Organisatsiooni kirjeldus:

We, the protestant Emmaus-Ölberg Church Community of Berlin/Kreuzberg, consider ourselves as a communication platform for people who try to find their spiritual needs or want to exchange their views of God with others. And as well, we are part of the neighbourhood where we want be able to match the needs of the people in Kreuzberg. Our Church is run by a well-established staff of community members with different duties and responsibilities: priest, deaconess, cantor, Sexton’s office workers, a technician and of course our church members, voluntary helpers and the "Gemeindekirchenrat", which is the democratically elected board of local church members. Our Church-community has about 3.300 members, administers two church buildings and a kindergarten with a nice outdoor area. The Church is located in Kreuzberg, which is a very nice, mixed and colourful part of Berlin, but which faces also quite a few social challenges. One key aspect of our work is helping homeless and socially deprived people. Therefore, we offer a breakfast twice a week for free, our guests can take a shower, talk and relax or ask for help with papers for public authorities. Apart from that we host and offer a range of group-activities engaged in religious, social, political or health issues. Another key interest is music. We have two church choirs, one with almost 100 members that performs the big oratorios and a smaller one with about 20 members. We have a kids' choir once a week and other music groups like brass. The main activity area of the European Volunteers will be to run the church café ("Weltcafe"), which is inside the Emmaus-Church. During the week, the café is a central meeting point for the local community. There are some well attended occasions like the kids-choir-afternoon and the homeless-cafes twice a week in the morning. In the afternoons from 2 -6 p.m. the café is an open place for families, seniors and others. The volunteer is introduced to the EVS step by step and will be supported by staff-members and other voluntary helpers. The volunteer will become responsible for the tasks involved with running the café. Further, he/she will become the main person of contact for guests. Connected with the café are task like plan the grocery list, do the shopping, prepare salads and/or soups for the homeless-breakfast, set up the buffet, serve food, do the dishes, make the kitchen, clean kitchen and toilets. On the afternoons prepare coffee and cookies or cakes for the afternoon, tidy up café area and help/give advice to guests. During the year, the volunteers get to know the different religious and cultural feasts and activities of the church. The volunteer is invited to establish with the time own activities with guests/children visiting the church café and during annual events, like activities for children (depending on own interests and skills of the volunteer), activities and support at the annual project-week in springtime in cooperation with the local schools or organisation with help an overnight-stays for children in the Emmaus-Church or similar. The volunteer attends the weekly staff meetings where the whole team plans and discusses the following week or other projects. The volunteers has a mentor-contact-person in the team to speak and reflect regularly about the EVS and the stay in Berlin. The volunteers will get experienced in the work with homeless people, to work in a team, to work independently, communicate with people of all kinds of ages and social backgrounds. We will be happy to learn from the culture, experiences and interests of our volunteers coming to us. We like to welcome and affiliate European volunteers, who - are open-minded to work within a Christian community - are active/interested in the charity/homeless work - are want to get involved with other people from different social backgrounds - want to learn/improve German actively - like to work in a team / work independently Other important aspects: The EVS at the Emmaus-Ölberg-Kirchengemeinde will start together with several other EVS-partner projects coordinated by “ijgd LV Berlin e.V” (ijgd). The accommodation of this group of EVS volunteers is coordinated by ijgd. The volunteer will live in a nice flat in the church tower, with 2 other young people/volunteers - one room each, sharing bath, kitchen. ijgd will assign a tutor, who will accompany the volunteers on their first days in Berlin and through the year together with the staff-teams of the hosting projects. Applicants contact their EVS-sending-organization and/or please contact our EVS-coordinating partner-organization “ijgd LV Berlin e.V”. (see 2013-DE-119). In general the volunteer service starts each year at the 1st of September and ends end of August. Applications are welcome from January on of the same year.