A.Project environment

The Polish Forum of European Education has its headquarters in Katowice - the capital of the Silesian Voivodeship and the center of the Silesian Agglomeration.

As a whole the Silesian Agglomeration is an urban area with over 2 million inhabitants. It provides a wide offer for sports, recreation and culture, plus several universities. It is a very diverse area, on one hand as a postindustrial region it still suffers from the collapse of the heavy and mining industries which used to be the main employment form until the end of the 20th century, on the other it is a fast developing area with several universities, a large community of young people. There is always something to do around. If not - the city has good connections with other Polish cities, such as Cracow and Breslau and also with other countries and their capitals ( Vienna, Prague and Bratislava are about 6 hours away ). For free time activities the Silesian Voivodeship has also a lot to offer, from the Beskidy Mountains in the south - a good place for hiking, and the The Polish Jura Chain in the North - a good base for climbing, plus everywhere there is a lot of space to do sports and other stuff ( for example lakes with good sport base for water sports etc. ).

The volunteers will live and work mostly in Katowice in a shared flat. They will be working in Katowice, where the PFEE office is located and in the neighboring cities.

B. Proposed activities for EVS volunteers

General information

The main objective of the project is to increase the social activity of youth in Silesia, by promoting youth projects and voluntary service. Another objective is to support the development of a center for international voluntary service within the structure of our organization.

To achieve the planned goals the volunteers will join work groups together with polish volunteers and together they will work on several tasks prepared within the project. The tasks are connected to different aspects of voluntary work and are also connected with the educational aim, to give the volunteers a clear overview of the various types of voluntary activities and of youth work.

Tasks

The first task is connected to cultural animation. Within this task the international work group will focus on exploring the local area of Silesia. By completing some simple tasks, such as visiting and documenting places in the area, the volunteers will get to know the region, learn about its history and culture. The work groups will systematically explore the area and write down notes on their explorers' weblog, where they will describe their discoveries. Basing on their exploration experiences and the information that they will have to find on their own, they will be leading some workshops for youngsters at schools in the region and organize some miniprojects connected to the promotion of the regional culture. Their main goal will be organizing at the end of the project a city game about the local culture, a happening open to the local community.

The second task is connected to social animation. In this task the voluntary work group (volunteers plus some young Poles) will organize animated (as for animation - fun, games, dressing up, face-painting etc.) linguistic activities in one of the local clubs for kids and youth. The aim of these activities will be to promote the learning of languages amongst kids and youth in Silesia. What is important the target group of these activities will most probably come from an environment with lesser social/educational opportunities (our organization cooperates with several clubs in the region and many of them focus on work in such an environment - the location will always be determined before the volunteer's arrival). It will be important, in this task, to focus on using some animation techniques, because the main idea is to make the "lessons" as informal and as much fun as possible, so that we can build some positive attitude towards learning in the kids. Of course we won't leave the volunteers only to themselves to make up what to do - we will provide the volunteers with as much support from our animators as possible. Mainly we see this in the form of some workshops about animation (about face-painting, balooning, etc.).

The third task is again about cultural animation and is connected to cooperating with one of the local galleries/art clubs. In this task the volunteers will cooperate with the gallery and help them in organizing art projects, expositions and also organizing other types of projects dedicated to the local community (for example art projects with children). In this task the polish team mates will be volunteers, who are helping out in the gallery.

Another possible task for the volunteers will be helping out on a film festival for young amateur film makers, which is organized by the host organization every year (kilOFF Independent Film Festival). The volunteers will be able to join the festival team and help in organizing a big regional film event. They will be able to learn about how work on such projects looks like and be able to see the event from the point of view of the people responsible for it.

The last task in the project is about organizing some activities which aim promoting international youth projects in Silesia. The volunteers will work on promoting EVS and international youth projects amongst the youth and also creating a promotion program for this. From a more practical point of view this means that together with some Polish volunteers they will be working on organizing promotion workshops, presentations and happenings in the region. The promotion activities will be mixed with the other tasks realized by the volunteers, which will be shown as examples of possible voluntary work. The volunteers will organize some workshops and presentations in schools and universities, participate in some events dedicated to youth and running a webpage/blog about EVS. They will also visit some of the local ngo's and cultural institutions, to show them how they can benefit from the Youth in Action Programme (mostly EVS, but not only) In this task the project will be used to make a basic analysis of the needs of the local ngos concerning possible EVS placements and cooperation in the field in the future.

Summary

From the mentioned tasks the project will be composed to fit the expectations and interests of the volunteers coming for specific projects. We want the project to be flexible, so that it will be possible to react to some needs or possibilities that come up during the project's realization (for example projects developed already when the Expression of Interest is valid, but which will focus mostly on just one of the tasks). From the suggested tasks, the last one will always be present in the project, although it will never take more than 20 % of the volunteers work time. The remaining 80% will be divided between the other tasks, basing on the interests of the volunteers. We expect the usual project to be composed in the proportion 40% - 40% - 20 %, although this will be depending on the project needs and reality.

Because PFEE is not a big organization, the presence of every volunteer is highly noticeable, so the presence of EVS volunteers always leaves some impact on the PFEE team members, as well as on the volunteers themselves. The work atmosphere in the organization is rather informal, so they should be able to get to know with us and fit in quite easily. As for their role for us - except for the fact that the project is an important part of our development strategy for the upcoming years, the EVS volunteers always play an important role in our team, because they bring with them a lot of joy and positive energy and also they bring in the motivation to do things. From our experience we know that they are always in the centre of attention and are also a great help in integrating the normal team.

The volunteers will be working with Polish team members. The usual work time will be from about 13 o'clock in the afternoon until 19 o'clock in the evening, although for some tasks such as the linguistic animation - it can change. We expect that every volunteer will have about 30 work hours, which will be divided between the specific tasks.

During the project the volunteer will:

-learn how to work in an international team,

-discover the culture of a region shaped by the turns of the history,

-learn how cultural diversity can start from one particular place,

-learn how to manage social and cultural projects,

-learn how cultural diversity starts from the local dimension,

-learn animation tools as face-painting and ballooning,

-learn how to make multimedia presentations (and how to present it),

-learn polish.

They will also be free to participate in other PFEE projects. We also think that it is a good idea that the volunteers develop a small project of their own, that they will do in the end of their EVS (last 1-2 months).

The described tasks will be divided between the volunteers, except for the workshops about EVS for youth, that will be common for all volunteers during the project. Specific projects will be adapted to the expectations and skills of the volunteers. The project cycle will start in September (it can change depends on volunteer's availability) with the coming of the volunteer group and last for 10-12 months. Each cycle will include a preparation-warm up phase, implementation phase and the closing/evaluation phase.

Warm up - this is the beginning phase of the project cycle. It is planned for about 3 months, for the volunteers this will include an intensive language course and a lot of activities that will allow them to get to know the organization, the Youth in Action Programme. For the organization this phase will also include inviting some local volunteers for the work group, making integration/getting to know each other activities and developing a more detailed work plan for the implementation and evaluation phases. Also in the end of this phase some planned activities will start.

Implementation - this is the middle phase of the project cycle which will include working on the tasks mentioned above, according to the work plan of the volunteers and the tasks they will be working on. This phase will last for about 6 months.

Evaluation - this is the last phase of the project cycle. It will be the time to summarize the work of the project work group, but also to evaluate the work of the EVS volunteers. In this phase the volunteers will be asked to write down some longer article about their project. This will be the time to realize some follow-up activities (for example a youth exchange prepared during the implementation phase or other projects), farewell parties and other ideas the volunteers might have. This phase will take 1-3 months.

During the project we will implement self-assessment methods to support the learning process and to make the volunteers more aware of their personal development. All volunteers will be provided with the opportunity to receive a Youthpass after the project. Through out the project we will organize self assessment sessions and also give the volunteers self-assessment tasks to complete on their own at home.

C. Volunteer profiles and recruitment process

The project will be open to all young people interested in doing EVS. We do not work in closed partnerships, so it will be open for any sending organization. The promotion of the project will be realized mostly by sending information to our international partners, sending info to the eurodesk board and by organizing international partnership building activities (and of course promoting the project on other international projects). Our only expectations for the sending organizations are that they have to be legally working and reliable organizations, best with some minimum experience as a sending organization for EVS, though we will not close the project for novice organizations. We will be very happy if the sending organizations are willing to cooperate for a longer period of time than a single evs project.

As for the volunteer profile - we are open to all young people interested in EVS. Basic English or German will be an advantage. From experience we know that this is very important, not only for the realization of the project, but mainly for the comfort of the volunteer. Currently we are not able to host volunteers with special needs (on the basis of health/handicaps).

The selection of the volunteers for each project cycle will be based on their personal data from their CV or Europass, depending on how they can contribute and benefit from the project. Because the project doesn't require any specific skills, the second part of the recruitment process will be an interview via telephone or internet and eventually consultations with the partners.

We plan that applications from volunteers will be collected in march/april, the selection process will take place in the beginning of may and the projects will be send for the 1st of June deadline, to allow the start of the project in september. The project cycle will finish in June, or optionally in August, depending on the volunteers choice in the application.

D. Risk prevention, protection and safety

We understand that such a long project in another country will be a big challenge for the volunteers, especially that not always during the day there will be someone from the polish team available. Therefore we plan that for each project cycle we will host 2-3 volunteers, so that they can build a group to support each other during the project, spend time together and have fun. Also each one of the volunteers will have a mentor.

We plan that the mentor of each volunteer will be a member of PFEE. Their function will be mostly to hang around with the volunteer, talk with them spend their free time and just be friends. This way the volunteer will have someone to talk to and eventually to help them in difficult situations. We know that the project will often have some difficult times, the mentor is the person to be responsible for the volunteer not to be alone then. From experience we know that, it's better if the mentor is from our organization, because this way they spend more time with the volunteer and they can build some relation easier. We also think that it is possible that the mentor person may change during the project, because the relations between the people are something that cannot be predicted.

The learning process of the volunteers will be managed by the project coordinator, who will also be meeting the volunteers from time to time.

For preventing risks, we will simply inform the volunteers about the risks they can encounter in the city/region, also we will be analyzing possible risks before the start of each volunteers project. When choosing a flat we will also take into consideration the neighborhood - we try to avoid neighborhoods with social and economic problems or with a high crime rate, the transport - so the volunteers can get around the city fast and that they can remember the way easily and the flat conditions - all the installations have to be in good condition, the flat has to have all the basic media, heating, and also it has to be safe for their health. In their work we will try to prepare the volunteers for the possible risks and dangers they could encounter. We will also provide them with support from the polish team members during their visits in schools and other places.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=58000382910