Voluntariado europeo en Caritas de Austria

In different Caritas Organisations in Upper Austria we want to have the support and ideas from European Volunteers. Caritas has already long term experience, some of the Caritas Organisations are new ones.
Please find below the description of the different hosting projects and when applying please mention the title of the project!

PROJECT 1 – Caritas für Menschen mit Behinderungen-St. Isidor

3 placements (start februrary and september 2018), place: Leonding

For the EVS project we have 1 department, where the volunteer will be a part of the team. It is the department integrative kindergarden and insight into therapy for children. The volunteer then can bring in his culture, abilities, ideas, creativity to present his way of living/culture/background into cooking, singing songs, creating free time activities with the children and so on. So it is up to the volunteer to define the project. We give the volunteer to settle into the Kindergarden and later on the volunteer will be able to bring in his own ideas. (start 01.09.2018 till 31.08.2019)

The other 2 volunteers will be in complete different activity places: 1 will be in the kindergarten" and 1 will be in the afterschool/support area. (start 01.02.2018-31.01.2019)

The volunteers will get to know a different culture and insight into work with children & handicapped persons. Thus our clients will have the possibility of getting to know people from home country of the volunteer, so they can widen their horizon through discussions, meetings and cultural exchanges.

This could be achieved by presentation of typical music from the volunteer´s country, singing songs from that country, cooking meals (together) and the exchange of cultural habits. As there are also a lot of Austrian volunteers and staff members, the volunteer can easily get in touch with Austrian youths, customs, mentality and language. Thus intercultural learning and communication shall be the aim for both the volunteer and the host organisation!
Accommodation: The EVS volunteers will be accommodated in a flat near the hostingprojects, in a safe area with room on their own. Exceptionally, if problems arise, our team will find alternatives…..

They will receive full support from our staff and from their mentors.

Food/Meals: Each volunteer will receive a food of the project and allowance to cover his needs for all meals of the day.

Working hours: The volunteers will have a flexible programme, depending on a large array of factors.
It will be maximum 7 hours/day distributed throughout the day as needed.

PROJECT 2 – Caritas für Menschen mit Behinderungen-St. Isidor – 1 placement (start 08.01.2018-31.12.2018),
place: Leonding

This EVS will be in a living group for children

Tasks: support in the flat, support in the free time of the children, with shopping, learning/homework, living in general; playing, seasonal cultural parties, sports activities, swimming, excursions with them, baking cakes, bringing in own ideas.. to welcome them after their time at school, when they are coming home. In 1 living group there are normally about 5 children, in St. Isidor all together 90

Accommodation: The EVS volunteers will be accommodated in a flat near the hostingprojects, in a safe area with room on their own. Exceptionally, if problems arise, our team will find alternatives…..

They will receive full support from our staff and from their mentors.
Food/Meals: Each volunteer will receive a food of the project and allowance to cover his needs for all meals of the day.

Working hours: The volunteers will have a flexible programme, depending on a large array of factors.
It will be maximum 7 hours/day distributed throughout the day as needed.

PROJECT 3 – Caritas für Menschen mit Behinderungen – St. Elisabeth (1 placement),
start 01.02.2018-31.12.2018, place Linz

Newly reaccreditated, that`s why not in the database yet!

We would like to deploy the future Erasmus+ volunteer in the project called "educational qualification". The project "educational qualification" is responsible for the training and qualification for young people with disabilities at the age of 15 to 30 years. These young people have difficulties to find a job or vocational training. It lasts 3 years and offers 108 young people with disabilities the chance to get a qualification, according to their strengths, interests and needs.

They have the opportunity to start a vocational training (or a part of it) as a cook, baker, shopkeeper, cutter, metal worker. Our participants can also get a qualification as cook assistant, housekeeper, metal worker, bicicle repairer a.s.o. ). We try to focus on the individual strengths and wishes. The practical education is accompanied by regular learning sessions, training job skills, individual coachings and internships in companies.

The aim of the project is to integrate young people with disabilities into free labour market.

The volunteer will assist staff members in the project "educational qualification" and help to train and educate a group 4 – 8 young people with disabilities. He/she will support our staff in daily routines, e.g. assisting leading training-sessions, learning with the youths, training job competences, social competences. It is also possible to lern french and english with the younsters

Example:
The topic for a training-session is: Which skills are important for a job?
The staff and the volunteer will prepare this session. Together they work with the youths on this topic.
What can the volunteer learn?
– working in multi-professional teams
– pursuing the individual goals (for the youths) together with the staff and the youths
– assisting people with disabilities on high pedagogic standards

Accomodation:
We provide a small appartement for the volunteer in the building, where he/she will work. The accomodation is equipped with a small kitchen, shower/WC, TV, WLAN. A washing machine is also available in the house.
Local transportation is possible. Linz has a good public transport system. Within about 10 minutes by bus (30 minutes on foot) he/she will be in town, where a lot of restaurants and shops are available.

PROJECT 4- Caritas für Menschen mit Behinderungen – INVITA
Start: 08.01.2018-31.12.2018

Newly reaccreditated, that`s why not in the database yet!
Place: Engelhartszell

(In the beautiful countryside of Upper Austria – just next to the Danube – in a small village called Engelhartszell – Caritas invita is located. To give you an idea about where Engelhartszell is: it is about 56 kilometers from Linz, the capital of Upper Austria and about 29 kilometres from Passau, Germany.

Invita is part of the Upper Austrian Caritas department for “People with disabilities”). Our volunteers will live and work at our site in Engelhartszell. Ezell (how we call it) has about 1.000 inhabitants and is a village in the countryside, just next to the Danube. It may be small but especial for lovers of the countryside and the outdoors it has plenty to offer. Hundreds of kilometres of bike- and hiking trails just wait to be explored, such as the world famous long distance hiking trail who leads from Passau to Grein (450 km) or the long distance Danube cycle path. Within minutes, you can reach by car in winter a cross-country skitrail. In the summer month you will have the possibility to go to the outdoor pool with bathing access to the Danube in Ezell. In Ezell you will also find a tennis
court, a few shops, a supermarket, a doctor, a firedepartment, a police station, and a emergency medical service.

Here you will find everything you need for your daily needs. In Upper Austria, we have many lakes and mountains, which just wait to be explored. You may also take trips on the boat to Passau or Linz or even further.

By car the next bigger cities are just about an hour drive away. Passau (Germany) can be reached within 29 km and the Upper Austrians capital Linz is only 56 km away. In these cities you will find malls, movie theatres, nightlife, etc. Therefore it would be useful if our volunteers are in possession of a valid driving license class B. Ezell has a public transportation system (busses), which run on a regular basis e.g. to Linz, Schärding, Passau but only a few times a day and on a reduced schedule on weekends. So you will have the possibility to use our company cars for leisure time activities.

In order to explore the close surroundings of Engelhartszell, we provide a bicycle to every of our volunteers, if
needed.

Depending on an applicant’s experience and preferences, we will be able to address the right kind of tasks. Typical tasks will be to support our clients to run their household, prepare food, support our clients the with the daily routines (dressing, cooking, writing, reading, talking, cleaning, etc.), accompany them to their work places and during their leisure time (taking a walk, out and indoor activities, movies, swimming, theatre, concerts, etc.), or the accompaniment to the hospital, doctors, or to authority transitions.

Our volunteers will have their own furnished bedroom with a shared bathroom. Every room is equipped with a bed, TV, and access to free WiFi. Here in Engelhartszell we have an operational¡ kitchen for the stuff and for the clients. Our future volunteers will have access to free meals and can order goods for their daily needs from our operational kitchen. In order to ensure unlimited mobility we can offer to our volunteers our company car (therefor it will be necessary to bring a valid driving license class B). Our volunteers will also be equipped with a bicycle for their own use, if need.

How to apply