A. Project environment: profile of the organisation and local community
International Office at Balikesir University (INOBALUN) aims at promotion of international cooperation between the teaching staff/students/youth of Balýkesir University and that of European organizations. It organizes projects within the framework of Leonardo, Erasmus and Youth programs of European Union.

The primary target group of INOBALUN in terms of the Youth Program is its enrolled students aged 17-30. INOBALUN gives great emphasis on having its students to interact and to do joint activities with European counterparts because it believes that such interactions would seriously contribute to the intellectual and personal development of its students.

Our major activities in the International Office include, but are not limited to, the following typical activities:
" Organization of youth exchanges within the framework of the Youth Program.
" Organization of seminars, conferences, workshops and youth initiatives projects for our students.
" Offering leisure activities and social and cultural integration activities for young people.
" Promoting European values and cooperation among students, teaching staff and all other workers in our University.
" We also take active roles in determining youth policies at the local level. In this sense, we are a member of the Supreme Committee of Youth Services of Balýkesir, an official institution led by the governor of Balýkesir.
" Organization of projects within the framework of Leonardo and Erasmus Programs.
" Involvement in EVS projects both as a hosting and sending organization.

The project proposed will take place in Balýkesir city, an under-industrialized town with a population of 250 thousand people. It is surrounded by seas, mountains, and forests. Its economy mainly depends on agriculture and tourism. Despite the fact that the city has a quite high rate of educated people, poverty and unemployment continue to be the major problems of the inhabitants of the city. Related to those, the numbers of dysfunctional families, single parents, and of children and young people who are substance-depended, who are run-away from home, and who are involved in violence and crime are increasing everyday. The city suffers from the lack of investments but is in quite well shape in terms of transportation, communication, accommodation and entertainment. After being neglected for many years, the city is now being restructured by the pioneering role of the current mayor. As far as public transport is concerned, there is a good network especially by busses and trains.
It takes only 2-3 hours by bus from Balýkesir to Ýzmir and Bursa, two of the biggest cities of Turkey. Living in Balýkesir is considered to be very cheap and easy. Especially in the summer time, Ayvalýk and Edremit, two provinces of Balýkesir, are full of tourists because of their beautiful beaches and mountains.

The main campus of the university is located outside of the city, 20 minutes by bus. Almost every ten minutes there is transportation to the campus. In the campus, there are two faculties (Faculty of Science and Letters and Faculty of Engineering and Architecture) and two occupational schools. Additionally, there are the buildings of the presidency, library, sports hall, health center, and social/cultural activities center. In the city center there are the Faculty of Education, Faculty of Fine Arts, and some occupational schools of the university.
The volunteers of the proposed project will be working in the main campus of the university. They will work closely with the project coordinator and the student clubs available in the university. The local transportation expenses of course will be covered. The volunteers will have an office, computers and Internet access for their work. They will be able to participate in cultural activities taking place in the campus while they will be able to enjoy traveling nearby provinces of the city. They will also get their lunch in the campus.


B. Proposed activities for EVS volunteers

Things that we offer to international volunteers:
We offer placements where a volunteer has got many possibilities to join different activities and do meaningful work. The members of staff are very open-minded and interested in working together with a volunteer from a different cultural and national background. They will facilitate a good learning and motivating working environment for the volunteer.
We will have three kinds of training program for the volunteers: First, we will provide Turkish lessons taught by an experienced private teacher. And second, we will provide training on Turkish system of higher education and student clubs in it, which will include field trips to various schools in our university. Throughout this training the volunteers will gain direct knowledge and experience about Turkish system of higher education student clubs. Third, we will offer trainings on Turkish music and dancing of various kinds.
We offer the volunteers to participate into our meetings and express their opinions and suggestions for the issues at hand. We encourage them to take active roles in all our activities.
Additionally, the volunteers will have numerous chances for cultural activities taking place around our organization as well as in and around Balýkesir city, where, especially in the Spring time, many concerts take place. Furthermore, the volunteers will be able to participate into picnics, trips to nearby towns, and tournaments organized by student clubs in our university. If interested, the volunteers will also be able to join to Turkish folk music and Traditional Turkish dance courses. All members of the organization will be looking for opportunities by which the volunteers can be integrated to local people. To be able to do that, the project and the volunteers will be introduced to the public via the media.
The volunteers will have a mentor who will be ready for consultation and help all the time. Besides the mentor, almost all members of our organization are willing to help out the volunteers whenever necessary.
The volunteers will share a flat with other volunteers. We offer a room-for-one for the volunteers (a room-for-two might also be the case). In addition, we will provide Internet service for the volunteers during their stay.
Besides, we will create opportunities for the volunteers to benefit from the utilities of the university and to interact with university students in our city, especially with those students who are involved in the University's Society of Volunteering Elder Brothers and Sisters.
Finally, the volunteers will have lunch in their work places. Additionally, the volunteers will receive 100 Euro per month for breakfasts, dinners and for food at weekends as well as for local transportation. Of course, the volunteers will also get the pocket money, which is 85 Euro for Turkey per month.

The Roles of the volunteers:
The volunteer will work in our university environment. The biggest proportion of the volunteer's time will be used in teaching European languages to our students and young teaching staff. However, s/he will be asked to spend some portions of his/her time for other types of activities described below:
The tasks of the volunteer in terms of the approximate rates of his/her working time in general will be as the following:
1) Participation to activities of student clubs in the university: % 15
2) Teaching European languages to students and young teaching staff in the university: % 35
3) Participating to the meetings/activities of INOBALUN and working with the project coordinator: % 10
4) Promotion of and guidance for the Youth in Action Program among our students : % 20
5) Learning Turkish language and Training on music and dancing of Turkish culture: % 15
6) Training on higher educational system and student clubs in Turkey: % 5

The draft of volunteer activities in a typical week will look like what follows:

Monday morning:
" Turkish language course (2 hours).
" Training on Turkish educational system and student clubs (2 hours)
Monday afternoon:
" Promotion of and guidance for the Youth in Action Program among our students (2 hours)
" Teaching European languages to our students and young teaching staff (3 hours)

Tuesday morning:
" Participation to the meetings/activities of INOBALU and work with the coordinator (2 hours).
" Promotion of and guidance for the Youth in Action Program among our students (2 hours).
Tuesday afternoon:
" Participation to the activities of student clubs in the university (2 hours)
" Teaching European languages to our students and young teaching staff (3 hours)

Wednesday morning:
" Participation to the activities of student clubs in the university (2 hours)
" Intercultural learning (1 hour).
Wednesday afternoon:
" Promotion of and guidance for the Youth in Action Program among our students (2 hours)
" Teaching European languages to our students and young teaching staff (3 hours)

Thursday morning:
" Turkish language course (2 hours).
" Participation to the activities of student clubs in the university (2 hours)
Thursday afternoon:
" Participation to the meetings/activities of INOBALU and work with the coordinator (2 hours).

Friday morning:
" Intercultural learning (1 hour).
Friday afternoon:
" Promotion of and guidance for the Youth in Action Program among our students (2 hours)
" Teaching European languages to our students and young teaching staff (3 hours)

The volunteer will be working a total of 35 hours/week (language course included). No work is involved at weekends. The descriptions of all those activities are explained below.

A) Participation to the activities of Student Clubs in the University:
In our university, there are 22 active student clubs involved in various activities such as clibing, theater, music, dancing, cinema and photography, Internet, healty life, literature, environment, helping the needy, etc. All those clubs gather around and organize many events during the whole year. The volunteers, according to their own interests, can get involved in some (or all) of those clubs and contribute to their workd with his/her fresh ideas and opinions. They will be encouraged to participate in the activities of those clubs and they will be supported with all means available. One special expactation from the volunteers in this regard is that they would bring an international aspect to the activities of those student clubs by organizations of youth exchance projects .

B) Teaching European languages to students and young teaching staff in the university
Teaching foreign languages is known to be problematic not only in Turkey but also in all over the world. Although students take language (usually English) lessons for years and years, they end up with no speaking and reading skills. This is largely because they do not have the necessary motivation to learn it. They tend to think that they will never need a foreign language in their lives. Of course this is not true. Rather, learning a foreign language is very important for many reasons. The most importantly, it is necessary because of its potencial contribution to the intellectual development of young people. A new language is a gate to a new world.
We think that our students (and young teaching staff) would learn European languages more easily if they get in contact with European people in their daily lives. Trying to speak with them but being unable to do it would motivate our students to really learn a language. From another point, we think that learning a European language would motivate our students to get more interested and active in international youth activities.
Thus, an important part of the volunteers' work in this project will be teaching European languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, etc) to our interested students (and young teaching staff). In order to get succesful results out of those teaching activities we expact that the volunteers would develop and apply innovative methods during this work. In the process of this work, of course, we will provide all the necessary materials and office supply.
The purpose of this work is not replacing the formal training of foreign languages. Formal training in this regard already exists. What we wish to achieve is to shoe that our students would be more interested and motivated in learning foreign languages if they directly get in contact with European people and if informal teaching methods are used. We also wish to prove that such an experience would create more desire among our students to be involved in international activities.

C) Participation to the activities of INOBALUN and Work with the Project Coordinator:
The volunteers will be working, in certain days and hours, in our office as well. We usually make a weekly meeting with the staff of our office and we plan various activities for the local youth. The volunteers will be welcomed to participate to these meetings and activities. Throughout their participation to our meetings and activities, the volunteers will have a chance to intensify their knowledge and skills about youth work and to develop closer relationships with our staff. The volunteers will work with our staff toward the planning, preparation and realization of future projects and they will be encouraged to share their ideas and suggestions with us.
The volunteers has got the possibility to help the coordinator in the office and also to accompany him during project visits and team meetings. In order to keep the track and effects of the activities the volunteers organized, the coordinator will ask monthly written reports about them.

D) Promotion of and guidance for the Youth in Action Program among our students:
We will provide opportunities for the volunteers to contact with the students of Balikesir University so that they can interact with Turkish university youth. In the context of this work, the volunteers will be asked to introduce the youth program of the EU, especially EVS and youth exchange (action 1.1). They will also be asked to guide to those students who are interested in EVS and/or in action 1. They may guide by training the students on how to write a CV and motivation letter and how to find a hosting organization, etc.
The volunteers will be asked to follow the announcements of youth projects offering partnerships and let our students know immediately about them. For this purpose, we will make the volunteers be able to access to the web site of our office. The volunteers will also be able to prepare and publish some brochures, leaflets, posters, etc. Expenses of such material will be covered by the project budget.
After a few months upon their arrival, the volunteers may want to start publishing a weekly newspaper for the students. Such newspaper would contain news and announcements regarding youth local, national and international youth projects and events as well as articles on youth issues.

F) Turkish Language Course:
The volunteer will get an intensive Turkish language course (at least 10 hours per weel) during the fist month of his/her arrival. Then the lessons will continue at least 4 hours in a week by an experienced private teacher.

E) Intercultural Learning:
The volunteer will have chances to attend several courses on traditional Turkish arts such as Turkish folk dances, Turkish Country music, Turkish handcrafts, Anatolian wearing styles, etc. Furthermore, throughout his/her interactions with university students the volunteer will have many other possibilities of cultural learning. We will create suitable conditions for the volunteers to participate into cultural activities that student groups at the University organize. On the other hand, if the volunteers want to organize cultural activities that reflect their own culture, then we will do our best to make those activities possible.

G) Training on higher educational system and student clubs in Turkey:

Besides Turkish language lessons and intercultural learning opportunities, we will also try to get familiarize the volunteers to Turkish higher educational system and the operation of student clubs in that system. Of course such training would take relatively a short time (probably 1-2 hours per week) during only one month. For the rest of the voluntary service period, we will focus on cultural training for the volunteers.



C. Volunteer profiles and recruitment process
The volunteers should have a mature, open-hearted personality. They should believe in and enjoy working with and for young people because this is the major type of persons they will be working for. The project is open to both sexes. Candidates who hold strong abilities in language teaching (especially European languages such as English, French, German and Spanish) are preferred. Candidates also should be knowledgeable about the Youth in Action Program because part of their responsibility will be promoting of this program among our students. Due to our lack of experience yet, we do not wish to host a volunteer in special needs for the moment (maybe in the future this might be possible after we gain some direct experience). Some knowledge of Turkish language and culture might be helpful but is not compulsory. We would appreciate it if the sending organization would be willing to accept volunteers from our organization in return.
To ensure an open and transparent recruitment process as well as the overall accessibility of EVS to all young people we will announce this project and our free placements in a number of cyber places including EVS Works, which is known to have a wide audience.

E. Risk prevention, safety and protection

Before their arrival to the Project environment, volunteers will be well-informed, through the Internet and telephone calls, about how to travel to Balýkesir safely. They will be picked up by our staff from the bus terminal to the place where they will be staying in. After the welcoming party, we will introduce them to the mentor, project coordinator, and other staff in our organization. Additionally, we will give them some material like city map, rules of the living place, important numbers of key persons and places. Furthermore, we will organize an orientation program for the volunteers. During this orientation, we will teach and show them how and where certain things are done in the city.
In the first week, we will also explain, to the volunteers, what the aims and objectives of the project as well as the rules of the working place are. Then we will give them a work schedule and answer the questions they may have.
Starting from the very first week, we will provide an intensive Turkish language course for the volunteers and teach them some important aspects of Turkish culture. However, especially during the first a few weeks, we will make sure that several young members of our organization spend enough time with them in order to overcome possible communication difficulties.
On the other hand, we will inform our local polis about the arrival and duration of stay of our volunteers in Balýkesir. This way, the police will be aware of the existence of the volunteers in the city and they will be supportive when necessary.
In addition to their monthly allowance, we will provide enough money for the volunteers to get food and/or cook for themselves. Before their arrival, we will ask them if they have any special needs and any allergies to any food. Male and female volunteers will stay in different flats where there will be hot water for 24 hours and where we will have first aid material ready. We will also take necessary measures against the risk of fire in the flats.
In the work places too we will have first aid material ready and take necessary measures against the risk of fire in the flats.
Given that a conflict between volunteers themselves or between the volunteers and the staff may arise any time, we will train the volunteers, in the first week of their arrival, about conflict analysis and ask them to inform the mentor and/or the coordinator about such cases. We will encourage them to point out such situations in the weekly evaluation meetings we will have with them. Besides, for the whole duration of the project, we will have a hierarchy of crises management that will be applied whenever necessary.