Project environment:

During the EVS volunteers will enter the gates of the king's town of Prešov and their steps will lead into the heart of Šariš. They will have possibility to consume theirself with a breath of a famous history, rich traditions, charm, beauty of avenues and silent quarters. The town on the Torysa river. History is hardly nostalgic. It connects with actual life in the present. In the shadow of stone witnesses of the past you will enjoy hospitality of our citizens and smiles of youngsters. Culture and education are the attributes of our town, the town that is called Athens above the Torysa river.

Prešov is a significant economic and administrative centre of eastern Slovakia. After the town got its town rights, the leading activities were concentrated in the centre. They had an impact only on the surround towns but later it was spreaded on the whole region. The position of the town is on located on the former important trade routes.

Prešov is the third largest town in Slovakia. It has 91205 inhabitants. Government offices have a residency in Prešov. It is also the centre of Prešov autonomous region, that is the largest region in Slovakia.

Prešov consists of four administrative land territories: Prešov, Solivar, Šalgovík and Nižná Šebastová.

The important road and rail ways go through Prešov and lead to Poland and Ukraine. The closest cities are (according to the air distances in km) : Košice (38), Užhorod (96), Miškolc (115), Tarnow (128), Budapest (250), Bratislava (345).

The historic centre of town is a national cultural landmark.

The town is situated in Košická lowland and is surrounded by Slánske vrchy (Slánske hills) and Šarišská vrchovina (Šariš highlands). The river Torysa flows through Prešov.

Geographically Prešov is settled on the 49th parallel and the exact position is 49° of north latitude and 21°15' of east longitude. The altitude of the historic centre of the town is approximatly 255 above the sea level.

Volunteers have lot of possibility how to spent also their free time. They can visit interesting places in Prešov and around the city like: Opal mines, Cave Bad Hole, Altar Stone, Castles (Saris, Kapusany, Hanigovce, Brigand´s castle, etc.) and different places in the city center. You can find more info at http://www.presov.info/trips/. Also for those, who are interested in history, you can find some basic info at the website www.presov.info/history.

Some other possibilities how and where to spent free time you can find at http://www.slovakia.org/presov.htm.

Volunteers will have accommodation in the rented flat, both will have own room and all the necessary equipment for living in flat. The volunteers are supposed to prepare the food by themselves. They will receive special budget for food every month, together with pocket money.

Our aim is to enable our residents to preserve their capacities and their autonomy as long as possible.We therefore try our best to ameliorate their quality of life, by all available means.The volunteer will help in this regard through its presence but also in trying to arouse their attention and interest while organizing activities and workshops for them.

According to the degree of autonomy of these persons, the volunteer will be able to play a specific role, particularly in stimulating their openness to youth and to a foreign country.

Proposed activities for EVS volunteers:

Thanks to the project, the volunteer has the chance to develop his/her personal and social aspects. The volunteer gets involved into the project and has the possibility to help weak people, which strenghtens himself/herself, makes him/her more independent, more creative, etc. Moreover he/she can learn to make own decisions, to take the intitative and to develop abilities and skills connected with computer programs, communication, social relationships, cultural consciousness and empathy.

Through different meetings where he can discuss, communicate with the team, the volunteer will learn to know the disabled better, which enables him to establish confident relations with the users and to develop preofessional ethics.

The volunteers will make a rewarding experience that can confirm their choice of a career in the social or health fields, and be the start of a personnal reflection on the handicap, say, the initiation of personnal commitment for a better recognition of the disabled and that the handicap be bettertaken into account in the social organisation. They will become more mature, more independent and more self-confident.

The volunteer will never be in situation of responsibility, his presence will be a quality plus factor to the young dissabled people. All of the activities he will do will be performed under supervision of his tutor.

Main part of the tasks of the volunteer will be in our youth club. He/she will help with activities with dissabled people like:

- art therapy, music therapy, drama therapy

- creative workshops

- teaching young people how to work with computers, etc.

He/she will help in our organization in organizing of local, regional and international activities, like different festivals, competitions, sport competitions, etc.

Volunteers will help also in our partner organization - in Social house for dissabled people in Presov. The volunteer will take part there in:

" daily walk, a time that is necessary to preserve the autonomy in getting about

" the residents' outings for personnal needs: hairdresser, shopping, clothes purchasing

" other outings: restaurant, cinema, theater, or other institutionnal celebrations

" leisure activities organised in the institution: do-it-yourself workshops, music, choir, swimming…

" he will simply be a presence in order to discuss, listen, hold hands…

" helping writing letters in order to maintain relations with the families

" helping some of them to look after their private room

The volunteer will thus participate actively and contribute to maintain and developp individual and personnalized relations.

These are times when we discuss about the care provided to the residents. These meetings enable us better understanding situations, asking questions and bringing coherence in the team.

Within the framework that is offered and according to his capacities, the volunteer will be able to develop a personal project that is in accordance with the institution's programme.

His tutor and the entire staff will help him to carry out his project.

The volunteer will work 30 hours of service per week and will have 2 days off per month. Every week She/he will have 4 hours of slovak language lessons.

The volunteer works 5 days a week (from 09:00 – 15:00). During that time:

- about 40% of the time - he/she has an active task with the handicapped people in the therapy workshops (in the role of an educators assistant he/she supports the educator to lead activities like handicraft, arts, cooking, doing pottery and working with wood, etc.).

- about 40% of the time - the volunteer will help in the Social house for dissabled people in Prešov (our partner organization)

- about 20% of the time - the volunteer also takes part in other activities of the organization: preparing exhibitions, integration festivals ("open doors"), taking part and helping in excursions, art workshops, education trips, meetings with young people, administrative work etc.

During the period of the project the volunteer learns the slovak language (individual classes).

Thanks to the project, the volunteer has the chance to develop his/her personal and social aspects. The volunteer gets involved into the project and has the possibility to help weak people, which strenghtens himself/herself, makes him/her more independent, more creative, etc. Moreover he/she can learn to make own decisions, to take the intitative and to develop abilities and skills connected with computer programs, communication, social relationships, cultural consciousness and empathy.

OUR MOTIVATION:

The contribution of a European volunteer, due to his youth, puts new life into the institution. We hope that his role will lead to a spirit of openness to the local environment but also that it will make the professionals think and open up to other European know-how.

Our goal is to create an atmosphere of openness and tolerance, to promote European citizenship through the participation of voluntary activities where the emphasis is on serving others and for us more specifically elderly mentally handicapped people in special homes. Hosting a young EVS means mutual enrichment through which both the volunteer and our residents and staff of our institution learn to live together and to share different cultures and traditions. Our desire is to give a European dimension to this project for a better understanding of people and to fight stereotypes. We see it as a significant step in the understanding of European cultures.

Through an EVS project, the volunteers and our hosting institution feel committed to a citizenship approach which aims to raise increasingly awareness of the importance of the disabled and elderly's well-being in our society.

Our organization never hosted EVS volunteers, but we already have experience with them, Through the orher organization in Presov and area around our young people had met the volunteers quite often. THEY – the young people, also asked us to host the volunteers. We have been experiencing Youth in Action program for some time already. In welcoming young volunteers we want to open up our institution,to show its operating system, the way youth handicapped dependent people are cared for in Slovakia. Doing this we hope to raise their awareness on the importance of voluntary service in the medical and social institutions. The volunteers' youth contributes to create a cosy and family-like atmosphere, creating intergenerational relationships of which as well residents as young people take full advantage. Each of the volunteers brings innovative ideas and new freshness to our institution. We want to make it possible for our young volunteers, both to approach and learn more about the handicapped people, and to make a rewarding experience, which will help them better learn to know themselves, and perhaps make choices for their future career.