The Casa Pia - CED Francisco Margiochi is situated in Amiais de Cima, part of Santarém council. This part of the council is surrounded by forest. In this institution Is developed a environmental education programme opened not only to pupils and teachers of Casa Pia de Lisboa, but also to local schools. Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi is also a Holidays Centre receiving children and young people from Casa Pia de Lisboa and from other organisations.
At the moment the Casa Pia - CED Francisco Margiochi is formed by Quinta do Arrife and Centros de Férias da Areia Branca and Matela (farms and holiday centers). In Quinta do Arrife, there is an environment education programme opened to students and teachers of Casa Pia de Lisboa and also to the local partner schools, but in general it is opened to all the national schools interested.
In this domain, is also possible to host the participants in the Rural Residence or in the Camping Park to develop camp activities. The Residence is also used by students of agriculture operator course during the week time of the school year.
The Holidays Centres of Quinta do Arrife, Areia Branca and Matela, are used by young people that take part in environment animation programmes. The participants come from different places, being some of them from Casa Pia de Lisboa and others from outside. This exchange between the people is important to promote socialization and establish friendships.
The Casa Pia - CED Francisco Margiochi offers courses to the students in different domains: environment animation, agriculture and environment education and agriculture and environment formation.
The environment animation takes place in Quinta do Arrife, Areia Branca and Matela to occupy young people leisure time with sports and pedagogic activities in holiday time, weekends and school interruption for teacher's evaluations. In these times the interaction between young people from Casa Pia and outsiders is important to promote their social integration.
The agriculture and environment education aims to give educational support activities to other schools, in the experimental education of science field and education through arts. The target group is Casa Pia students but the activity is also opened to other students of the country through "Arrife Vivo" Programme.

The agriculture and environment formation assumes different target groups with different aims:
- students from Casa Pia de Lisboa, out from the obligatory education, in short professional formation programmes hosted in Quinta do Arrife Residence.
- teamworkers of the school related to the activities of education and environment animation
- teachers from Casa Pia de Lisboa and other public schools, who attend to trainings about environment education
- agriculture operators attending trainings about rational management of forest resources, agriculture and biologic livestock, construction of green spaces and nature tourism.
The field of Agriculture, Livestock and Forest Management, provides the courses of second level in agriculture operator.
This course provides to the students transversal professional competencies. The students come from other organisations or from Casa Pia and search for new vocations or fields of interest. When they finish their second level course, they receive a certification of conclusion of obligatory education and they can start looking for a job or continue forward getting their education route.
The Casa Pia - CED Francisco Margiochi believes that environment education is important nowadays to achieve school success and to raise the transmission of social competencies. The adequate management of leisure time promotes healthy life styles and a good integration in the environment and also the education for citizenship and better interpersonal relationships.
The projects promoted by Casa Pia - CED Francisco Margiochi are: weather station, take care of autochthonous plants, take care of local animals, beekeeping, birds projects, paper and material recycling, bicycle riding, production of biological agriculture, traditional games, trainings for Casa Pia workers and partners in the field of agriculture and environment, traditional gastronomy, citizenship and arts project, computers project, national plan of reading, national plan of Maths, Summer Camps, intervention and prevention of Sexual Abuse and school newspaper.
Quinta do Arrife is the headquarters of Casa Pia - CED Francisco Margiochi and occupies an area of 62 hectares that great part of it space is forest.
Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi is located 25 km far from the city of Santarém. The most important economic activities are ceramics, furniture, commerce, agriculture and livestock, forestry, extractive industry, food industry, civil construction, tourism, environment and investigation.
The council of Santarém has 600 km2 and is located in the right margin of Tagus River, making border with Azambuja, Porto de Mós, Rio Maior, Cartaxo, Almeirim, Alpiarça, Chamusca, Golegã, Torres Novas and Alcanena, inserted in Ribatejo province. Santarém is 85 km far from Lisbon and 45 minutes distance from the Airport. The transports available in Santarém are bus and train and offer connections to other regions.
The heritage in Santarém is mainly churches, chapels and the beautiful landscapes of Lezíria and of the mountains. The main cultural and historical structures of Santarém are Libraries, Historical Monuments, Restaurants, Gardens, Hospital, Clinic Centres and Rural Tourism Houses).
Santarém has 62.621 inhabitants according to Census 2001 and is also the capital of the region of Ribatejo.
The youth normally leave the school earlier (mostly they didn´t get the 9th grade). In 2006 the district had the biggest number of drugs consume among young people. The main reasons of the problem are the low economical level, the majority of the active population works in manufactories and have low salaries.
The EVS volunteers can have an important role by showing to young people and to the local community the importance of improving skills in a non-formal way, in order to become more prepared to face the life.
Santarém has a Mediterranean continental climate with very hot Summers and rigorous Winters with medium precipitation levels. The proximity with the mountains and with Tagus River provides good outdoor activities (canoeing, trekking, horse riding, etc).
The area where Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi is placed is a cultural heterogeneity place which includes people from urban and rural backgrounds.

In respect of working rules of the organisation, all youngsters have the right to maintain anonymous and secrecy must be respected, in order to protect their privacy.
Volunteer principles that are promoted in Casa Pia are:
- solidarity: responsibility of all citizens in volunteer in Casa Pia;
- participation: intervention of volunteers and promoter entities in social fields;
- cooperation: gather efforts and projects of promoter entities of volunteer;
- Complementarily: the volunteers don't substitute the others human resources in the organisation;
- Freeness: the volunteers aren't paid for the activity;
- Responsibility: the volunteer is responsible for its commitment in order to fulfil the expectations;
- Convergence: harmony between the culture and objectives of the volunteer and Casa Pia.
Duties of the volunteers in Casa Pia:
- Respect the ethic code of volunteer activity;
- Observe the rules that regulate the work of Casa Pia and the programmes and projects where the volunteer will be involved;
- Act diligently and with solidarity;
- Participate in the volunteers programme trainings;
- Ensure a good use of resources and equipments available;
- Collaborate with workers of Casa Pia, respecting their opinions and following their instructions;
- Do not assume a representative role without previous authorisation of Casa Pia;
- Assure the regularity and development of the work based on the agreement between the volunteer and Casa Pia;
- Use the Volunteer ID during the activities.
The presence of a coordinating organisation in this project is important for the success, mainly because the hosting organisation don't have experience in EVS projects.
Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi is involved in a lot of projects and activities where EVS volunteers can be involved and have large experience and a motivated team that will give the necessary support to the volunteer.
ProAtlântico with high experience on EVS projects will take care of the administrative and practical issues, in order to make this project fulfil all the expectation of all partners.
Concerning the stay of the EVS volunteer, the coordinating organisation ProAtlântico - Associação Juvenil will provide the lodging in a flat or in a hosting family. The volunteer might have to share the room with another volunteer.
A monthly allowance is provided by the coordinating organisation to cover food expenses out of the working time. During the working time the hosting organisation will provide meals or an allowance to cover food expenses of the volunteers. The volunteers may find a variety of eating choices in Santarém (small local restaurants, supermarkets, local food markets, etc.). The Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi members will help him/her become familiar with these resources.
A monthly local transport allowance is provided by the hosting organisation to the EVS volunteer.
A monthly allowance (pocket money) is provided by the coordinating organisation to the volunteer.

In Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi the EVS volunteers will be able to develop several competencies, in order to improve their performance. Therefore, the host organisation will provide the opportunity to EVS volunteers to have learning opportunities in different fields, such as:
o approach to the tasks of the project: develop responsibility for the project; become more open to new ideas; develop the sense of initiative; ability to plan and organize activities to the project; flexibility/adaptability and coping to new challenges; proactive attitude and independent work;
o leadership abilities: develop positive attitude in difficult situations; positive attitude in order to take pride in team performance; team work with colleagues to achieve desired goals; ability to maintain open communication; ability to contribute to an environment of motivation;
o team orientation: work effectively with others volunteers or other members of the team; active attitude to contribute to the achievement of group and organizational goals; acceptance of shared responsibility and ownership of projects; maintenance of open communication among team members; assume commitment to team success; consistent contribution with new ideas to the organization / new projects;
o innovation and creativity: ability to develop and implement innovate ideas to the projects; ability to provide unique/different perspectives to improve activities; ability to encourage innovation in themselves and others;
o Personal characteristics: maintain a positive attitude on the work; ability to act responsibly; ability to share information willingly; ability to make judgement and to make decisions;
o Cultural expression: knowledge about Portuguese culture; willing to show volunteer's culture and spread the multicultural projects;
o Communication in a foreign language: ability to communicate in Portuguese in order to feel more integrated among the others; positive attitude in learning process of Portuguese language; persistence to improve communication in Portuguese language;
o Environment abilities: the volunteers will learn gardening, Livestock and biological techniques; acquire knowledge about reutilization of materials, protection of Nature measures;
In the end of the Activity, the EVS volunteers involved can ask for the Youth Pass in order to get a certification of their learning outcomes.
The volunteers will have the chance to be integrated in Casa Pia de Lisboa and to know an organisation with 200 years with relevant concerns in Portuguese society, giving several competencies, knowledge and sharing values through the presence and daily contact with the beneficiaries. For Casa Pia de Lisboa is an added value resulting from hosting volunteers of different cultures and diverse experiences. This fact will give the chance to the organisation and to the volunteers the opportunity of enlarge their horizons.

In general terms, the EVS volunteers will have to find the best strategy to integrate in a new culture, to learn a new language and to fit in a new reality, but also, will have the opportunity to improve their skills, discover new abilities and talents with a specific target group - social disadvantaged children and young people.
In specific terms, while the volunteers develop their EVS project in Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi, they will have to deal with conflicts among children and young people, rule breaks and other social behaviour concerns.
In this way, the volunteers must have a proactive role, assisting the other members of the team, which are already running this project and help them in their tasks, by taking part in the animation and carrying out activities with children and young people, having always the necessary support, training, orientation in order to plan activities.
The EVS volunteers will be encouraged to implement their own ideas and experiences, according to their skills and interests, having in mind the team's objectives and the organisation possibilities. We believe this topic is important to the volunteer's integration and adaptation to the dynamics of the organisation, in order to make him/her feel part of the group.
The volunteers will learn important issues in the Youth Work field, in order to become more integrated and informed about other cultures and ways of living, the problems of coexistence of different cultures, deal with possible conflicts among them and find the best ways to use mutual understanding as a tool for tolerance.
The Mentor will assist the volunteer in the definition of his/her tasks and give personal support.
The volunteers will take part in many different tasks, according to their interests, abilities and skills that will be planned together with the staff and the mentor. The target group of the project will be children and young people between 10 and 15 years old.
So, the specific tasks that volunteers can be involved in Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi are:
- Environment and Biologic Activities: the volunteers will promote activities of biologic agriculture and environment awareness by developing workshops about recycling, reusing materials and protection of Nature. Through the recycle of materials the volunteer will have to build not only scarecrows to be placed in gardening but also to do the recycling through the separation of waste in the eco point. The volunteers will also take care of animals and plants that are used by the organisation during the formation of youngsters of Casa Pia and help the students to get in touch with them.
- Summer Camps: this activity aims to animate and implement leisure time activities for children and youngsters, with an entertaining but also educational purpose. Therefore, the idea is to have a variety of activities where the children and youngsters can learn, have fun and occupy their free times in Summer Camps in a healthy way. These activities include cooking workshops, fashion shows, photos exhibitions, thematic conversations, going to the beach, sports, environment awareness, etc.
- Outdoor Activities: having activities out of the space of Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi is also foreseen in the activities plan. It is important for the youngsters to diversify their horizons and to develop their knowledge of the surroundings through environment tours, adventure sports, outdoor games, etc. The volunteers can plan different and new activities for these "going outs", visits, define places to go, etc. During the activity, they can also be responsible for monitoring the group and leading the activities.
- Promote European Voluntary Service and other youth activities: the EVS volunteers will give visibility to their EVS activity, in order to motivate more young people to participate on EVS and in other youth activities like youth exchanges. This can contribute to expand their perspectives of the future and participate actively in the society. They can organise exhibitions and presentations in schools and in youth clubs, etc.
- Participation in the planning of the work: the volunteers will attend to the planning meeting where the specific objectives and activities are defined on a regular basis. In these meetings they can propose ideas to implement, propose solutions for specific problems, become aware of the working methodologies of the organisation, place their doubts or questions about the work, evaluate, etc.
- Personal project: according to the spirit of volunteering, learning and sharing that sets the philosophy of hosting an EVS project, the EVS volunteers involved in Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi will have the freedom and will be challenged to promote a personal project, like an original idea or whatever they desire that comes in accordance with the regular philosophy of the institution, either in the formerly mentioned areas, or in different ones, for which they can count with support and monitoring from the staff of the hosting organisation and from ProAtlântico's team.
The tasks weren't designed to achieve profit, because the organization is non-profitable and doesn't intend to make financial gain from its activities.
The volunteers will start Portuguese lessons shortly after their arrival in Portugal, in order to help them to communicate with the children, young people and staff.
The first few weeks after the volunteer's arrival will be considered as a period of preliminary induction, during which the volunteer will be introduced to the project team and will gain familiarity with the new living and working environment.
During this time the coordinating organisation ProAtlântico - Associação Juvenil will welcome the EVS volunteers and create right conditions for the development of the project, giving the volunteers the opportunity to integrate in the new culture, different environment and new language.
ProAtlântico will provide the language course and will create the opportunity to EVS volunteers to establish the first contacts with Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi and with the different projects that will be developed during their stay. At the same time, the EVS volunteers will be introduced in the hosting organization, mainly to the working team.
In this period, the EVS volunteers will have the opportunity to settle down, observe and plan the tasks in which they will be involved. The volunteers will also participate in activities organised by ProAtlântico - Associação Juvenil for the cultural training about integration in the Portuguese culture and dealing with cultural shock.
After this initial adjustment period, the volunteer will work directly in the tasks defined in Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi with the staff of the organisation. Before the beginning of each task, the EVS volunteers will have the necessary briefing and/or training by qualified people to obtain the necessary knowledge to perform well in their functions. During this process all the training will be structured according to the needs of the EVS volunteers and be provided by the staff.
At the first sight, it won't be necessary any formal training, just the practical procedures will be trained. Although, if needed, will be possible to have more formation depending on the volunteers needs.
The team will meet with the volunteer two times each month to evaluate the tasks and to check if the objectives are fulfilled.
The schedule of the volunteer will be 35 hours a week, 5 days a week with 2 days off. The volunteer will participate 6 hours each day in total of 30 hours a week. 3 to 5 hours will be used for personal support with the mentor and Language Course given by a school or by a private teacher.
The schedule will be set between the volunteer and the mentor, considering their interests and the kind of activities developed. The volunteers might have to be available during the weekend and in that case will have free days during the week.
The volunteer will have 2 days of holidays per month for the duration of the project, to be taken in agreement between the volunteer and the team of Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi.


In order to receive applications of candidates to this project, ProAtlântico - Associação Juvenil will promote a transparent recruitment process by taking different actions:
- sending information about the project to European networks, to National Agencies by e-mail
- creating a website that can give information about the project and all the selection process.
The coordinating organisation will create a selection group that will make a pre-selection of the candidates, firstly based on practical issues (selecting only the candidates that had the CV, motivation letter, and sending organisation details). After reading the CV and Motivation letters, the selection group makes a choice, considering the interest of the volunteers to work in environment field and with social disadvantaged young people, their commitment to volunteering service and the reason presented to have chosen this project.
During this process all the information about the candidates, the selection process and the results will be available in the Internet site. The volunteers will be chosen taking in consideration that can bring something of their own experiences and culture, to enrich the hosting projects and local community.
The project is totally based in free activities to the participants. Therefore, the presence of EVS volunteers can't be at any moment seen as job substitution.
The profile of the volunteer will have general requirements: self-motivated, dynamic, versatile, good mood, flexible, with self initiative, creative, with handwork skills, artistic nature, willing to take on new challenges, openned to work with people of all backgrounds and cultures; enthusiastic to participate in the project; mature to work and to relate to a group of social disadvantaged children and young people; willing to develop new activities and with sense of responsibility.
We will look for volunteers who are interested in working with a commitment to volunteering, with interest in environment field, and had chosen our project because of the experience and development they will gain not only because it's in Portugal.


The volunteer will work with the team of Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi and so it's already provided protection and safety.
Every EVS Volunteer will have a Mentor that will be directly responsible for his/her personal support and to whom he/she can turn in case of problems. The integration of the volunteers in the hosting organisation is responsibility of the mentor. The mentor will have meetings with the volunteers, depending on the duration of the activity and the kind of activities developed, in order to give personal support to the volunteer and identify the obstacles and difficulties that the volunteer may face.
The volunteer will do his/her activity with autonomy and supervision of the organisation's board and mentor, as well as the Central Services. The mentor will be available to mediate conflicts and help the volunteer in his/her needs. To prevent risks, the EVS volunteers will be accompanied by a member of the team whenever possible, who will also help the volunteer to intercede in case of conflicts.
Every EVS volunteer will have special training about: the organisation working methods; relationship and attitude among children/youngsters; prevention of risk behaviours. The volunteers will also inform the team about situations that put the children/youngsters in danger.
In order to guarantee safety and protection of EVS volunteers, they will know the general procedures in case of a dangerous situation. The volunteers will also be informed about the main telephone numbers and localisation of useful services like, national emergency number, fire department, police office, hospitals, and pharmacies. They will also be aware about the contact people inside the organisation like mentor, children/youngsters monitors, etc.
The volunteers will also be covered by health and accidents insurances, in order to guarantee their safety and protection.
In order to prepare the hosting of EVS volunteers will be created a Welcome Guide, which will provide information about the lodging, cleaning of the flat, consumption of supplies (water, electricity and gas), transports available, money issues (food, transport and pocket money), training and formation, extra information: map between ProAtlântico's office, Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi and the flat, services available nearby (restaurants, pharmacies, shops, etc.)
The young people aged 16 or 17 will be protected and be under supervision of Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi team. A mentor will be identified by the hosting organisation to assure their full protection, safety and will prevent crises and risks, by taking several meetings during the EVS activity. The volunteers will be informed about rules and procedures of Casa Pia de Lisboa - CED Francisco Margiochi and also the law in Portugal for young people under 18.
The volunteer will have the support of the Central Services that are responsible for implementing EVS in the institutions of Casa Pia de Lisboa.