The projects that we plan to work on will be tightly connected with ecology, art, culture and youth policy. These are one of main activities of our organization as well, so the activities of volunteers will be connected with it. We plan to consign to the volunteers their place in the office, where they will be able to use internet connection, telephone and fax machine in purpose of preparation of their activities as well as communication with his family and friends. The office is in the centre of the city, but the most of the activities will be held in suburb (on municipality Palilula in Belgrade), so the volunteers will use public transport as one of their main ways of travelling. Their projects will include local community and local media in many different ways. We will try to support all of their individual projects. We also have good cooperation with local radio and TV station, which supported our activities many time until now, so this could also help to the volunteer in their individual projects if they decide to do it.
Volunteer will travel to the office around 30 minutes each day, to have three to four working hours in it and two to three working hours on field. We will also give a chance to volunteers to involve in other local projects which are implemented by other local bodies (e.g. ecological festival, organization of football tournament, festival "Days of Danube" ...). Volunteers will have opportunity to learn Serbian language through their lessons (three times per week) which will make their activities and communication with local community easier. This will also help to the volunteer in adaptation to the local community.
City of Belgrade is one of the most developed cities in west Balkans, very multicultural, very open minded, so the volunteers are not suppose to have problems with xenophobia, discrimination nor racism. They will have chance to meet Serbian culture and city where they will live in their free time and through their daily activities.
Belgrade is so called city of festivals. Every year there are film festivals like Fest and Cinemania, theatre festivals Bitef, Belef and Sterijino Pozorje, and lots of musical festivals Bemus, Beer fest, Guitar art festival, Wockstock, Summer time jazz festival and Ovo je moj grad. Beside all these festivals, Belgrade has huge Ada Ciganlija lake which is also called Belgrade sea. It is place where all people from Belgrade are spending their summer when they are not on holiday. It is equipped with football, tennis, volleyball, basketball, paintball and archering fields. It is possible to swim and to do jet skiing as well. Belgrade also has lots of parks and monuments valuable to visit. It capital of old Yugoslavia, so monuments of communism are visible on every step. There is Tito`s grave and old museum of his stuff which is called one of the best attractions in Balkans. Belgrade has lots of museums as well, and every year it is hosting ne of international manifestations Night of museum. People from region are keen to come to Belgrade because it is one of most live cities in Balkans. There are lots of bars, clubs, discotheques, coffee shops and since recently lots of bars that lies on water of Sava and Danube rivers. In year 2009 Belgrade is going to host University Olympic games, which is showing that Belgrade has lots of sport activities as well. There are sports on water (rowing, swimming, water polo, jet skiing...) but also lots possibilities for team sports (like basket and volley ball). This city also has two leading teams in football (Partisan and Red Star), so it is great opportunity for volunteers to watch football on public stadiums in Belgrade. Those are just some of the possibilities in Belgrade that our volunteers could take part in. The will have opportunity to find their sphere of interest. Because Belgrade is city of varieties everyone will have chance to find his own way in it.
In place where volunteer will live there are lots of local happenings, like local eco festival and football tournament which they will have possibility to visit and include themselves in. In springs there is festival of Fijaker coach and so called "Days of Danube" fest which is devoted to saving of Danube shores in our place.
Danube river is also very close to the place where volunteers will live so they will have possibility to spend their free time there. It is very popular place among youth in our municipality, so there are often different happenings near the Danube during the summer (barbecues, concerts, opened workshops...). This place is a bit out of the town but it is going to be great opportunity for all volunteers to meet real Belgrade suburb and to find out how does the life in it looks like.


As we mentioned, our organization is growing day by day. Every month, new projects are opening to us and our members. The future EVS volunteers will be able to learn a lot about development of one organization (together with us). They will have chance to work on implementation on short (youth exchange) or long (local environmental) term projects. They will be introduced with all the necessary things which are needed that one organization works (from office settlement, through finding funding, over preparation and implementation of projects to finances, administration and communication in team). The volunteers will also have open space to develop their own projects, for which they find interest, so they will first meet the local mentality, culture and psychology of people in Serbia. They will be involved in charity projects and projects which are connected with local and national festivals. That will provide them opportunity to learn about system of work in other organizations and public bodies. They will be able to work with local community which will help them to see new approaches to work and to find new ways of solving the problems. Because our organizations is tightly cooperating with local government which is also one of our main supporters, volunteers will have chance to learn about partnership relations with other bodies. How to communicate, why is it important to send reports on time, what are the aims of mutual cooperation and how can someone act in a case when problem appears. Because we are sharing one part of the office with local youth office, volunteers will also have a chance to participate in his/her free time in different workshops that are organized by this youth office (different language courses, communication through gestures, different animation and film workshops) so this can also be part of volunteer learning process. Our organization is currently working on promotion of Youth in Action program and EVS service in our municipality. Volunteers will have chance to learn lot more about it, to be involved in promotion and see how does organization of campaign works. Beside this, volunteers will be constantly involved in process of making new projects. From its writing (finding ideas, defining aims and objectives and constructing the concept) over its implementing to its evaluation. We plan to include all of our volunteer in this process as part of their personal development and as part of help to us.
In the other hand volunteers will live on their own (and some of them for the first time). They will learn how to live in different environment than the one on which they are used to. The will learn about new culture and customs in which they live, they will have chance to meet new people (colleagues and co workers) from whom they will have chance to hear new stories. They will work and live in Belgrade so their daily life will be fulfilled with new experiences and observations.

First of all we want to stress out that we plan to host Short term and Long term EVS volunteers. Considering that, we have ideas which are differently structured for both of these services.
Short term EVS
When we are speaking about short term EVS in OSMEH we think of hosting volunteers for 1 to two months. We plan to include them in activities which are connected with office work. We have enough space in office so several of us could share it. Short term EVS volunteer would have his/hers own office desk where he/she would do his work and by this we mean: stamping envelops, sending e mails, helping with administration and calculation, helping with membership cards for our volunteers and doing everything else that is connected with simple administration. Considering that we plan to host short term EVS (and youngsters with physical disabilities) their tasks will be different from person to person. If the person is in the weal chair they will mostly do the office work, have possibility to cooperate on projects that are connected with people with disabilities and do sport activities for which he/she is capable for. If we would host youngster with psychological disability we will involve him in some activities which are appropriate for him/her (origami workshops, computer lessons or lessons of non verbal communication) where we would find specific activity for him/her. In those cases we plan to include mentor which has previous experience with youth with disabilities. Those would be our volunteers-student of defectology or student of pedagogy. In case of short term EVS we plan to include as much as possible all our free time and devote to the specific person. One of our aims as organization is to include as much people as possible with fewer opportunities. That's why, we have established good connection with Student Union of Persons with Invalidity and several international organizations which are working with marginalized groups (like Verein multicultural from Austria which is working with migrants and Drustvo Mozaik from Slovenia which is working with Roma people).

We plan to apply for long term EVS a bit more than a short term. Considering this, we plan to structure every project very separately so ever volunteer will have his/her specific task. If we would need to put it in a table the schedule of our EVS volunteer would look like this
Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
10:00-13:00 Morning work in the office Course of Serbian language Morning work in the office Language courses* Morning work in the office
13:00-14:30 Lunch break Lunch break Lunch break Lunch break Lunch break
14:30-17:00 Work on field Organizing individual workshops Organizing individual workshops Course of Serbian language Work on a field

Morning work in the office:
This part is connected with direct help in the office. Administration, work on preparation of projects, work with memberships, work with our volunteers, making phone calls (for international conversations), and everything that is connected with office work. In this period volunteers will have opportunity to learn about project writing processes and to be included in daily work of one organization.
Work on field:
In this part we planned to bring volunteers in projects on which we work, like orphans home Zvecanska or some ecological activities. This part can be flexible, because volunteers will be involved in everything that we will do in a certain moment. If we will organize eco festival they will have opportunity to be involved or if we go to football tournament or anything else that is connecting our activities with fields work. In periods where field work is not necessary volunteers will have chance to develop their own workshops.
Organizing individual workshops:
This activity depends of a volunteer him/her self. Depending of the wanted activity and the profile of volunteer that we will host, they will have opportunity to develop their own activity by sphere of his/her own interest (which means that if they are good in sports they will have chance to organize sports activity outside or if they are good in belly dance, we will start new activity in our youth centre).
Language course:
Is marked with * because this part is tightly connected with the profile of the volunteer as well. Because we have several different workshops developed in our organization, volunteers that we will choose will be interestly connected with them. So until now we have developed workshops of different languages (not courses but workshops) like: English, Spanish, French, Greek and Portuguese which are very active, so volunteer will be included in some of them in case that he speaks some of these languages. In other case we also made workshop of non verbal communication and facial expression, camera and photograph and animated film workshop, so some of those activities will be opened for volunteer so he could help on them with his own personal skills. As mentioned, volunteers will also have opportunity to participate in other activities during his free time if he is interested for, but in the part where he will be present as facilitator he will consider it as his part of job.
We want to stress out that all of existing workshops that we have are mainly aiming to include children and youth from our municipality. Presents of an EVS volunteer is necessary in this part especially if he is native speaker of some language or he is very good in camera or animated film. They will also be able to develop their own activities which will help to the youth to have richer program.

We plan to place volunteers in small suburb of Belgrade called Borca. Depending of number of volunteers size of a flat may vary. In all cases (ST or LT EVS) every volunteer will have his/her own room which they will not share. Flats will have all necessary equipment like TV, fridge, washing machine, kitchen elements (plates, glasses, eating tool, pots and cups), telephone, internet (probably) and everything that is needed to be in one living space. We plan to rent a flat because of practicalities (like heating and sharing yard if they live in houses) which we see as one of the best solutions. This part of the city is very calm, flats are affordable, there is a lot of young people and lots of activities of our organization are happening there, so it more than convenient to place a volunteers there
Considering that this place is half an hour far from the office, volunteers will have provided monthly bus ticket which is usable in whole city. This part of Belgrade is very flat so volunteers will also have bicycles which are easier to be used in this area. They can use them on weekend when they want to go to the Danube, or go to the store...
Food will be provided from the side of organization. Depending of costs of flat and other necessarities for a volunteer, his food allowance will be changeable. We also plan to include other sources for co-financing the EVS project. We plan to include local municipality which is always helping us with all youth projects that we are implementing and we also plan to include other sources like city hall grants and grants of ministry of youth (which already gave us the green light in this idea)
In both cases (ST and LT EVS) we will provide to the volunteers mentor. This person will be "responsible' for volunteer during his whole project. In beginning mentor will help to the volunteer to find his way in the city (show him how to reach the office, show him where are the shops and bus stations, helping him/her with moving in and informing him/her abut all necessary data that they need to know). After volunteer finds his way in project, mentor will be devoted to help him with the work that he is doing. It is going to be person from organization that is already involved in all the projects that we are working on, so he/she can lead the volunteer through the activities. In case that volunteer has problem, mentor will be there to consultate and help as much as he/she can. Mentor will also be helpful in situations when volunteer has problem with language, if he/she has homesickness and everything that is connected with problems of volunteer.
This person will write monthly reports about volunteers growth, his failures, fears and hopes. He/she will be devoted to discuss all of this with the rest of the team and try to upgrade volunteers status in organization. After those reports we could all be involved in how the volunteers is exactly doing, how did he/she found her way and what are mistakes that we or they are making. This will be some part of evaluation which will help us all to see in which position we are with a volunteer.
Volunteer will have language courses provided. They will go to "private schools" (as they are called in Serbia) where they will have opportunity to learn Serbian. It will happen twice per week during working time of a volunteer this will not take volunteers free time. Before his project is finished he will do the final test and hopefully get certificate or diploma in which level of language he is at the moment. This will be very useful for volunteer so he could easier communicate with rest of the members of our organization and with local people and it will help him/her with activities that he/she will organize with youth in our centre.

The sending organizations of our future volunteers need to be the one that are actively involved in a youth work. They suppose to be familiar with the all necessary that we need to know about volunteers that we will host (special needs, his previous experience and engagement, their hobbies, their motivation...) We expect to have full cooperation with sending organization during preparation of project until its evaluation and possibly during the fallow up. We wish to be in constant contact with them, in purpose of volunteers better adaptation and and possible problems that may appear..
Volunteers suppose to be really motivated to work in organization. They have to be aware that they should contribute with their presents and preparedness to work in projects that we have. We need their help and as return we will provide them new knowledge, different approach and new experience. We also need volunteers which are open minded, ready for action, very active and positive. We need youngsters which are willing to develop their ideas in organization, the ones which are ready to give their best and which are individuals that are ready to work in team. Volunteers should have some teaching skills or at least to have some motivation to do that in language workshops. If they are not speaking any of mentioned languages, they should have some knowledge in camera, animation or non verbal communication. They should also be very flexible, so they could easily fit and understand Serbian mentality.
Considering that this is post war country and not all stuff are solved yet, there are still lots of homeless, poor and abanded people on streets. This country is far more different than some European country so volunteers should be ready for that. We plan to inform them as much as possible about that situation in Serbia and prepare them on cultural shock.
Volunteers profile will be different from project to project. It will depend weather we would want to include youngster with fewer opportunities or a long term EVS. It will also depend of the project that we need an EVS for, but some main lines are already mentioned about where can volunteers be included. We plan to give chance to anyone, and find common interest in their desires and our requirements.
The recruitment of volunteers will be much opened and everybody will have chance to apply and send their motivation and CV. We plan to publish it on line on several youth forums and groups, to send questioner to all of our partners and organizations that we have cooperated before and write opened add which will be published on EVS web site. The selection will be held by the board members of organization on common meeting where we will read all the applications and choose the ones that we find most comparable with the profile we are searching for.


Until now we have trained two of our members to work with youth with fewer opportunities. They have recognized certificates, and their idea is to start to include youngsters with fewer opportunities as soon as possible. They are organizing few pilot projects with youngsters with fewer opportunities, and if they manage to succeed we will definitely include them as well.
Until now our organization has established good cooperation with Society of Handicap, Union of Student with Handicap and orphans home Zvecanska. We plan to include some of their member in our future projects so we will have their support in this field as well.
The physical approach to our office is under reconstruction so people in wheelchair will be able to come in side. We are planning to adapt toilets and doorstep as well.
We plan to start to work with youngsters and volunteers with fewer opportunities in soon future, as soon as we manage to accomplish all necessary conditions for their appropriate accommodation.


The part of the city in which we plan to rent a flat for a volunteer is very safe and moved from the crowd in centre. For the beginning, mentor will be escort to volunteer to the office and back. We will help him to orientate in the city, by providing him a map, phone number and informing him about police stations and public bodies that can help him in case he gets lost all fall in any king of danger. As we already mentioned Belgrade became very opened city which is meeting with foreign people every day, so we don't expect any bigger problems in this way (racism, discrimination or xenophobia).
The office is in very quiet neighbourhood, where lots of young people are coming every day so there will be no problems with local community. Volunteer will have full freedom to call any of people from organization or his mentor in case that he gets sick, lost his way or have any kind of problem in all sense of meaning. His flat will be far from any dangerous zone, on which he/she will be alerted to keep him/her self out of there

First of all, all new comer volunteers will be strongly recommended to be careful in first month of his project, until he meets the environment and find his own way through the city. The will be escorted by his mentor or some of the people from organization for first weeks in purpose of better introducing to the area. In this period he will be warned about all bad stuff that possibly happen to him (traffic accident, getting lost, getting robed, loosing documents...) and what should he do in case that this happen by any chance. We will do our best to introduce him with all unpredicted circumstances that can happen to him and how to react in these cases. Not all accidents can be preventing, but we will do our best to help our volunteers to avoid them in best possible way.

In case that we decide to have younger volunteer we will engage more person which will work with him/her. Considering that volunteers of this age can be more active, we could exceed level of his obligation in organization. We could give him more work in his daily activities, which would take his full attention and help him to spend his free time as better as possible. In case of younger volunteer we would devote all of our free time to work with him, help him to develop and implement projects and keep his attention in useful things