but they can also choose to make their own food, and will then be given a certain amount of money to buy their own food. Smoking inside in any of the buildings at the centre is strictly forbidden - also in the volunteers own room, so all smoking is to be done out side regardless of the weather. No alcohol is permittet during working hours. All employees and also the volunteers will wear a scout scarf during working hours. To be at the centre, Danish legislation requieres a clean criminal record which must be provided before arriving to Denmark.

Once a month during the weekends with activities at the wiking village, the volunteers will participate in their activities and will eat and live together with the young Danes arriving. This is a really good way to make Danish friends and establish a personal network in Denmark.

The project is coordinated by Dansk ICYE. Dansk ICYE will appoint a contact person to the volunteer (a co-worker of Dansk ICYE). S/he will be of assistance in case of questions or problems concerning the daily life in the project, host family or spare time. We will arrange min. 1 meeting between Dansk ICYE, KulturPrinsen and the volunteer to make sure that the aims and ideas of both volunteer and project are reached.

and volunteers will be given a contactperson and supoort from one of the co-workers of ICYE. Also volunteers will be integrated into the international group of volunteers from all over the world which they will meet regularly at trainings and seminars.

B. Proposed activities for EVS volunteers

SERVICE AND LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

- The volunteer will develop skills especially within the practical field of work eg. Maintainance of buildings and ourdoor areas. All handyman skills will come necessary and will be developed. All volunteers will be challenged at their own level.

- Volunteers will meet a lot of different people and gain a broad insight in Danish culture and society.

- Depending on own effort and perseverance: learn Danish. The volunteer will attend a public language course- most likely daily for the first 2 months. It will depend on what is available at the moment of the start of the project.

- Learn about Danish scouting methods and activities.

- Plan and carry out activities depending on interests and special abilities of the volunteer.

- Learn about the wikings; to use wiking tools and ancient methods of house construction and way of daily life.

Volunteers will perform both given tasks and develop their own ideas and projects. Some tasks will be done alone, others independantly depending on the specific job.

When the volunteer visits Copenhagen he/she can stay for free in the house of the scout organisation.

TYPICAL ACTIVITIES

Most working days will be between 8.00, when we meet to plan the day, and 15 or 16. Since it is during weekends we have the most visitors and activities - and fun, the volunteer will work some weekends and sometimes at irregular hours, but then weekdays will be given off instead. The volunteer will not work more than an average of 35 hours a week. But some periods are more busy than others, so we expect the volunteers to be flexible on hours - and then they will be met with great flexibilty from our side too regarding when they have extra days off and vacation.

There are so many different tasks to be carried out that few days and weeks are alike. The volunteers are considered an extra hand at the place so they will only to a limited extend take part on the daily rutine tasks such as cleaning etc, but will be encouraged to do the tasks they are good at and interested in- we always have a lot of things to do so the volunteers can choose which of them they will be involved in.

In general the distribution of tasks will be:

30% Repairing buildings and the nature areas (painting, repairing, fixing the watertubes, putting up lamps, cutting the gras, - every tasks which is requiered for the place to be in order And well-functioning)

40% Maintainance - cut the grass, provide service to the renters, take care of the animals (a small, some goats and rabbits), empty the litter baskets, clean tents, fix petrol lamps, update the website - and many more different tasks. To run the machines will requiere a driving license.

25% New projects. This will depend largely of volunteers qualifications and interests. Ideas could be: Plan international activities which can be offered to the guests at our centre, plan a new hiking route for the scouts, up-date of our website, translate materials, develop teambuilding material, perform improvements of the buildings, organise an international evening…. The more initiative the volunteer takes, the more different things will be put into action.

5 % Running activities with primarily children and youth. Eg ball games, axe-throwing competition, international or primitive cooking, rafting on the lake, archery, blacksmith workshop, take initiatives to organise a football tournament …… we hope the volunteers wil bring some new ideas to be put into practise.

C. Volunteer profiles and recruitment process

The volunteers do not need to know about scouting, but an interest in doing practical work is essential. We expect the volunteer to be interested in outdoor and camping life - we work outside every day regardless of the weather. The volunteer must be interested in dissiminating activities from his/her homecountry and experience from working with children and youth is an advantage. Driving license is an advantage but not essential. Knowledge og basic English or German is necessary.

The volunteer who will benefit the most from being here has a positve attitude towards life, with a smile in his/her lips. We expect everybody to be able to perform the tasks with initiative and flexibility. A certain ability to work both independantly and in a team with others is necessary.

D. Special needs (if applicable)

Since the work is very physical and the surroundings are not suitable for physically handicapped people, we cannot offer the project to anyone with significant physical handicaps. We could have room for youngsters with need of a certain amount of extra mental support.

E. Risk prevention, safety and protection

We aim to minimise risks by carrying risk assessments, and the volunteer will be instructed on the security measures and instructed to follow the regulations. We have policies and procedures for health and safety for the staff, and the buildings and the whole area surroundings are regularly revised and supervised regarding risk prevention. Furthermore we follow the Danish legislation on security subjects.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=10000181221