The Protestant Youth Work Hoyerswerda e.V. carries out social work with children and young people with orientation to christian values. In this connection it especially cooperates with the christian grammar school "Johanneum" in Hoyerswerda.
Offerings for children and young people in the region are carried out, an important part of this work is the participation of young people and adults as honorary co-workers. Trainings for these co-workers are regularly organized.
200 to 300 children and young people of the region take part in the offerings. The majority of them (about 70%) is member of the protestant church.
About 100,000 people live in the region where the offerings take place. Many villages (ca. 28), small cities and one bigger city with about 40,000 inhabitants are significant for the region.
A high unemployment rate (more than 20 per cent) and the moving away of young adults and families for occupational reasons is significant for this region because of many thousand cancelled jobs in the brown coal opencast mining. This is still the greatest employer of the region. The opencast mining has a formative influence on the landscape which is reshaped into a tourist region with many lakes. The economic structural change has begun but its consequences cannot be noticed yet.

The orientation to Christian values also contains the global attachment with other nations and cultures. The work of a volunteer is another possibility to make new experiences with other especially European areas possible for children, young people and co-workers.
Further we expect support from the volunteer with offerings and exchange for ideas and concepts which the volunteer can bring in from his region.
In connection with the training of honorary co-workers there are seminars with certain topics referring to youth work. These seminars are organized by selected seminar leaders. The participation of the volunteer at a work shop for full-time co-workers is planned.
A pedagogical qualified person will be the volunteer's mentor. S/He will accompany and assist the volunteer in weekly arrangements and at the activities in groups.
It is planned that the volunteer will work out a creative presentation concerning her/his home country and culture with the topic "My country, my descent" in cooperation with the Christian grammar school "Johanneum". S/He is supposed to present this in school classes in several subjects. Should the occasion arise this is possible in other schools, too.
Other activity fields of the volunteer can be: supraregional offerings for children and young people, school projects, work in youth groups of parishes, getting to know administrative tasks which are connected with the realization of offerings, mass sports activities
- school projects: The Evangelische Jugendarbeit (protestant youth work) cooperates with school body responsibles. In one primary school the EJ organizes two extracurricular activities where group games, handicraft work and telling stories are carried out with the children. In other schools special offers like games or information about the club are organized on special days like school parties etc.
- administrative work: In the administration work the volunteer gets to know the office work which is needed for the organisation of youth work and he can carry out this work on his own. This means i.e. looking through pedagogical material, servicing of data banks, designing and sending of invitations for up-coming events, telephone conversation.
- group work in parishes: This group work can be carried through by the volunteer with the help of several full-time and honorary co-workers. This mainly means games, creative offerings or adventure games. But there is also a part where stories from the bible are told and connected with the life of the young people.
- mass sports: The EJ organizes sport offerings for young people once a week (on Saturdays).This offering is not performance-oriented, but is supposed to support the fun about sports and the physical exercise of young people living in the city. Different kinds of sports are offered like soccer, basketball, hockey, but mainly volleyball.
Precisely the volunteer shall take part in three weekly organized children groups, one offering for young adults and one sports group. In addition to that there are weekly team arrangements for full-time co-workers.
Further there are some events which take place one time and which have to be prepared additional to the weekly tasks. A big children event (about 200 participants), a regional sports tournament and several events at weekends and camps are organized.
- children event: Once a year in May the EJ organizes a so-called "Jungschartag". About 70 co-workers organize this day by preparing and carrying out games tournaments, group games, work shops and a show.
- regional sports tournament: There is a regional volleyball tournament with participants from the different parishes once a year. Normally there is a stage programme with bands and theatre plays.
- weekend events and youth camps (for one week): These events are holiday courses with children and young people from the whole region taking part in. The events normally include overnight stay and have a special topic (i.e. Around the world in 80 days, Indians, Romans etc.). The content of the arrangement is similar to the group offerings, but the pedagogical demands are more heavy, because the group dynamics with the group have to be accompanied for a longer term.
The volunteer shall prepare and carry out games and creative offerings at these holiday courses. Later he shall reflect his actions with his mentor. Current topics of the child and youth work shall be worked on with methodical variety.

Possible timetable of the volunteer:

While school year:
Monday:
8-12 a.m. administrative work, correspondence, invitations for events, meeting to prepare events
2-4.30 p.m. preparation of the offerings, office work
Optional free time in case of participation in weekend activities
6.30 p.m. language training
Tuesday:
8-10 a.m. preparing for childrens' offerings and young adult's evening
10-12 a.m. discussion with other co-workers, evaluation with the mentor
3-5 p.m. children's afternoon in the parish of Wittichenau
6-9 p.m. young adult's evening in the parish of Bernsdorf
Wednesday:
9-14 a.m. offering in the Christian grammar school or other schools
4-5 p.m. preparing the project "My country, my descent"
Thursday:
8-10 a.m. preparing for childrens' offerings
10 a.m. - 1 p.m. preparing the camp (holiday courses), selecting topics
3-5 p.m. children's afternoon in the parish of Groß Särchen/YMCA Knappensee
6-8 p.m. discussion with managing committee (once a month)
Friday:
10 a.m.-1 p.m. offering in the primary school of Laubusch
3-6 p.m. children's afternoon in the parish of Groß Särchen/YMCA Knappensee
Saturday:
Possible, but not every week: 3-6 mass sports offerings
School holidays: holiday courses and camps
On the weekends: sometimes camps or participating in seminars
Many co-workers will offer to show the region and the local culture to the volunteer. For this the big amount of contacts and honorary co-workers is helpful.

he volunteer should be open to the orientation to Christian values of the work. S/He should be sociable to children and young people. As well the qualification which is provided with the change of the KJHG § 72 is to be observed.
S/He should be able to work on her/his own and to teamwork.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=6000956328