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ALDO HOUSE, BRADFORD
This project provides temporary accommodation of between 6 months and 2 years for 7 young people aged 16-25 who are homeless. The project provides a high level of support and houses some of the most difficult to place young people who may have multiple and complex needs. These may include a history of offending (been in prison), substance and/or alcohol abuse. The project helps residents to develop life skills, social skills and access training and education. The residents also have the assistance of a resettlement worker.

The hosting project will give volunteers the opportunity to try different elements of 'social work' in the UK, allowing them to establish whether such work would be of interest and appropriate for them to train in or investigate further in their own country. The volunteer will have a structured weekly timetable, split between ALDO House (3 days a week) and secondary projects up to two days a week working on the following projects:

1. Bradford Women's Group - A refugee project, supporting immigrants who have arrived in Bradford and are awaiting refugee status.
2. A project for single parents, offering training, education, accommodation, a café and second hand shop. This project is currently run in partnership with Gingerbread or another charity shop.
3. CHAS - A furniture project, which collects donations of furniture and electrical goods, repairs them and then redistributes them to families and individuals in need.
4. Drove Road House - An elderly persons unit.
5. Heaton Woods - An environmental project where past volunteers have been involved in sculpture work and forestry work

The host project will be situated in Bradford and surrounding areas. There will be an opportunity for volunteers to work at a number of different sites in Yorkshire. Volunteers will also have the opportunity to work alongside our outreach staff, which would mean they offered on-going support to young people who have left the residential project. This would offer the volunteer the opportunity to travel to other areas on a regular basis to offer consistent support.

Bradford is, a large city with a mixture of different cultures including Afro-Caribbean and Asian. Leeds, a larger more vibrant city just 20 minutes away by train has something for everyone. The city has an airport serving it (Leeds/Bradford), bus routes covering the local areas. Bradford also has a train and coach service serving the rest of the UK. Leeds and Bradford offer a young volunteer excellent opportunity for cultural exploration, arts, music and sports. Both cities have good universities.
Motivation for having EVS
Including an EVS element to this project is exciting, as we will be working with young people who have had no contact with 'life outside Bradford. We hope EVS will bring a cultural dimension to the project, which offers young people, a small taste of what could lie outside their home-town. We hope the new languages, foods, cultures and ideas will encourage them to think about options outside of the UK.

The EVS Volunteer will work alongside staff and short/long-term volunteers in order to support the young people with their day to day lives, helping them to become more independent, maybe with cooking sessions, or helping them to decorate their bedroom. This activity may include supporting staff in basic skills training (10%), a volunteer in this role maybe involved in practical activities, such as helping to show a young person how to log onto a computer or send an email for example. In addition to this the volunteer will have the opportunity to engage young people in social areas such as art, games, sports and crafts (10%).

The activity at CHAS furniture project involves a volunteer working alongside a member of CHAS staff in one of the following areas- delivery & collection- collecting second hand furniture from people who no longer want it and delivering it to people in need. Restoration and Repair- helping to repair old furniture and restore good quality furniture. Electrical repair work alongside a qualified electrician to repair fridges, cookers, stereos etc.

Charity Shop- any volunteer wishing to support the local community by helping those on a limited income could support them through work in a charity shop. This would be in Gingerbread or another local shop and would involve, sorting of donated clothes and goods, pricing of them and sales to the public. This has been very popular with volunteers in the past.

Drove Road - this project supports older people and volunteers have the chance to help with the preparation of meals, conversation and befriending with the residents, and arranging activities, such as arts & music.

Heaton Woods - The volunteer in this project would be involved in maintaining this urban green space, there would also be possibilities to work with a wood sculptor and carver to create art in the woods for visitors. There would also be initiatives such as clearing a stream or an area where rubbish had been dumped in order to maintain the beauty of the environment.

Bradford Women's Group - Volunteers could be involved in arts and crafts in this project, some childcare and support and orientation of newly arrived non-British women & their families. In the past volunteers have been involved in preparing a cookery book and a weekly cookery group with this self support group.

The volunteers will be expected to work some evenings and weekends, but will always be given two days off a week to investigate the UK and visit volunteers based in other projects. There will be an allocated Mentor in at the projects. Volunteers will be supplied with a contact name, details and photo of their mentor before they arrive.

Each volunteer will have a specific timetable designed for them, depending on the needs of that volunteer and their abilities as identified in their application and by their sending agency. Although each week will be quite different the volunteer will know their activities the week before and will have the opportunity to negotiate with their mentor to include specific areas of interest in their timetable. Volunteers will always work alongside paid staff. The activity will include some evening and weekend work.

The EVS volunteers work along side our current team of staff and local volunteers at the Hostel to enable the young people to access all the opportunities open to them and to ensure they reach their full potential.

The young homeless people who live here may not have come into contact with people from other countries before and we look to out EVS Volunteers to bring a sense of their own country and culture with them. Also, the volunteers are there through choice, not paid employment, and therefore provide a much respected extra resource for the hostel both for the young people and staff.

We are also involved in sending our young disadvantaged people away to placements within Europe so hope that the EVS volunteers that we host will both encourage and help our young people to consider an experience abroad.

Volunteers will have the opportunity to develop themselves and also help to develop the project.

EVS volunteers working on this project with have many possibilities for personal development and learning as well as using and expanding existing skills which they join us with. In general the activities will be varied, but mainly in a social or social work field, they will be able to negotiate with their mentor exactly what will be included in their weekly activities, after arrival and initial induction. Volunteer activities will include evening and weekend working.

The activities will generally be supporting the project staff in their daily activities, such as encouraging residents with their personal development, cooking, hygiene, attending appointments etc. The activities will sometimes take the volunteer outside the project (maybe to attend an appointment at college with them). There will be possibilities for volunteers to develop their own project, using skills and interests they have. In the past, volunteers have for example, developed cooking, photography, video making and art activities with residents, and within the local host community.

In addition to the skills gained in working with this client group more general skills will be:

Team working skills, independent living, active listening, learning to plan and lead activities, lone working, time management, office working; telephone work and other skill