The primary school "Fröbelschule" in Cumbach started its work in 2002 in the outskirts of Rudolstadt. The school is situated in an old brick building, which was fundamentally refurbished and modernized by our association in 2002. It is now adjusted to the learning approaches and objectives of the famous pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel (Construction-Room, Presentation-Room, Relaxation-Room).
80 pupils learn in four forms. They are taught, attended and individually promoted by 5 teachers and 4 educators. Young trainees of social studies, volunteers and collaborators of other associations support these activities.
The school is situated in a very quite district and cultivates contacts with the senior residences and kindergartens in the surroundings. To the school belong a play ground, a school-garden and there is a forest very close to the school. In order to give the children the possibility of enjoying a great variety, the nature and stimulating body and senses while being outside, all these advantages are used every day. At the same time this corresponds to the ideas of Friedrich Fröbel to perceive the world as a whole. The pupils are used to be together with elderly people, to learn according to the methods of Friedrich Fröbel (they even have additional Fröbel-lessons in their curriculum), to learn also in other places outside school. That´ s why they are able really to understand the circle of life (nature, seasons, human beings influencing on nature), the world as a whole and to perceive themselves as a part of the whole.
One of our favourite principles of Friedrich Fröbel is: Educating means being an example and giving love". This sentence reflects the work of our school.
The daily support of both more and less talented pupils forms an important part of the work of our teachers and educators.
Our all-day-school is complemented in the afternoons by creative offers, where the pupils are especially individually supported. The pupils can choose between sports, arts, mathematics, music and language offers. Very popular is the English course.
Our association, the JugendSozialwerk Nordhausen e.V. has been already sending and hosting European volunteers for many years. There are also lots of national volunteers in the different institutions of the association. The very good experiences with these young volunteers woke up the wish also to host European volunteers in our school in Rudolstadt. The teachers and educators and - of course most of all - the children hope to get new suggestions and ideas.

Cumbach is a district of Rudolstadt.
The former princely residence of Rudolstadt is in the 'green heart of Germany' in the free state of Thuringia. It has about 27,000 inhabitants.
The town is in a valley surrounded by woods and located along a bend in the river Saale. The town is 1300 years old. Rudolstadt is an important starting point for tourists due to its natural and beautiful location on the River Saale, its proximity to the Thuringia forest and the Ostthüringia heath. The beauty of the countryside and the cultural-historical inheritance of the town give the visitor many possibilities to get to know both the country and the people. The most famous place of interest is the castle "Heidecksburg" which rises majestically above the town.
The town and its surroundings also offer different possibilities for recreation e.g. the adventure swimming pool, cinema, museum. There are many opportunities for sport offered by the sports clubs in Rudolstadt. In the drama theatre, music school and art school the town also offers interesting recreational possibilities.
The most important cultural event is the biggest dance and folk-festival of Europe which is held the first weekend of july and attracts around 60.000 people every year.

The federal state capital (Erfurt) is 50 km away and can be reached in 50 mins by train. The university town of Jena is easy to reach by bus or train (30 mins by train) from Rudolstadt and is well worth a visit.

We would like to offer interested people from the whole of Europe, the chance to be part of our work. The diverse volunteer work in our establishments constantly offers possibilities and opportunities for further training and to learn new things, e.g. in the social, cultural and specialist areas. As an organisation we would also like to profit from the co-operation with the volunteers. Our clients even more should enjoy the advantages. The work should be based on mutual giving and taking

Working and learning opportunities:
The young volunteers will be integrated in all daily activities regarding to their interests and their potentialities. All of our staff members are open minded, so it will be easy for the volunteers to feel comfortable in the team. At the beginning the volunteers will work close together with the staff members to get to know the different areas of the school. Later, the volunteers will work more and more independently. During the work with the children the volunteers will get an interesting insight into the social and cultural life of our children. Furthermore the volunteers will learn how to deal with the different problems of our children, e.g. their difficult social background or their personal deficits. Therefore the volunteers need to display sensitivity, patience, insistence and consistency.
During the work with our children, the volunteers will enable their personal strength, their musical sense, creativity, phantasy and their rhetorical, acting and athletic skills. Furthermore we believe, that the cooperative and collaborative teamwork with the teachers, therapists, children, parents, doctors and the other national volunteers will help the European volunteers to develop their own skills and also their linguistical abilities..
The volunteers have to work 35h a week including the language course.

Fields of activity:
Regarding to our special daily routine and our concept we will offer a great variety of activities to our volunteers. They can take part in all daily activities, regarding to their interests. Furthermore they can also realize their own ideas e.g. to create new activities for the children. The volunteers will be integrated in the preparation of the different highlights of the school year or accompany the pupils during their excursions and observations of the nature.
We wish to host a volunteer who is interested to learn the different techniques of Friedrich Froebel.

The volunteers can help the children working on the computer or support our staff members by composing information for the parents or working on public relations.
We will encourage the volunteers to create an English-workshop for the children.

A possible time-table:
08.00 - 09.30 o'clock : supporting pupils during the lessons
09.30 - 10.00 o'clock : looking after the pupils during the breakfast break
10.00 - 11.30 o'clock : realisation of the own project
(e.g. German - English workshop)
11.30 - 12.15 o'clock : looking after the pupils during the lunch break
--> games
12.15 - 14.00 o'clock : free time for the volunteer
14.00 - 15.30 o'clock : realization of the own project
(e.g. about the country of the volunteer, or a creative workshop)
15.30 - 16.00 o'clock : looking after the children during their free time or supporting them by their homework

The volunteers we are interested in should love children. They shall be friendly, patiently and sympathetic.
We expect open minded, creative and high motivated young people. They should be able to correspond to the variety of our children.
Very important are reliability, concsiousness of responsibility and the ability to work in a team. The volunteer has to be interested in learning or improving German.
We especially invite young men to our project.
We are open to work with any sending organisation.

The working conditions in our project are related to the needs of our children. We will make sure that our volunteers will never be alone with a whole class. During the own workshops of the volunteers a teacher will support them or the class will be split.
The volunteers will live in a flat-sharing community with other European volunteers. Everyone will have his/her own room but they will share bathroom and kitchen. In the flat exist all necessary furniture and electrical equipments. We will provide bed clothes and towels. The volunteers have to clean the flat by themselves.

We don't plan to host underage volunteers.

We already gained a lot of experiences in sending and hosting volunteers and beside this we continuously read all publications from our National Agency. So we are aware of a lot of problems that might occur and we are well prepared to solve them. 

1. Home Sickness
We always involve our current volunteers in the pre-departure arrangements for the new volunteers, e.g. we give them the e-mail addresses of the new volunteers, so that they can get in contact with them before their arrival. We believe that this pre-departure contact helps our new volunteers to feel more comfortable with the unknown situation and also prevents fears and prejudices.
We have special rituals on the arrival day of a new volunteer, e.g. the tutor from the hosting project and one or two "old" volunteers pick him/her up from the train station, meanwhile the other volunteers prepare a dinner-party at home. Furthermore the other volunteers have decorated the room of the new volunteer with "WELCOME"- posters and other small things.
During the first week the "old" volunteers ´guide` the new ones. They go together to all necessary authorities, make a trip through the city and so on.
We use every contact with the flat-sharing community to ask about our new volunteers to intervene if necessary.

2. Loneliness
We think that the contact with local young people is as important as the contact with the other volunteers. Rudolstadt is a small city and it is not easy to get in contact with other young people. But close to Rudolstadt is Jena. Jena is a city full of students and the volunteers can go to Jena very easy by train (they will also have their language training in Jena once a week). Furthermore some of our staff members of the hosting project live in Jena and at the beginning of their voluntary service, they will invite and accompany the new volunteers to activities and cultural events.
We support our volunteers by buying them a special card for trains, which offers a discount on the tickets. This helps them to stay in personal contact with their new friends, even with them from the seminars organised by the National Agency.

3. Language Training
All our volunteers take part in a language training (German as a foreign language) in Jena. There are different courses regarding to the level of knowledge of the volunteers, so everyone can take part in the course which fits him/her best. The language trainings are offered during the whole voluntary service.

4. Underchallenged / Overworked
The target group of the hosting project is very grateful: curious, open minded children. If the volunteers love children, they will enjoy the work in this project and they should not feel overworked.
During the first three month of the voluntary service the volunteers will get an insight into the daily routine of the school and they will learn the teaching methods of Friedrich Froebel.
After this first three-month period, the volunteers should be able to offer small workshops regarding to their own interests and skills to the children. Therefore we talk to them about their ideas and wishes but also about their fears and expectations. Furthermore we assist our volunteers with developing a schedule and realising the workshop. Regularly the tutor of the hosting project carries out meetings with the volunteers to avoid an underchallenging.

5. Mismatching
Every young person knows the structure of a primary school from his/her own experience, so the expectations of the volunteers can't be that wrong. We know that it will take some time to learn and work after the methods of Friedrich Froebel and that this could be a risk. But we will advise some books and brochures to the volunteers before they will start their voluntary service.
After the first volunteers have finished their voluntary year, we will ask them to write a report about their experiences. Later we will send this reports to our prospective volunteers, so that they can get an insight into the daily routine of the school and their future tasks.

6. Mentoring
We have a tutor in every hosting project (trained by our German National Agency).
The advantage of the school is, that there is only a small team of staff members, so the tutor will be able to have daily contacts with the volunteers. Furthermore we ensure a close connection to our hosting project and the tutor in Rudolstadt (Cumbach is a district of Rudolstadt). Beside this tutor, there is a young polish woman (a former European volunteer of us) who is responsible for intercultural learning seminars. She will be in close contact with all volunteers and she will also integrate them in the realisation of her international activities and seminars.
The staff members working in the administration of the JugendSozialwerk Nordhausen e.V. will use every opportunity to get in personal contact with the volunteers. Furthermore they are responsible for keeping the contact with the sending organisation, controlling the compliance made in the project description and in the Activity Agreement and organising joint activities between the volunteers from the different hosting projects of the JugendSozialwerk Nordhausen e.V.

We know that volunteers often keep their problems for themselves, e.g. to solve them alone or not to bother their tutor. In this special situation it can be difficult to find a constructive solution, because very often the volunteers have already made their decision to leave the project. To avoid this we carry out regular meetings between the volunteer, the contact person from the administration, the leader of the hosting project and the tutor of the volunteer.
The first meeting takes place before the arrival of the volunteer (certainly without the volunteer), here we discuss the "arrival ceremony" and the settling-in period.

Later the meetings will be quarterly to reflect the past three month and to discuss e.g. the own workshops of the volunteers. Approximately six weeks before the end of the voluntary service we carry out a meeting to evaluate the project, to prepare the reports for the National Agency, to prepare the YouthPass or to discuss about possible prospective projects of the volunteer.

In spite of all our precautions we know that it could happen that one of our volunteers would like to leave the project. We always convey them that this is uncomplicated and has no personal consequences for them. But we attach great importance to exhaust all possibilities to redress the causes for the wish to leave (discussing the problem with the volunteer, the hosting project, the sending project or with all together).
If the volunteer still wants to leave the project we carry out an evaluation to reflect together with the volunteer which useful skills and experiences he/she gained during the voluntary service (despite the fact of leaving).