The organisation
Local environment and community
Klodzko has a town hall and a monumental fortress with an underground route. In Klodzko there are also many different shops, some pubs, one cinema, libraries, museum, Local Culture Center and Culture Education Center. It is also possible to spend free time in parks and in the sport center (stadium). Klodzko has a couple of interesting churches which are situated in the centre of town. There are also many spa towns nearby and the Sto³owe (Table), Bystrzyckie and the Bialskie Mountains. The region of Klodzko is surrounded by hill ranges forming a natural barrier separating it from the rest of the country and the Czech Republic close-by. Thanks to means of transport (bus or train) it is possible to get to some bigger towns like Wroclaw or Opole, or to Prague only 200km away. The biggest problem in K³odzko and the surrounding area is high and increasing unemployment, which currently stands at around 38 %. This results in many economic and social concerns (e.g. lack of cultural life and youth facilities, lack of public transport, lack of tourist facilities, etc). Currently the region is trying to promote its many interesting places to visit and beautiful countryside in order to increase tourism, create jobs, and regenerate the area.

Experience and need for EVS volunteers:
The volunteers will be assited by the mentor from the hosting organistaion and by a teacher in the school (who will normally speak a common language with the volunteer). The volunteer will work with a wide age range of children (4-13) so should be prepared to plan activitiies tailored for the different age groups. In the school there are a number of clubs for the children (for example European club, conversation club and art club), which could become much more lively through the participation of a volunteer. There is also the opportunity to get involved in sports with children (for example skiing or basketball) and to organise any activities in which the volunteer is interested (for example theatre, dance or music groups).

Previous volunteers have also assisted with nonformal education in form of after-school guided language conversations, giving presentations and talking with the children. There is also the opportunity to work in the cantine with young children, which requires the volunteer to prepare some simple and fun games and to have a lot of energy!

Educating our children with similar projects and an extension of the European theme is vital to allowing the local community and the Ziemia Klodzka region to continue to balance and improve its social and economic infrastructure.

There is a possibility for the volunteer to take part in a number of activities within our organisation, for example:
1) Running a European Club in the school to tell young children (from ages 6-13) about different countries, cultures and religions in the European Union.
2) Assisting the language teachers during lessons, for example, helping with pronounciation, giving conversations and preparing some materials.
3) Working with the young children in the school (age 4-6) organising games and activities (possibly in English) for them during and after classes.
4) Running after school clubs such as art club, theatre club or some team sports.
5) Participating in the monthly 'Euroweek' camps for young people from all over Poland and leading presentations at these camps on various subjects (EU, stereotypes, the volunteer's country etc).
6) Giving country presentations to other schools in the area (including the schools that the other volunteers work in).
7) Giving conversation classes to local youths and adults.

It is hoped that the volunteer will be open-minded, flexible, and ready to participate in many of these activities. All volunteer's tasks do not substitute professional work. The volunteer work is unpaid, non-profit-making, of importance to the community and in the common interest. The volunteer's tasks do not contain an administrative character, because full-time employees of school perform these tasks. Tasks are not designed in order to achieve profit, because school is a public institution with no aim to make financial gain from their activities. The general aim of the project is that while working voluntarily for us the volunteer will acquire social, intercultural and personal skills, enabling him/her to lay the foundation for his/her own future and at the same time as contributing to the well being of our community.

Most of the time, the volunteer will work in a group, sharing the work with volunteers from other countries. This atmosphere and task-sharing is aimed to promote common understanding among the group, and allow them to share their problems and also have fun together.
At the beginning of the volunteer's programme, he/she will be introduced to their duties by their mentor, other volunteers, or a teacher (in the case of work within schools) but it is hoped that the volunteer will soon learn to carry out their activities alone and increasingly require less assistance.
Volunteers work five days a week, usually for 6 hours a day, with weekends free. When it is necessary for volunteers to work a day at the weekend they receive a free day in the week to compensate for this. All volunteers also receive two days holiday a month, which can be used anytime during the project with agreement from the mentor.
Throughout their project, the volunteer will receive Polish lessons in order to help make his/her integration into the community and contact with Polish children easier. The volunteer will have two 90 minute lessons a week in Bystrzyca Klodzka (a small town 17km from Klodzko where the office of the host organisation, EFM, is located) with other volunteers from the host organisation for which money for transport will be paid. There's possible to arrange English lessons for volunteer if he / she has got a will to improve it.
Through this project, volunteers will have the opportunity to learn the following:
- how to work with children with differet background,
- how to prepare and lead language classes,
- how to work with a group; methods of team building, communication and integeration,
- an introduction to working with people from different cultures.
Volunteers have a very important place in our organisation as they bring languages, interests, and a perspective from their country which allow them to carry out tasks we could not do without them. We hope that in return our organisation is able to give volunteers new skills and ideas to take back home to their country.

Factors that will be important for a perspective volunteer's work:
1)speaking English on a basic level (speaking a second language may also be useful but is not essential); there's a possibility to arrange language support for a volunteer if they have a desire to improve in a language (volunteers often share their language skills) and there willl be Polish lessons provided to help the volunteer communicate with local people.
2)an ability to establish contact easily with children and young people
3)creativity, flexibility, energy, enthusiasm, initiative, and the ability to adapt to new environments
4)good listening and communication skills
5)interests in culture - music, art, languages, sport
6)an ability to organise oneself and act independently