Volunteers are expected to have basic skills in german language, for school project an intermediate level is required.

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. 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...

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..