Residential Home for the Elderly from Germany is looking for an EVS volunteer
Residential Home for the Elderly from Germany is looking for an EVS volunteer
The Princely Fürstenberg Residential Home for the Elderly is supported by the Princely Fürstenberg Hospital Fund and is recognized as an institution for residential care for the elderly.
A.
The home is situated
near the town center and offers 120 bed spaces in single or twin rooms
including 1 short-term place. The Residential Home offers an activating
care and support with additional therapeutical services, recreational
offerings and high living standards. The building is surrounded by a
broad palace garden with a vivarium. Weekly there are group activities
like collective excursions and festivities. A senior friendly menu at
one's own option is a matter of course. Assisted transport is
available.
The town of Hüfingen is situated at an altitude between 574 to 917
meter above sea level on the elevated plain called "Baar", at the
eastern periphery of the Black Forest about 4 km southward of the town
of Donaueschingen. The town of Hüfingen has about 8.000 inhabitants.
The town of Hüfingen can look back on a long history. More than 2000
years ago a celtic settlement was existent on the so called gallows
hill. The town offers a lot of leisure facilities and cultural
activities. Places of interest are the Museum of Art and History and
the museum of the ancient romanan thermal spa. Music school and Arts
school as well as an adult education center are offering courses and
seminars. The railway station of Hüfingen is on the Hell Valley Railway
from Freiburg to Donaueschingen. At regular intervals there are
Regional Express trains from Freiburg via Donaueschingen to Ulm. The
circle train of the special purpose association
Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg connects Hüfingen hourly with its neighbour
cities. Furthermore there is a well developed bus traffic system via
Villingen-Schwenningen and Donaueschingen to touristic centres of the
higher Black Forest
To ensure regional mobility volunteers get a monthly ticket which is
valid for all public transport associations of the administrative
district of Freiburg, on weekdays from 14:00 h, during weekend and
school holidays the ticket is also valid in the neighbouring
administrative districts of Lörrach, Offenburg, Villingen-Schwenningen
and Waldshut-Tiengen...
B.
During their voluntary service the volunteers will get non-formal
qualifications as well as key qualifications in the areas of
character-building and social and linguistic skills. They get to know
different ways of life and learn to deal with people with disabilities,
as well as with different themes. They learn how to work with elderly
and partly gerontopsychiatric disordered persons and learn
organisational structures of daily care for elderly people and how to
find their place in it.
The volunteers are put into a team of employees and are treated as a
fully-fledged team member. They learn how to get along with colleagues,
bosses and roommates and to handle the sensibilities of intimacy and
distance in the workplace.
The assignment of European Volunteers will not substitute a regular job
in this project. The activities of a volunteer should expand and deepen
the existing geriatric care facilities. The volunteer should enrich the
geriatric care activities with new ideas and perspectives.
Volunteers will work mainly in the geriatric day care of the residents
.Volunteers will be actively involved in the development of the day
program of occupational therapy. Volunteers could develop their own
ideas for new games, activities or stories into a personal project if
they so wished - creative ideas are always welcome. The remaining of
volunteers time will be spent in helping with other aspects of work at
the centre as well as planning activities and courses. The volunteer
will also be required to attend team meetings to report and co-ordinate
resources. Volunteers are expected to accomplish a fulltime voluntary
service of 35-hours per week, overdoing ill be balanced by additional
freetime. At request of the volunteer and upon approval of the sending
organisation and the National Agency it will be possible to work in
other departments of the host organisation like housekeeping, kitchen,
caretaking, reception or administration. In particular in the beginning
the volunteer will pass through all departments of the retirement home
to familiarize himself/herself with the structure and the functioning
of the organisation (not longer than 3 weeks).
The volunteer can take part in a language training for European
Volunteers arranged by the coordinating organisation. The aim of the
language training is the command of oral every day speech with a
special focus on the terminology of social care. Through language
training the volunteer should be enabled to manage typical situations
of daily life they will be confronted with during their voluntary
service.
Apart from language learning the language training serves as a weekly
meeting for European Volunteers from several EVS projects situated in
the region. Every month a day of studies will be organised vor the
volunteers, where the volunteers can seek advise for their choice of
occupations in future, meet counselors from universities and colleges,
visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg, go on excursions, or take
part in cultural events. The content of this program will be discussed
by the group and participation is left up to the volunteers.
C.
Volunteers should have a basic knowledge of German and have an interest
in, and willingness to work with older and partly gerontopsychiatric
disordered people. It's necessary for volunteers to be sociable and
outgoing, to have enthusiasm, and to be open to foreign cultures. They
should be able to interact well with groups of people. An enthusiastic,
responsible and flexible attitude towards the work is important.
Volunteers should be willing to learn new skills and share own
experince with others, be able to work as a team and contribute to the
process and be open to new ideas and be flexible to work in a variety
of settings.
Candidates should describe their motivation for a voluntary service in
this project in a detailed motivation letter. Important are neither
national or social background, gender, language skills nor level of
education, but a convincingly motivation..
D.
Volunteers with special needs could be accepted after consultation with
the hosting organisation to find and to agree appropriate opportunities
of voluntary activities
E.
Risk prevention and support for European Volunteers will be provided on several levels.
The head of the nursing staff in the Princely Fürstenberg Residential
Home for the Elderly will act as a tutor for the volunteer. She will
support the volunteer from the first contact to the delivery of the
final report. She will prepare the application together with the
coordinating and sending organisation as well as the volunteer. She
will take care for practical preparations in the host organisation and
prepare the arrival of the volunteer. During the voluntary service she
will support the volunteer in all administrative affairs (announcement
at the registry office, applying for residence permit, opening an
account with the bank, insurance affairs etc.). She will take care
about the integration of the volunteer into the hosting project, will
acquaint her/him with the regulations. In case of difficulties and
problems she will act as the first and leading contact person.
Regularly she will hold evaluation meetings with the volunteer.
Furthermore, the coordinating organisation offers regular mentoring
throughout the volunteer's stay, providing personal and operational
support (to help volunteers cope with living arrangements, day-to-day
tasks, etc). In addition volunteers will meet weekly during language
training volunteers from other projects from the region to exchange
experiences.
The applicant organisation will send the volunteer to the on-arrival
training and the obligatory mid-term-meeting organised by the National
Agency.
To prevent crises from occurring in the first place, volunteers will be
given any training necessary for them to carry out their tasks.
The hosting organisation offers the candidates to spend 4 or 5 days in
an preparatory visit on-site so they become familiar with the projects
program and understand their responsibilities. For this preparatory
visit, the hosting organisation pays food, lodging and an allowance of
100 Euros to cover travel expenses. After this visit the candidates can
decide without any obligation whether they want to participate in the
project.
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=6001194035
Germany
Long term
6 - 12 month starting January 2010


