Dear colleagues,

 

now something about my fourth’s member – the Volunta (the educational institution of the German Red Cross)

 

at present there are several questions which could provide a starting point. Here the first:

 

The Volunta provides the so called “Freiwilliges soziales Jahr” (FSJ). The target group consists of two actors. On one side there are young persons (15 to 25 years old – they like to orientate themselves before going to university or doing an apprenticeship), on the other side there are social institutions (emergency medical services, nursing homes etc.), which like to benefit from their manpower that is reasonably priced.

To have a FSJ means for the young person to work for such a social institution (during a period of 12 months) and to have a certain number of training days (25 days).

Now the Volunta not only arranges the FSJs but also provides the 25 training days for the young persons doing the FSJ.

One important mandate the Volunta gave itself is to provide to every young person interested in a FSJ the same opportunity to obtain a FSJ. This is: Even those youngsters who are educationally marginalised should have the possibility to obtain a FSJ (what means: Should have the possibility to develop as a person by doing a FSJ).

But there is a difficulty: The social institutions are only interested in young persons who are hard-working, reliable, honest etc. So the Volunta tends to place only her best candidates. The consequence is: The Volunta tends to neglect the sketched mandate (give everyone the same chance).

Now one SE activity within the Volunta could be to develop a selection procedure that allows even to place educationally marginalised youngsters (because the Volunta knows: These youngsters won’t disappoint the social institution and these youngsters will benefit from the FSJ).

 

Perhaps you have ideas how to provide a correct selection?

 

All the best,

 

Karl