A.
The Primary School is situated in the estate Ehrenfeld in the West of Cologne. By tram you reach the city centre in 5 minutes. The project is based within the school building. Ehrenfeld is a changing estate. The former working-class estate has changed into a mixture of different cultures,life styles and religions. There live many well-integrated foreigners, many young Academic families, many students and many artists. Therefore a lot of the children in the project come from a migrant background (Turkey, Greece, Italy, Albania, ..). For them it is interesting to meet a volunteer from their nationality, e.g Italian. The volunteer could offer specific games and cultural costums to all the kids. Cologne has got a million inhabiants and is one of the biggest cities in Germany. It is situated in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germans region with the highest population. Belgium and the Netherlands can be reached in an hour by car. For it locates important industries it has been a magnet for workers from all over Europe, so it hosts people with many different cultural and national backgrounds. Cologne is a university city with more than 50,000 students. So it offers a wide range of cultural activities and alternative subcultures. The inhabitents are considered as open-minded and well-humored.
B.
The volunteers get integrated into the team. They have a tutor who introduces and explains the schedules and the tasks. They get to know the projects and areas of the OGTS: Homework club, free games, Sports- and Games, Preparation of meals (food gets delivered), different projects and workshops offered to the kids. They can actively join the different workshops and take over active parts. The have the possibility to discover and develop their own skills and interests such as their creativity. They can offer their own activities with the help of the tutor and the other members of staff. They can learn what they are good at and what they like. Through their commitment they will gain new experiences and gain more self esteem. They always get feedback from the members of staff as well as from the kids. They get to know teamwork, team meetings, planning and organising activities, trip, etc. All the volunteers get encouraged to think of their own little project and supported by running it. The volunteers get to know the German school system, they taste German food and recipes. Our aim is also that the volunteers learn more about the different ways of living and getting to know the living conditions of children and families here. Through the children they also get an insight in how the families live here. They practice dealing with children in general and with colleagues. They learn how to develop their own projects, how to fill the children with enthusiasm and how to motivate them. Last but not least they learn German. IN VIA always hosts more volunteers at the same time. Therefore the vounteers in the OGTS will also meet other volunteers from other countries and also learn about other fields of work. The volunteers work additionally in the project. They support the work according to their skills. They are additional "adults" and people of interest for the children. The kids invite the volunteers to play and paint with them. They are curious and would like to find out more about the volunteers and their background. The volunteers are not alone in the project. They do not take over responsibility.

C.
We are open for hosting volunteers from all partners. For us it is important that the volunteers are interested in working with children. It would be good if they had practical or theoretical experiences in this range. The sending organisations with which we want to work together, should give us information about the need of support of the volunteers, so that we can decide if we are able to give this support in this period of time.

D.
In the day care centres we have the possibilty to host volunteers with special needs because we have big teams there. They are open-minded and experienced in general contact with volunteers. We are experienced in hosting disadvantaged volunteers and know what that means. The children are curious and approach the volunteers without prejudices. The volunteers are supported by staff and other volunteers. In their accomodation the pedagogical staff provides a 24 hours service. That means that the voulnteers would have a contact person in case of need. Local volunteers take the volunteers out for free time activities. There are students who can offer private german lessons. We always have many volunteers, also longterm-volunteers. Our experience shows that they also support each other.

E.
The volunteers and sending organsiations get all important information so that they do not come here with wrong expectations. We can also arrange a prep visit. We make reports and pictures from previous volunteers available. They also shall get in contact with other volunteers who are already in this project (phone or eMail).We make sure that the volunteers feel comfortable , that rooms are clean and in order etc. We give them a list with phone numbers of the tutors and a plan for the first week. The volunteers have different tutorsfor different circumstances: The guiding person in the project as well as a person at the same age as a contact person for leisure time and coordination of the project and also the german teacher. Alongside the volunteers have contact to the sending organsisation. They take part at all seminars that the german national agency provides and there they will meet staff of the German National Agency.

Since 2000 IN VIA After-School-Club has been a Hosting Organisation for EVS longterm and Shortterm volunteers. We have made good experiences with either target group. The volunteers support the work in the clubs. The children become acquainted with different cultures, ways of thinking and can learn words of a new language. Members of staff, parents, teachers and children gain European awareness. The children have an additional "adult" to play with and to share their stories with. The volunteers get to know the German School-System and by working closely with the families and in the community they also get a good insight in the daily life in a big city in Germany.
We would like to host volunteers with special needs during our summerschool programme. In addition we like to host volunteers for one school year.

The IN VIA Offene Ganztagsschule in the Common Primary School in Köln-Ehrenfeld is day care centre for primary school children. The children are aged between 6 and 10 years. They come from different national and social backgrounds. The project was found because the end of a school day in primary school is quite unregular. School finishes at any time between 11 and 12.30. Therefore it is difficult for working parents to pick up the children in time. Some children attend the centre to get the regular meal and care that their parents cannot or do not offer to them.
The centre opens between 10 a.m. and 4.00 p.m from Monday to Friday. The children come straight after class. Between 11 and 12.30 there are approx. 10 children in the centre. Between 12.00 and 14.00 it is peaktime - all the kids are there. Half the group leaves at 14.00. There are up to 100 children in the centre divided into different groups.
The child care centre is in the basement of the school building itself. The rooms have big windows and are very light.. The centre has got a big main room and access to smaller rooms, the gym, the kitchen, a dining area and the big and beautiful playground with trees and new playground gear. The children have lunch together, the meals get delivered form a catering service. In the afternoon there is the homework club, games, sports and leisure time activities. The centre runs different projects: e.g. hip-hop-project, theatre project, flute project, etc.
The staff consist of fulltime and parttime child care workers of whom one of them will be the tutor. The staff works closely with the teachers and the parents.