ESC: Volunteering at Sunnahof Tufers | Solidarity and Diversity in Vorarlberg

The volunteer will work five days a week, 34 hours a week including German course. S*he will have two days holiday per month.

In terms of learning opportunities, the volunteer will have a varied role and therefore gain invaluable experience and skills for working with people with light intellectual disabilities and behaviour problems. On that course, they will learn a lot about their way of life as well as about disability issues and issues facing the local community.

They will also learn how to work with people with disabilities and how to increase their skills and promote their independence. Furthermore, they will gain access to the work as a farmer, carpenter, gardener and in the café/shop.

The role of the volunteer will be to work with our employees and people with intellectual disabilities and behaviour problems.

There are many different things to learn as a volunteer at Sunnahof. Every working area has its learning possibilities and challenges.

Apart from the working area, the volunteer will be involved in attending people with intellectual disabilities and behaviour problems. That’s the core area of the project.

Agriculture
The work is characterized by mainly outdoor jobs and substantial work. Examples are mucking out the barn, interspersing hay, feeding and caring for the animals, maintaining work, preparing goods for the farm shop.

Plant nursery
The work in our plant nursery is branded with substantial work and outdoor tasks. Examples of tasks are planting, repotting, weeding, harvesting etc.

Carpentry
The carpentry requires accurate work and craftsmanship. Engineering wood boxes, drilling, sanding and mounting are the main tasks in our daily affairs.

Gastronomy and farm shop
Customer contact and friendliness are key qualifications for this working area. Tasks can include preparing meals, baking cookies, washing the dishes, decorating, tidying, accepting and dealing with deliveries and so on.

Important
Each volunteer will work in one area during the year. We also expect that our volunteers do a small project at Sunnahof. The aim is to get to know each other better and to intensify the contact with people with disabilities a little. This can be a small project or activity like for example: creating a special cooking day with meals from your country or playing games with the team, for example a hide and seek in the surrounding area, to come close to nature with all the senses etc.

One weekend a month, all volunteers will have the duty to take care of the animals at the agriculture area. For this task, the volunteers can take their two free consecutive days off during the week.

Support during the voluntary project :

The Supporting/Coordinating Organisation will hold a monthly evaluation meeting with all volunteers in Vorarlberg. At the end of the project, we will together with the volunteer evaluate the project, what s*he has learned and which competences s*he has gained and as a result fill out the Youthpass. Furthermore, there will be a final personal evaluation meeting with the Supporting/Coordinating Organisation.
The volunteer will have regular meetings with her*his tutor in our organisation to talk about the development of the project, task assignments, general wellbeing, problems, wishes etc.