Project environment:
Activities during the voluntary service will be held in Tartu Herbert Masing School schoolhouse. The schoolhouse is situated in the centre of Tartu, Estonian second biggest town with approximately 100 000 inhabitants. Tartu is located in South-East of Estonia, 180 km from it's capital Tallinn. Other bigger city near Tartu is Riga, the capital of Latvia, which is approximately 230 km from Tartu. There is very good bus connection with Tallinn (and other bigger towns) and Riga.
Tartu is known as a university town - 50% of the population is somehow connected to the universities, either working or studying there. There are different possibilities for the volunteers to spend their free time, including ice-skating hall and a swimming pool. There is also a variety of cafeterias, restaurants, bars and night clubs for different tastes. For people interested in traditional culture of Estonia there are also different possibilities to get acquinted with national dances and songs.
Tartu is considered to be a green and a bit "slow" place to live in. The slogan of Tartu sais that it's a city of good thoughts, and people living in there are convinced that there is somewhat special "spirit of Tartu".
Volunteer will be living in student hostel where s/he will probably have to share an apartment with other (usually also foreign) students. Volunteer will have to prepare food for themselves, there is also kitchen in the hostel flat.
The project will take place from the end of August to beginning of June (from the beginning of the schoolyear to the end), so the volunteer has to be prepared to enjoy all four seasons of Estonia. In the wintertime temperature might vary from 0- -20° C, in the summertime from 18-25°C.
The schoolhouse itself is located in very centre of Tartu, approximately 5-10 min walk from the hostel. There are approximately 200 children and youngsters studying in the school, the lessons take place on one shift. Students have depending of their age 4-8 lessons per day, 5 days per week (one lesson lasts for 45 minutes, followed by a 10-20 min. break). Schoolday lasts for the children from 8.15 a.m to approximately 2 p.m from Monday to Friday. Volunteer will be working in different rooms in the school and will have access to all of the staff rooms in the schoolhouse.
Most of the students in our school have quite bad social skills, which might make communication with them rather difficult, especially if they are in a group. One on one communication is, on the other hand, rather enjoyable. There are more boys then girls amongst students. The target group is not violent and have rather good relations between each other. Still the motivation to attend school (or lessons, to be more exact), is very weak.
Staff of the school is rather small - around 40 people - but very active, friendly and laborious. Most of the studying is done in the schoolhouse, during the lessons, but teachers are also trying to make studying as interesting as possible for the students, so different methodologies and methods are used. Directorate of the school is always opened for new ideas and suggestions, so also the volunteers have a chance to give their input to the development of the school. School has also it's own traditions - such as hiking trips for all of the school, winter ball-dance etc - that makes working and studying in here more interesting and fun. Volunteer will have a chance to participate in all of these events and also to give his/her input in organising the events.


Proposed activities for EVS volunteers:
Volunteer will have a possibility to work with a variety of youngsters with fewer opportunities. This will give him/her from one hand a good possibility to gain more insight into different needs that different people might have and therefore help to develop sensibility towards the topic, but also to learn more about him/herself in the context of youth work with children and youngsters with special needs.
One of the biggest challenges and also learning possibilities for the volunteer will be living alone in an environment new to the volunteer. Being away from friends and relatives, managing with daily life on his/herself, making new contacts and friends in different culture context - all of that gives the volunteer a superb possibility to mobilize his/her inner resources and learn a lot about what is s/he capable of and helps to bring out his/her strongnesses and weaknesses. The exact learning points depend largely on the volunteer and will be discussed thoroughly before the volunteer arrives in Tartu and starts his/her service in the school.
As the volunteer will be working in a schoolhouse together with educational workers, s/he will also have a good possibility to learn more about Estonian educational and youth work system.
EVS volunteers will also bring new directions, international experiences and know-how to the host organisation. Involving volunteers to the work of THMK gives the school more international value. Youngsters will get to know different cultures, habits and games and widen their outlook generally. They will also enlarge the tolerance towards other people.
Volunteers main role in the school will be assisting and helping the staff to carry out different activities that are helping and supporting the students in their study process. This means all of the activities that the school organises outside of the classroom. These activities include hiking, organising themed weeks (e.g mathematics week, mother tongue week) in the schoolhouse, spring and Christmas balls, sports events etc. Volunteers tasks in these kind of events might vary from creating new and exiting ideas for the events to making the decorations and helping to keep order during the event itself. Volunteer will also be welcome to come up with ideas for a completely new events. We are also expecting the volunteer to be present in the schoolhouse during lessons and creating and carrying out activities for the recesses in order to keep the students active, interested and out of the trouble also outside of the classroom. As the volunteer will have most likely have slight language barrier with the students (at least in the beginning of the service), school workers will help him/her in communication with the youngsters.
One of the tasks of the volunteer is also to help teachers during the lessons - helping to keep the order, helping out children (especially in foreign language lessons), calming down and looking after the children who have been upset by something (also outside the classroom).No pedagogical preparation will be needed for this kind of help, and teachers will give exact descriptions of the tasks they expect from the volunteer.
Depending largely on the volunteer, one more of the tasks for the volunteer could be to carry out after lessons workshop for the students. The theme of the workshop would be completely dependent on the special knowledge and skills of the volunteer and s/he will be given free hand on organising and carrying out the workshop.
We will provide volunteers with Estonian language course that they could have possibility to start communication with our target groups as soon as possible. In this project, language is very important as most of youngsters and children speaks very poor English, but for their motivation and involvement in activities, organised by staff and volunteers, language is important.
Exact tasks of the volunteer will be created together with the volunteer before and soon after his/her arrival. In order to make the beginning of the service easier for the volunteer, there will be more concrete tasks in the beginning of the service (which also demand less direct communication with the students). Also the service will start two weeks before students arrive in the school, so that the volunteer will have a chance to get acquainted with the schoolhouse, staff and living environment.
Proposed daily schedule for the volunteer (an example how the day might look like):
8:00 beginning of the working day
8:15-11:55 Helping teacher during the lessons (there are 10-20 min breaks between the lessons, when the volunteer will have free time and possibility to eat)
12:00-14:00 Preparing posters/materials for extra curricula activities together with the person in charge of extra curricula activities in the school.
14:00-16:00 Preparing for the next school-day, going through tasks teachers have appointed

Volunteer profiles and recruitment process:
We don't have any specific criteria for the sex or age of the volunteers. Nevertheless - volunteers arriving in our school should be ready to work with a very variable target group, both in age and singularity of our students. It would be easier for the volunteer, if s/he had previous experience in working with children and/or youngsters. For us the most important criteria will still be motivation and willingness to work with our target group. Other criteria: volunteer should be sociable, creative and willing to share his/her knowledge and skills with our youngsters.
Curriculum Vitae and motivation letter are obligatory for applying for the project. Volunteer will be chosen according to the criteria mentioned above by a group of at least three people from the school (including headmistress and social pedagogue) in order to ensure objectiveness of the decision. If needed, possible volunteers will be connected via e-mail and phone to specify their motivation and possibilities to take part in the project. All of the applicants will be let known of the decision, either they are chosen, or not.
Call for the project will be open to everybody through mailing lists and the European database on EVS accredited organisations. We will also inform about the call organisations that people from our organisation have had successful cooperation in the past. Sending organisation does not have to have previous experience as EVS sending organisation, but should have been active on the field of youth work.
We would like to apply for the 1st of April deadline in order to start the activities in the middle of August.

Risk prevention, protection and safety:
We see cooperation between sending and hosting organisation as the most important risk prevention method. By knowing as much as possible about the future volunteer, we will be able to minimise all possible risks. Therefore before the project activities start, we will discuss all the potential situations which could appear as well with the sending organisation as well with the volunteer. The communication will mostly be done by email and phone. We will be happy encourage our future volunteers to ask us as much as possible about project and country conditions as it can mean a lot in conflict prevention during the project. We will also introduce volunteer to the laws of the country and local municipality as well as with rules and principles of the school. We will put a lot of efforts to establish good cooperation between our team, volunteer and mentors that we can prevent any potential crisis. This will also make much more easy for us to solve potential problems as we can relay on each other.
When volunteer arrives to Tartu, s/he will be introduced with all emergency numbers as well as with phone numbers and e-mails of mentor and other people from the school that can be of any help. The volunteer will have his/her own Estonian mobile phone number that we could reach each other easily.
Volunteer will be provided with Estonian language course to make it easier for him/her to blend in to local environment and to make it easier for to manage on him/herself in also everyday and crisis situations.
Volunteer will be performing his/her tasks in the schoolhouse. Safety of the working conditions in a schoolhouse are under constant monitoring by the owner of the school - Tartu city government. Living place of the volunteer - the student hostel - is also in accordance to safety conditions set by Estonian laws.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=28000141546