INTRODUCTION LETTER CULTURAL VALUE RESEARCH (MENTORS)
If you just want to get an overview of the issues described below, just read the summary at the end of this letter!
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
If you are a youth worker being involved in intercultural
projects in general, and the mentoring of young people (of
foreign origin) in particular, then this questionnaire is for
you!
In this Cultural Values Questionnaire, you are asked to reflect upon your role as a youth
worker, and as a mentor in particular.
Your organisation might be participating in any voluntary service programmes such as the
European Voluntary Service (EVS), hosting young people [volunteers] from abroad. Information
about this volunteer programme is given in the box below. If that is not the case, please try to
imagine the situation of mentoring a young person from abroad (either from a European or a
Mediterranean country) when filling in the questionnaire.
A volunteer is a young person aged between 18 and 25 who has decided to go abroad for a period of half a
year or longer to work voluntarily with an organisation of his/her choice. There are many different
programmes promoting voluntary service, and one of them is the European Voluntary Service Programme
(EVS). This Programme is part of the EU Youth Action Programme. The volunteer's stay is co-funded by the
EU and every young person of the appropriate age can practically take part in it. An EVS project involves
three partners: a sending organisation, a hosting organisation, and the volunteer him-/herself. The sending
organisation is an NGO in the volunteer's home country. The hosting organisation is an NGO which the
volunteer chose to work with in a foreign country in Europe or the Mediterranean. Both, the sending and
hosting organisations have to be recognized by the EC who will include them in an official database of EVS
projects. Participating countries are Eastern and Western Europe and the Mediterranean. EVS in the
Mediterranean is part of the Euro-Mediterranean Youth Programme, an independent initiative which is part
of the Barcelona Process being implemented in 1999 by the European Commission (EC) and the EuroMediterranean (MED) Committee to promote mutual understanding and increase cohesion between young
people from Europe and the Mediterranean. It involves projects with at least one European country and one
Mediterranean country taking part.
This questionnaire specifically focuses on voluntary service in the Euro-Mediterranean context.
Why is there a Cultural Values Questionnaire (CVQ)?
The CVQ is designed to explore cultural values of young people and project mentors in Europe and the
Mediterranean. We don't know much about these values yet, earlier research has pointed out some trends
but this questionnaire is far more detailed. That is why the questionnaire is quite long and it takes some time
to fill it in. Cultural values become considerably important when being confronted with other cultures. That is
why it is so important to explore the values of young people being attracted to a multicultural experience as
well as the values of the project mentors those young people would be working with.
The results of the questionnaire shall be used to design an intercultural training as a preparation course for
future volunteers who will take part in EVS (in the frame of the Euro-Mediterranean Youth Programme).
Who is conducting the Cultural Values Research?
My name is Sophie Schaarschmidt, 24, a university student at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Originally, I'm German, coming from the Eastern part of Germany, but I have lived in the Netherlands now
for about 3 years. My specialization is Cultural Psychology, and in the frame of my thesis project I'm
conducting this questionnaire research which will help me to set up the intercultural training course.
Having been an EVS volunteer myself in 1997 in Wolverhampton, U.K., I guess I've got some inside
information about this experience. Later on I was involved in the establishment of an association for Exvolunteers in Germany, I have advised young people for the EVS and did an internship at the Dutch national
agency for the EVS programme. At the moment, I am an intern at the Euro-Mediterranean Youth Platform
(Malta), doing this questionnaire research.
Will the data be kept confidential?
Yes. This is a very important issue. You do not have to put your name and when you send back the
questionnaire by post, you do not have to put a sender either. Just send an e-mail at the same time telling
me that you sent your questionnaire in by post (so that I know it is you who replied). There is also the
possibility to fill in the questionnaire on the internet. The web-version of the questionnaire is only available in
English. When you submit the questionnaire on the web, it will be sent to me in an e-mail, not showing your
name or e-mail address. In this case it would be helpful, too, if you could send me an e-mail telling me of
your reply. All the data will be processed in a spreadsheet format, so individual answers will not be
presented in the results. Still, it is of great importance to answer all the questions carefully and read the
instruction very well!
Will I get informed about the results?
At the end of the questionnaire you are asked to indicate whether you want to be informed about the results.
There you can give your e-mail address (optional) or you can send me an e-mail later asking for the results.
I do not want to burden everyone with a thick information e-mail about the results as not everyone might be
interested. So please indicate whether you're interested or not!
Summary
This questionnaire is:
- part of a my thesis project
- designed for young people interested in living and volunteering abroad (especially in
Europe and the Mediterranean)
- strictly confidential
- used for designing an intercultural training
- Please indicate whether you want to receive an e-mail with the results (analysis) of the
questionnaire!
E-mail me: s.schaarschmidt@student.kun.nl