1. Background and activities of the hosting organisation:
The Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule is a catholic school which combines a primary school, a secondary school and a day care centre. It offers its pupils support in doing their homework, leisure time activities, different kinds of school projects and excursions, a mentoring and support out of school. Due to the school's cantine, the children and adolescents can benefit from the full-time care of the school. With this offer the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule is reaching out to adolescents, particularly those having dificulties in school, single parents and socially disadvantaged families, with the objective of providing equal oportunities.
The St. Franziskus foundation, also a catholic insitution, offers with its Sankt Antonius Home a home for partially deaf young adolescents and young adults who are going to school during the day. They can not only stay and live there, but they are also supported pedagogically.
The two institutions intend to collaborate. 60 employees are working in the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule, thereof 15 in the day care centre; in the St.Antonius Home 30 pedagogues are working.

2. Location and region of the hosting project:
Rottweil with its 25 000 inhabitants, is the oldest town in (the state of) Baden-Württemberg. The city is located centrally between the Black Forest and the Schwäbische Alb, between Stuttgart and the Lake Constance. Rottweil has good public transport connections to Stuttgart (590 000 inhabitants) and Zürich in Switzerland (340 000 inhabitants) and is good connected by car (nearby the motorway). In summer the landscape around Rottweil invites to hiking and biking and in winter there are many possibilities for skiing in the Black Forest.
Rottweil is known for the dog breed of the same name and the regional carneval (Shrove Tuesday) - "alemannische Fasnet". The carneval in Rottweil belongs to the oldest and the most traditionnal carnevals in the region. With its historic cityscape Rottweil offers a particular and spectacular ambience to the carneval. These past years the city has grown to a cultural centre between Stuttgart and Constance (on the Lake Constance) which conjoins old and lived traditions with modern culture.
Furthermore, Rottweil is a city with a great variety of educational institutions. At present, there are 6 grammar schools, one big secondary modern school, three primary and secondary schools and one private school.
At last, the numerous complimentary engagement of the inhabitants has to be mentioned, without who many parts of the social life could not work.

3. Experiences with the European Voluntary Service:
Since 1998 the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule is hosting volunteers from throughout Europe (f.ex. from France, Norway, Poland and Spain). The exchange was at all times very enriching for all pariticipants. Through the various possibilities in working with the children and young people, with or wihout disability, the volunteers had many options in introducing themself in the project. In doing so, the own interests and abilities of the volunteer could be taken into account. At all times, a contact person is available with whom the volunteer could discuss the project and thus shape it.

4. Rules which the volunteers have to follow:
The responsible for the project develops a duty roster together with the volunteer which holds for the whole Voluntary Service. Modifications have to be discussed with the responsible of the project.
At work (in school and at the St.Antonius Home) many information about the adolescents and young people are exchanged; the volunteer is committed to deal confidentially with these information.

The voluntary project:
The voluntary project provides new experiences in dealing with foreign cultures and languages to the children and pedagogues of the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule and the St. Antonius Home. Through little projects, leisure time activities in the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule as well as the cooperation in the home for partially deaf young people, the voluntary project forms an additionnaly advantage. The volunteer can introduce his own interests, ideas and abilities to the project in an uncomplicated ambience and thus make an important contribution to the improvement of the pedagogical program of the day care centre. The volunteer has multitude possibilities to learn and gain experiences in realizing projects below professional guidance.
The volunteer will benefit by improving her/his foreign language skills as well as the social skills and by gaining self-confidence. She/He will get to know the German society, the German educational system and German culture and different mentalities. Through the EVS, the work and his own leisure time program, the volunteer may built up friendships with people from different cultures, which could pass the EVS. The volunteer will get to know services and institutions for the handicapped people and get familiar with the integration of handicapped people in society. At last she/he will gain a detailed insight into the daily routines of social professions.
3. The activities of the volunteer:
The operational area of the volunteer is in the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule and its partner institution, the Sankt Antonius Home. In the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule the volunteer will mainly help carry out leisure time activities (sport, music, dance, etc.) during lunch break. It could also be possible that the volunteer will work in the language lessons of the school or during special school projects. The second part of the assignment will be the animation of evenings and weekends in the home for partialy deaf young people. He will live and operate with the young people in one of the communal living groups of the home.

In detail, the following activities can be carried out by the volunteer:
- support of the pedagogues in the realization of the leisure acitvities in a sportive, artistic and creative domaine during the leisure time after lunch. (Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule)
- support of the teachers during special class projects (excursions, workshop-days, camp-weeks, parties etc.) (Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule)
-help with homework (Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule)
-support of the pedagogues in the leisure time acitvities of the partialy deaf young people (St. Antonius Home)
-participation and support of activities carried out by both institutions

The personal interests and predilections are considered in the project, as the volunteer can decide preference points of his EVS and propose new activities himself.

The volunteer will work in the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule:
from Monday to Wednesday: 11 am to 5 pm (18h)
on Thursday: 11 am to 3 pm (4h)
Friday: free day
In the St.Antonius Home the volunteer will work 2 evenings per week (2 x 4h) and every fourth weekend, Saturday and Sundays (2 x 6h) in arrangement with the responsables.
2 hours/week are for personal meetings with her/his tutor and language training. All in all the volunteer will work 35h per week.

The Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule is closed on weekends. During excursions and special projects of the school, the volunteer can be with a class the whole day. Excursions can also be possible on weekends with the St.Antonius Home; in these cases the volunteer will have days off during the week. The volunteer has 30 leave days which should be taken during the school vacations. Additional free days have to be discussed with the responsible of the project.

Our objectives in the Euopean Voluntary Service are
-to introduce different cultures in the pedagogical work of the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule and the St.Antonius Home.
-to enrich our pedagogical work in the two institutiony by the personal skills and interests of the volunteer
-to take away fear of contacting a foreign culture and way of thinking

Therefore the volunteer who would like to engage himself in the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule should above all be sociable and outgoing.
-She/He should like working with children and young people and should feel up to realizing little projects on her/his own with them.
-She/He should be interested in working with children and disabled people even if she/he doesn't want to work in this domaine later.
-She/He should make an effort to learn and speak the German language
-The volunteer should invest her/his personality and bring in her/his specific cultural identity so that she/he can enrich and familiarize the institutions with her/his foreign nationality and culture. This way tolerance and understanding should increase and prejudices should be overcome.

The sending organisation should prepare the volunteer for the work with children and young people. In addition, an introduction in the pedagogical basic principles would be advantageous.

The procedure of the selection of the volunteer is normally the following: Through contacts to different sending organizations all over Europe we announce that we have a vacant EVS place for October 1st. Thereupon the sending organizations present the motivation letter and the CV of the interested persons (by mail). In the last time, the volunteers send quite often their candidature directly on their own, as a result of detailed researches in the EVS databank. On the basis of the different motivation letters and CVs we confer together with the employee of the DPWV about which candidature is the most convenient candidature for our project "Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule". Of course we respect the individual vision and ideas of the volunteer, if she/he already has some previous knowledge or experience and above all where she/he could give his best support to the pedagogues due to his skills. The most important factor thereby is where we think the volunteer fits in: either more in the leisure time activities or in the homework support and we already think of which kind of little projects the volunteer could propose in relation to his ideas and personal skills. In the finally decision special experiences and knowledge figure not that much, of course it would be suitable if the volunteer already has some German knowledge or some experience with young people, but the deciding point is the general impression and the personal possibilities of pedagogical support.

The project is accompanied by a German association in the social field named DPWV (Deutscher
Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband). That means that the volunteer has a additional contact person both before beginning and during its EVS. So before the beginning of the EVS the journey is planned in cooperation with this association and more information is given about the institution, the work and the life in the local community (also in assistance of the present volunteer). Thus the volunteer can get a better idea of what the project is and where he will to live. During the EVS there are both regular evaluations with the tutor (about the schedule, the integration, own ideas/ suggestions/ projects, the accomodation, the food, the allowance, etc.) and at least twice a year evaluations with the employee of the DPWV (about the carrying out/realization of the project, the general results and problems of any type). The other pedagogues in the Maximilian-Kolbe-Schule and in the Sankt Antonius Home help as well in any kind of question or problem. Aditionally the volunteer should have regular contact with his sending organization to speak about his experiences, his ideas and his problems.
The volunteer will have a single room with bath and toilet inside the Sankt Antoniushaus. This offers on the one hand autonomy to the volunteer but also personal contact and support when she/he will need.
In the Sankt Antonius Home will work as well two German volunteers, so the EVS-volunteer can easy get to know other young people and get informations about the life in Rottweil.