Volunteers staying 2 to 12 weeks complete a Skills & Interests Survey, which helps our in-country staff to match you with a local Partner Program. This ensures that you are volunteering in a project that interests you and that the local Partner Programs can also benefit from your work. However, if you’re volunteering for just one week on our Insight Abroad program, the volunteer work is a group project, structured with the needs of the local community in mind and the goal of accomplishing the project within a week. Read about the impact our volunteers have in the community.
The Volunteer Profile is the primary tool that CCS in-country staff uses to match your skills and interests with the needs of our Partner Programs. Our placements are designed in partnership with sustainable community initiatives, and your work directly helps them carry out their objectives. Your skills and interests, start date, and length of stay are all carefully considered when we meet with our Partner Programs.
Placements are assigned close to your start date—this allows us to address the immediate concerns of each of the Partner Programs, so your work is always relevant and timely. You can expect to receive detailed information about one week prior to your program start date. Your Program Site Specialist is always available to answer any questions you may have about your placement.
Placement Timeline
Here is a basic timeline of how your placement is determined:
- About 60 days before your start date, CCS in-country staff begins compiling your group’s Volunteer Profiles. The staff conducts a preliminary review of the group. Last-minute enrollments may still be accepted (based on each program site’s guidelines) so the group is still not yet finalized.
- About 30 days before your start date, CCS in-country staff visits our Partner Programs to assess the community’s immediate needs. Our staff and the Partner Programs staff discuss how many volunteers they need and what the day-to-day work will be. They review the skills and interests of each participant.
- About one week before your start date, these visits are complete and the group’s volunteer placements are determined. If no further enrollments are accepted and your group is finalized, CCS staff will send the list of placements to your Program Site Specialist, who will email you detailed information on your placement.
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After each volunteer in your group has received their placement, CCS staff contacts each Partner Program. CCS staff provides them with a summary of each Volunteer Profile to get to know their volunteer(s). Partner Programs begin any necessary preparations for your arrival.
This careful coordination between your Program Site Specialist, CCS in-country staff, and our Partner Programs ensures that you receive a placement that is best matched to the needs of the community, as well as your skills and interests. It also means that your volunteer work can have the maximum impact because the community’s immediate needs are reviewed with each volunteer in your group.
This timeline also ensures that we can welcome as many volunteers as possible while still meeting each person’s specific needs, regardless of when they enroll.
If you have any questions about this process or you have any special concerns regarding the timing of your placement, please contact your Program Site Specialist.
