A. Project environment: profile of the organisation and local community
The Polish Robert Schuman Foundation (hereinafter the Foundation) was set up in January 1991 as a non-government, non-profit organization. The main aims of the Foundation are to encourage Polish citizens to actively participate in the process of Europe's unification, promote opportunities created by the Polish membership in the Community, foster the values of the European Union and to build civil society in Poland. The Foundation cooperates with a wide range of institutions within and outside the EU concentrating on promoting political and social initiatives focusing on the development of democracy. In this process, it supports cultural, scientific and educational organizations that actively contribute to the development of closer bonds between Poland and EU institutions and other EU Member States as well as the infrastructure of NGOs addressing similar areas. The Foundation is named after Robert Schuman - a great visionary and man of action, thinker and statesman, business activist and one of the Founding Fathers of the New Europe.
The office of the Foundation is located in the very centre of Warsaw. On a regular basis there are 8 staff members and about 10 national volunteers working in the Foundation. Usually there are also 2-3 foreign (EVS) volunteers working in our office and helping by the projects. Most of the people working in the Foundation are young, many of them are still students. The atmosphere usually in the Foundation is very friendly, cheerful and supportive for the initiatives of young people. Most of the projects are implemented working in a team supervised by the project managers. Each volunteer in the Foundation has it's own supervisor. Foundation works from Monday to Friday from 8.30 until 16.30, nevertheless, if there are any important events, sometimes people stay longer at work or come to work on weekends. There are regular meetings in the Foundation every week, where all the workers and volunteers meet to plan the activities work for the next weeks. Besides that, time to time, there are some informal events organized by the workers or volunteers of the Foundation (common bier-drinking or parties), which are good for integration.
Warsaw - Poland's largest city which has been the capital for four centuries - with a rich history, interesting historical monuments and a fascinating present, is located in the heart of Poland, close to the geometrically calculated centre of Europe. Warsaw today is a busy metropolis, the seat of the highest national authorities, the most important administrative, scientific and cultural centre of the country as well as one of the main industrial and business centres. Foreign and international agencies are located here, as well as the seats of national political, professional, economic, social, artistic and religious organizations. Warsaw would definitely offer the volunteers the possibility to spend their free time the way they like the best. Numerous theatres, cinemas and dozens of museums and galleries contribute to its rich and high-quality cultural offerings.

B. Proposed activities for EVS volunteers
The EVS gives foreign volunteers the opportunity to get to know the country in which the volunteers work, and to gain new experience, useful for future projects and the partnerships between countries. At the same time, it gives the hosting organization and local community the chance to enlarge mental horizons and improve the perception of Europe and its citizens. Thanks to the participation in this project the young people will have the chance to learn many new things, develop new skills and competencies. Some of them include:
" Greater understanding and appreciation for Polish Culture: The volunteers will be granted both formal and non-formal opportunities to learn about specific elements of the culture thanks to appropriate training after arrival, participating in office meetings, meetings with local partners, participation in planning activities and implementation of projects with local partners and in the local community.
" Understanding and working knowledge of the Polish Language: Through regular tutoring sessions in the beginning, daily practice with all staff members, and most importantly immersion in the Polish culture the volunteers will gain a workable knowledge of the Polish language.
" Project design and management skills: Through the implementation of a large scale, long-term project the volunteers will gain/improve their knowledge and skills in the field of Project Design and Management. They will gain practical experience while working with the coordinators in the Foundation that have big experience in it and have successfully carried out many large scale, long-term projects.
" Teaching and presentation skills: As part of the activities will involve non-formal teaching or training in the schools, the volunteers will have the chance to gain teaching and presentation skills. The mentor and/or other employees of the Foundation will be available to work with the volunteers to help them in this process.
" Appreciation of own culture, respect for other cultures and creation of European awareness: As appreciation of one's culture is greatly aided by comparative experience, living and working in different culture will allow the volunteers to gain greater insight and appreciation for his/her own culture and the diversity of European culture in general.
The Foundation can host 2-4 EVS volunteers at the same time. The main tasks of the volunteers in this project will be: the promotion of the European integration process (as a political as well as a social process) in Poland and motivation of young people to become more active (European) citizens.
The four main areas, where we plan that the foreign volunteers could involve in are:
1. Cooperation with European School Clubs (ESC) - informal unions between the students and teachers in different type of schools - about 1700 ESCs in all over Poland. The volunteers will travel all around Poland to give lectures and workshops in the schools about their own countries (traditions, history, educational system, young people's lifestyles) and the European Union. Apart from this the volunteers will help the coordinator of the European Clubs in the Foundation by the organization of different projects for the ESCs and website for them.
2. Web-site Tri.net - Ukrainian-Polish-German Forum www.tri.net.pl. This network is created for organizations acting or willing to act in the Urainian-Polish-German relations. The volunteers will help to collect interesting materials for the Tri.net page, stay in contact with the Network's members, assist the coordinator by preparing a yearly meeting of the Tri.net Organisations and could come up with a lot of their own initiatives for better functioning of this network.
3. The Polish European Meetings - the biggest annual event organized by the Foundation. These Meetings usually take place in May and as it consist of many different events - conferences, seminars, concerts, international meetings, Schuman Parade and the "European Village", it requires a lot of work to prepare it. The volunteers would be very welcome to help by organizing particular parts of the Polish European Meetings. Together with the people from the Foundation they could help to organize an international meeting of young people that usually accompanies the Polish European Meetings.
Apart from help by the above mentioned programmes, we can offer the volunteers the chance to involve also in other projects of the Foundation. The volunteers could help by organizing conferences, seminars, discussions, simulation games, thematic evenings, campaigns, trainings, etc. If necessary, the volunteers will also help to find organizations for cooperation from their own countries or regions with whom the Foundation or, for example, ESCs could cooperate in various projects.
The tasks of the volunteers could include also help by the preparation of information for the Foundation's website and the publications (Polish European Calendar). Sometimes this could include also translations of materials from the volunteer's native language.
The volunteers will be encouraged to make also their own projects during their stay in Poland. The Foundation will provide all the possible help for supporting the volunteers in it. As the Foundation is actively involving also in EVS programme (as a sending, hosting and coordinating organization), the volunteers will be encouraged also to give their suggestions on how to make the participation of volunteers in this programme more enjoyable and they will be encouraged to participate in the organization of meetings for current and ex-volunteers.

C. Volunteer profiles and recruitment process
The volunteers can be of any gender and any background. The most important thing is that they are highly motivated, creative, responsible, communicative and inspired to live, take part in activities and implement projects during their EVS period in Poland in our organization. No previous experience, knowledge and skills are required for carrying out the tasks of the project activities, al the necessary skills and knowledge for carrying out the tasks can be gained during the project. The volunteers should be open-minded, support the idea of European integration and Foundation's mission and willing to share their culture. They should be also willing to learn Polish during their EVS period.
We are open to cooperate with all kind of candidates (and sending organizations) for this project. To apply for our project the volunteer should send us his/her CV and motivation letter. It would be nice to receive also a picture, but this is, by no way, a demand. Usually before making the final decision about the candidates, we make also small phone-interviews with the most interesting candidates.

E. Risk prevention, safety and protection
The Foundation has already experience with hosting EVS volunters, so the people responsible for the project here aware about the possible dangers for the volunteers while doing the EVS project. Thefore, we will put all the efforts to make sure that the crisis situations does not arise. If, however such situations would appear, the hosting organization makes sure that they are solved in the manner that could satisfy all the parties.
In case, when the conflict could not be solved by the sending organization or the National Agency might be involved in the solving of it.
It is important to note that the people from the Foundation have experience of work with people, espessially youth. They have worked with volunteers and in international team, so they know how it is.
During the EVS period each volunteer will have a supervisor that would be responsible for giving the volunteer the daily tasks and support and would help to integrate in the organization and monitor the development of the volunteer. Each volunteer would have also a mentor that would be "a friend" that would help the volunteer in different issues not directly related to work tasks (personal issues). If the volunteer would have any problems with the hosting organization, the mentor would help the volunteer to solve the problems. Apart from this, as most of the workers in the Foundation are young and very friendly, the volunteers can talk also with the other workers about their problems, needs and ideas.
To avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, we always encourage our volunteers to say it honestly if they are not happy with something from the very beginning and not to wait too long with their doubts and disappointment. The supervisor and mentor and the other workers of the Foundation are ready and open for critical remarks if they are constructive and come from the side of the volunteers and expect also the volunteer to have similar attitude.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=58000372025