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.
The association is situated in Milan, a big city (about 1,4 million inhabitants) in the north of the country. It lies in the centre of of a plain (Pianura Padana) and it's easy to reach because it's well-connected with railways, motorways and airports. Milan is the most important city of Lombardia, one of the four engines of Europe. In fact is an economic well-developed city and represents the financial heart of Italy. The average economic level of population is high, even if the suburbs are worse because of unemployment, crime, immigration, etc. On the historical part is full of churches, monuments and museums in the historical centre, which has been place of study and work for Leonardo Da Vinci and other Italian artists.
The organisation run an office in Turin as well, a city smaller than Milan (about 900.000 inhabitants) in the north-west of the country, one hour by car from the French border. Post-industrial, easy-to-reach and well connected with the railway system, Turin is a rich and well developed city surrounded by hills and lies along river Po, the biggest Italian river. In the city are living strong communities of Romanians and North-African people. The social composition of the city reflects the history of the main FIAT car factory. This characterised the city as an area of migration during the period after the second world war during the rise and boom period of the FIAT factory. However, with the decline of FIAT began a period of economic and social decline for the whole city, with many abandoned factories.
The main venue of the association consists in one office placed in a popular area of the city, served by the underground metro service, and for this reason easy to reach; daily (Mon-Fri) from 2 to 5 people work there with flexible timetables, that go from 9 am to 7 pm.
Accommodation: EVS volunteer will share an apartment with one of the members of Joint Association or with other volunteers, having enough space to live his/her own privacy.
Food: EVS volunteer will receive a monthly amount of money for food expenses; he/she will be self-governing the budget and will find every tool they need to cook in the kitchen.
Transportation: according to the distance from the apartment to the association's office, EVS volunteer will receive a pass for urban transportation, or in case of need an alternative transport mean such as a bicycle.
Working timetables and venues: activities run by EVS volunteer will require a planning stage to be realized in the office, and the realization of the planned activities in the realities where the association works, such as high schools, universities, InformingYouth Centre, Centres for youth aggregation, communities, etc. During the realization of international with exchanges in Italy, EVS volunteer will follow the rest of the team of volunteers and staff to the venue of the meeting, deciding with his/her project responsible when and how to take back possible free days lost. The volunteer will not work more than 30-35 hours a week and working days are normally from Monday to Friday; sometimes it could be needed from the volunteer to work during week-ends, but in that case he/she will take 2 free days before or after.
During the firs 2 months, the volunteer will receive a general tuition on the following themes:
- interpersonal communication and relationship;
- team work;
- conflict management;
- solution of problems;
- project management;
- Youth in Action programme and EVS.
During this learning path, the EVS volunteer will be followed by specific referent, according to the topics approached. In the first 2 months after the arrival, volunteer will undertake a full-immersion Italian course through in-class lessons, by a NGO partner that is dealing especially with teaching Italian to foreigners and also through a dedicated time to practice their spoken language skills with other members of the association. This will favor their understanding of local habits and improve their capability of adaptation to daily life in a foreigner context.
The methodologies common to both general and linguistic tuition consist of:
dynamic lessons: interactive meetings, training, role games and games to develop co-operation through simulation, evaluation and knowledge skills,
in-class lessons, readings, video broadcasting, information papers.
Our method of teaching focuses on active participation through behavioural simulation techniques.
The first month will be dedicated also to "technical" training of the volunteer. During this phase he/she will be spending 10-15 hours a week in frontal lessons, that a part from linguistic skills will also cover the themes of communication, working in a team, leadership, etc.; the volunteer will also have the first theoretical contact with the association's activities, and will learn how to use some Office applications.
The volunteer can realize his own projects, according to the organization's aims, or turn into account his personal backgrounds by changing his work methodology or modifying the tasks.
The main learning for the volunteer concerns the transversal skills that can be useful for his life, coming back, beside the competences and the capabilities acquired in the non-profit field intended to youth. The volunteer:
- will learn Italian language,
- will learn how to work with office and web applications,
- will improve his/her communication and project management skills,
- will learn how to lead a meeting, a workgroup with an objective to be achieved, and how to plan, budget and carry out a project in the youth field,
- will learn how to communicate with pupils and students, how to avoid and try to solve conflicts, how to promote an idea, how to raise funds and people,
- will have the opportunity to reflect on how to deal with people with a different culture, a different lifestyle, different customs and habits.
The project also aims at
- offering to EVS volunteer the opportunity to realize his/her own ideas into projects in autonomy, according to the goals of the organisation,
- implementing his/her experience, changing working methods or modifying his/her tasks.

" what will be the role of EVS volunteers in the Host Organisation,
The EVS volunteer will integrate with other volunteers and members/staff of Joint Association. Their role is to be an active part of the team, that will take part in all the board-member meetings, that take place every 4 weeks an will take part also in the decision-making process.
In the first two months, the volunteer will stand beside the local staff members, to get aquatinted with the environment, situation and people they will have to face during their project activities. Meanwhile, will undertake the linguistic training. Once he/she will be able to partially manage by him/herself the activities implemented by Joint, the volunteer will be encouraged and supported in the ideation of projects of his/her own which reflect his/her personal desire in improving the surrounding reality.
For the whole length of the project, EVS volunteer will take part in weekly meeting with the responsible of the project; volunteer will update about the activities done during the week, about the program of the next week, and about the proceeding of the training paths, and of the linguistic learning process.
" the activities in which the volunteers could be involved and the activities the volunteers could create in your organisation. Please give examples of typical activities for the volunteers.
It's essential to underline that EVS volunteer will not obligatory take part in ALL the proposed activities; according to his/her personal attitude and bents and to the association needs, EVS volunteer will be able to choose and dedicate more time to and energies on certain activities

None of the activities here described will take more of the 20% of EVS volunteer's working hours, in order to give him/her the opportunity to gain competences and experience in all the fields in which Joint association operates. In no case EVS volunteer will dedicate more than the 5% of his/her working hours to the activity n.3 here described (EVS promotion).
After the first welcoming period, EVS volunteer will slowly integrate with the rest of the volunteers, being followed and guided into these activities:

1) MANAGEMENT OF THE RELATIONS WITH THE ASSOCIATION MEMBERS
- Support to the planning, realization and evaluation of the 2 trainings that Joint realizes every year addressed to new members of the association and to all the youngsters that took part in youth exchanges or EVS through Joint; these trainings are made of standard modules on communication, project management, non-formal education and Youth in Action Programme;
- Support to the planning, realization and evaluation of widening trainings that Joint realizes for its more experienced members that need more and more specific trainings; the topics of these trainings include the role of the leader in youth exchanges, conflict management, project management, problem solving and team working;
- Support to the planning, realization and evaluation of events addressed to all members and friends of the organisation, such as Happy Hours, parties, team-building and member involvement informal activities, dinners, fund raising activities;
- Communication management dealing with the already mentioned activities through electronic newsletters , phone calls or SMS to the members;
- Implementation of activities promoting EVS volunteer's own culture. These activities, such as dinners, language courses and music, historic and tradition presentations, shall be organised and managed by EVS volunteer with the support of Joint.
- Realisation of awareness activities on socially relevant issues such as cinema clubs, discussion forums on specific themes as human rights, wars, equal opportunities, European citizenship.
2) WEBSITE AND CONTACT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM UPDATE
- Updates, new events, pictures, videos and other materials posting on the website;
- Update of the databases of the organisation volunteers, Youth Exchanges participants and EVS candidates.
3) EUROPEAN VOLUNTARY SERVICE (no more than 5% of working hours)
- support to the planning, realization and evaluation of events or conferences aiming at promote EVS in universities, high schools, InformingYouth Centres of the Municipality of Milan, etc.
- realization of general EVS promotion activities (production of materials such as leaflets, multimedia material to be showed online on the association website, or to be spread through local partners as other associations, communities, or through media such as local televisions, radio, local newspapers and free-press);
- support to the planning, realization and evaluation of trainings for young EVS volunteers leaving or arriving to Italy (also Short Term);
- seeking partner organisations able to co-fund or sponsor future EVS hosting projects;
- organisation, realisation and evaluation of activities for the diffusion of results, promotion and visibility of his/her own EVS experience by Joint associationM
- cooperating with EVS volunteers hosted by the organisation "Casa per la Pace di Milano" with a special concern on EVS promotion realised by describing his or her own experience.
4) YOUTH EXCHANGES
- ABROAD, giving support to the Youth Exchanges manager in the following activities:
" international partnership development, also through EVS volunteer's personal contacts
" contacts with partners
" search of participants
" Youth Exchanges promotion
" the production of materials such as leaflets, multimedia material to be showed online on the association website, or to be spread through local partners as other associations, communities, or through media such as local televisions, radio, local newspapers and free-press
" cooperation with the Youth Exchange Leader in preparing the participants and in realising informal follow up meetings
- IN ITALY, giving support to the Project Manager in the following activities:
" projecting
" relations on the territory
" grant requests
" contacts with international partners
" local community involvement
" realisation of photographical material and videos
" follow up activities

5) INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY PROJECTS OUT OF THE YOUTH IN ACTION PROGRAMME
EVS volunteer will take part in the organisation, promotion, look for participants of the following projects:
- Language courses abroad with accommodation in local families;
- Itinerant travels, that will be realised using the network of partners that Joint collaborated with in the past, and that gather both Italian and foreigner ex-participants of international youth exchanges;
- International summer camps both in Italy and abroad, focused on non-formal learning experiences;
- Conscientious Tourism travels where the encounter of local community is the centre of the experience; there travels are organised with partners Joint collaborated with in the past through Youth in Action programme, and with whom now is experimenting a new and different kind of collaboration.
EVS volunteers could eventually have the chance to take part in these international mobility projects as a second companion.

6) WORKSHOPS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNGSTERS
EVS volunteer will give support in the planning, realisation and evaluation of learning paths differentiated according to the target group age (6-18 years old) to be realised in collaboration with School Institutions but using non-formal learning methodologies, on the following topics:
- European citizenship;
- Non-formal education;
- Environmental education;
- Participation and active citizenship;
- Inter-culture and meeting the Other.

7) ACTIVITIES FOR ORDINARY MANAGEMENT OF THE OFFICE
- Cataloguing and management of training and didactic materials;
- Cleaning and ordinary maintenance of the office;
- Keeping the archives;
- Control, sorting and sending of mail.

8) PUBLIC RELATIONS ACTIVITIES
- support in the contact with journalists and other associations.

We would like to host a volunteer that has a great motivation in working in the youth field, and that likes our organization's aims and goals. The volunteer needs to have willing of integration in our organization, willing to work with young people, even with those coming from a disadvantaged background. He/she should be able to work in team, to accept the special needs of disadvantaged people as well as help them developing their own ideas and experiences, has sufficient amount of patience, flexibility and tolerance.
EVS volunteer will work in close contact with members and the president of the association, and his/her tasks will require the same characteristics that define the role of volunteers in Joint association (independence, flexibility, relational skills).
Since there is no special requirement, every young person from 18 years old to 30, interested in taking part in our EVS project can contact us by e-mail, send his/her CV and motivation letter, and ask any information regarding the association or its activities. Once all the candidatures will be collected, an EVS working group meetings will take place in order to elaborate a classification list. After a phone interview with the volunteers and their sending organisations, we will write a list, considering their motivation and desire to learn, in order to decide who will take part to this project.
The following elements will be taken into consideration during the selection phase:
- inters for the topics of the project,
- desire and ability to work in team,
- mediation abilities and attitude for intercultural relations,
- responsibility and ability to manage in autonomy,
- desire to learn.
We accept both application from volunteers and from sending organizations, and the project was meant to try to avoid to address specifically to a boy or a girl, , because as already mentioned above, EVS volunteers do not have to take part in EVERY activity described
In order to better ensure EVS volunteer's safety, in the first phase of the project we will make an evaluation of the risks together with him/her, so that we'll involve him/her in the analysis of the critic aspects, in the evaluation of risks and in the research for reliable solutions. We believe that this procedure allows to show possible risks and to rise the volunteer's awareness regarding his/her own responsibilities in preventing and avoiding risks.

We believe that one of the stronger prevention measures consists in integrating completely EVS volunteer in the rest of the team, so that he/she feels comfortable in every location where will work, live and spend free time. We believe that a good network of social relations is essential to guarantee volunteers welfare and to assure them more safety. In order to reach this goal, the team of members, the Mentor and Joint's members will be very present from the arrival day to the very end of EVS volunteers' project, available for explanations and to show anything that volunteers may need to live in a safe, comfortable and stimulating environment.

Joint will work hard, with particular attention to the arrival period, in order to give EVS volunteer the chance to orient him/herself:
in the area of Milano, through a city tour focused to give them useful informations, such as where it's possible to deposit money, where to find libraries for texts, audio or video in Italian or in other languages, how to read bus timetables and route; and through a folder already prepared, that includes a map of the city with the public transports system, marks on the place of their accommodation (apartment) and of Joint's office, as well as a list of useful numbers to call in case of emergency,
in the association and into his/her EVS project, giving him/her a list of every volunteer and member, including their telephone contacts in case of emergency, their e-mail addresses, their role in the association and a picture, to make it easier to volunteers to memorize their names.
Moreover, the Mentor will have the role of "who is responsible for providing personal support to the volunteers", discussing with them their learning outcomes, their activities and roles, and helping them within the writing of the Youthpass report". This Mentor will be available to meet EVS volunteer in case of need, at the arrival and with the frequency that they will decide together. Young members and friends of Joint association will have the important task of facilitating EVS volunteer's integration in the local community and in giving him/her all the logistic support that may need.


Both the accommodation for EVS volunteer and Joint office are safe and respect the safety standards foreseen in the law now applied; they are in areas of the city easy to reach with public transports; in case of emergency, Joint is ready to react fast in order to:
collect most informations on the emergency
meet (or communicate on the phone) to decide how to react
contact the sending organisation and the person defined by the volunteers as the contact person in case of emergency.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=42000563501