Motivation and EVS Experience:

For many years now SPEKTRUM participates in the European Voluntary Service to offer young people all over Europe the opportunity to work in the field of social and pedagogical work.

Since 1998 several European Volunteers already had the chance to develop themselves and their social skills in our institutions. At the moment two volunteers from Latvia and Hungary are involved at the children and youth centre and the playbus in Lehen and at the communication centre “Komm” in Maxglan. The Motivation was and is to encourage the international and cultural exchange (in terms of ideas, thoughts and opinions with somebody coming from a different country, from a different culture and a different educational background), to create new ideas for activities and to give the target group the possibility of experience (Children are very interested in cultural traditions of other countries: what is Christmas like in..., birthday presents, songs, holidays, school.)

As we, the volunteers and the sending organisations benefit from the experiences, we want to continue the cooperation in the future.

Description of the Organisation:

The youth and children association SPEKTRUM was founded in 1978 in the city quarter of Lehen which is considered as a social disadvantaged city district of Salzburg. Spektrum is known as an innovative association which lobbies for children and youth, especially for youth at risk. Today SPEKTRUM is the head organisation of the following socio-cultural and psycho-social initiatives in the city districts Lehen, Taxham and Maxglan:

1. children and youth centre Lehen;

2. adventure playground and children and youth centre Taxham;

3. communication centre Berger-Sandhofer Maxglan;

4. playbus & community based projects (mobile animation);

5. social pedagogic family centre;

All the cultural and leisure-time based youth work of SPEKTRUM is inspired by real life conditions and by the needs of the children, teenagers and adults. They find in the above mentioned initiatives all the basic conditions for

• the planning and implementation of social activities

• discussion concerning their surrounding

• getting involved in playful, sportive, political, creative, social, advantageous and cultural activities

The following basic statements accompany our daily work:

• reduction of social, cultural and gender-specific disadvantages

• professional work with clear defined and comprehensible concepts

• social-cultural animation activities and support are primarily designed for groups and community based and secondly for individual children or teenagers

• improvement of living conditions for inhabitants coming from infrastructural underdeveloped city quarters

• cross-linking of the mobilised activities (playbus, projects) and stationary institutions (children and youth centres) within the association and co-operation with other youth and children organisations, schools or players in the community

• Participative planning and realisation of the social, communal-political, creative, companionable, adventure and play-pedagogical, cultural activities and projects

Project environment

(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.)

Within SPEKTRUM:

Currently there are working 60 staff members at SPEKTRUM, most of them part-time, about half of them are social workers, others have finished their studies as psychologists, pedagogues or teachers. They are divided into teams with four to eight people, each team has a supervisor. We always try to keep the teams coeducational, which means that we have an eye on the ratio between men and women. As we do lots of different projects all over the year, especially in summer time our staff is supported by casual workers (about 30), most of them students, some of them trainees or volunteers. All our staffs are encouraged to regularly take part in further trainings. The teams and supervisors support each other and guarantee high professional work.

Geographical and Social Environment:

Salzburg is the fourth biggest city in Austria (150.000 inhabitants) and situated 300 km west of Vienna right at the border to Germany. Apart from Vienna Salzburg is THE city in Austria to attract tourism. The beautiful old part of the city is overlooked by an impressive fortress on a hill. The region around Salzburg is very scenic with lakes and mountains allowing a lot of leisure-time activities. The city is renowned for its musical festivals (summer and Easter). There is also a university at which 20.000 students are enrolled. You can find out more about Salzburg under: http://www.salzburginfo.at/

That’s the one side of Salzburg, but there is another side as well. Beside the beautifulness and superficial, tourism based areas, Salzburg domiciled inhabitants with social needs in underdeveloped city districts and many immigrants. SPEKTRUM is located in these areas:

• The youth and children centre Lehen is located in the disadvantaged area of Lehen which exists out of many blocks of flats, where social disadvantaged families live.

• The communication centre KOMM is the heart in an urban settlement, its aim is community work to coordinate the living together of many cultures and disadvantaged groups. KOMM is located on the outskirts but easy to reach by bus.

• The adventure playground, children and youth centre Taxham, which is similar to Lehen but it’s the ´so to say “youngest” city district of Salzburg with lots of blocks of flats, shopping centres and a very dense population.

In all these districts there are living a lot of children and youth, most of them at risk in their educational and social development.

Host Placement:

The EVS volunteers who are involved to the various local host organisations in Salzburg are accommodated in a local student’s residence in the city of Salzburg. The student’s residence has small simple single rooms, fully equipped, shared bathroom and kitchen. EVS volunteers will obtain a box with cooking utensils and bed sheets from AKZENTE at their arrival.

In terms of organisational surrounding (accommodation, housing, bus, spare time, community, money…) AKZENTE is responsible. SPEKTRUM looks after the field placements issues (rota, supervision, work contents).

Proposed activities for EVS volunteers 

Service and learning opportunities for EVS volunteers:
- To get to know “open” establishments for children and youth, the adventure playground and the mobile animation-system in Salzburg.

- To learn new methods of animation (even for bigger groups).

- To get to know different ways of co-participation in children and youth work.

- To get an insight in the work of SPEKTRUM and its outlets and establishments.

- To experience social and community work

- To learn new handicraft and arts skills.

- To have the possibility of studying literature in our well equipped library concerning leisure time issues and social-pedagogic topics

- To learn ways of publishing and documentation possibilities for projects and events and how to treat/handle leisure-time and pedagogical related materials

In general within SPEKTRUM the volunteer helps with the organisation and development of different events/activities in the field of children and youth. They support the staff to develop and achieve different community, social and free-time pedagogical projects, play-bus activities, festivals and city-quarter projects. Beside the organisation and leading through several activities also the reflection and the research on further trends are important.

Special Activities

1) Mobile animation (play bus, play bike, I-bus and several projects) & children and youth centre at Lehen:

Mobile animation:
The volunteer will accompany the teams for the mobile animation. With the play bus/play bike children and teenagers are reached through a mobilised basis. The bus contains many games and activity facilities for the target group. The play bus has a weekly schedule, circling between Lehen, Taxham, Liefering and Maxglan. The mobilised community work offers also many weekend activities: e.g. festivities, projects (bungee-jumping, making a video, children newspaper, play-festival at a public swimming pool and many more, often seasonal based). Surrounding and target group influence the type of activities. Assistance is needed in the planning, preparing and implementation of all the activities.

This also includes

a) Administrative work:

Discussions and preparation; making and distribution of posters and leaflets to inform kids of the play bus schedule;
b) Manual work:

Transport and set up of game facilities. It is important to motivate and animate the target group and to create a certain setting, where activities are possible. It is asked to be a friend, a playing partner or the big brother/sister to the teenagers and children.

In the children and youth centre of Lehen tasks could be:

• help with the youth disco or café at the youth centre

• look after the children in the play-corner, organise movie-events for them, doing handicrafts with them

• organise festivities/small projects for teenagers

• offer different workshops to cultural, sportive or art topics

• play with the smaller children in the play corner

• participate in sport, recreational activities: e.g. gymnastics in the nearby gym

2) Children and youth centre Maxglan “KOMM”

Volunteers in the communication and youth centre KOMM will be integrated in the pedagogic team of the house (4 people) and they are involved in the whole programme, all actions, planning, events and decisions.

The main tasks are:

Animating the children and young people as well as helping with the planning and administrative tasks of different projects. At the children and youth centre the volunteer will be involved in leisure time activities, social and cultural work (games, arts, crafts...) with social disadvantaged youth. Workshops like pottery workshops, painting or cooking workshops are carried out as well.

The Volunteer will also participate in the weekly team meetings.

The working schedule is more or less the same as the opening hours of the centre plus some extraordinary projects. (From Tuesday to Saturday from max. 14:00 – 21:00 pm, Sunday, Monday off, total hours about 30 hours/2 Saturdays a month off)

The volunteer prepares the different activity corners, opens the door, lets the children in, welcomes them and plays or talks with them. The volunteer can be for example with the children in the building play corner and construct something with them or shows them some new games. Or the volunteer accompanies the young visitors to the playground and does different outdoor games or sports activities with them. The volunteer goes along with two experienced youth workers with the “play bike” to a housing estate of the city quarter or a playground and offers activities. Or the volunteer will help the children with artistic things: making sculptures out of wood, cement, use potter’s clay, help them with painting and drawing, doing handicrafts.

Concerning youth programmes the volunteer can help the young people with the internet, talk with them, play billiard, dart or ping pong and/or bring in her/his own ideas for realising activities. Or the volunteer could offer gender specific activities and work with the “girl’s group” or “boys club” in a special room with special activities of interest. On Fridays and Saturdays there is always the youth discothèque where the young people act as DJ´s, run the Bar, listen to music and have fun. The volunteer can help with bar, chat with the teenagers, bring in some intercultural things from his/her country (music, dances...)
Beside the daily routine within the centres the staff and the volunteer will arrange an excursion with the children and teenagers and go for example climbing or to a public bath or cinema. The volunteer assists the team in ensuring against risks and help the smaller ones.

A Variation of things to do waits for the Volunteers, a lot of the above mentioned tasks allow them to act in terms of their strengths, interests and wishes. That means the Volunteer can overtake an important part in the team and be responsible for many things.
If the volunteer is interested to get an overview on other activities within SPEKTRUM that is possible and welcomed.