Who are we?
people and places
is an award-winning, ethical and responsible volunteer travel
organisation. Since 2005 we have been placing
volunteers in projects where their skills and experience are matched to local
needs. We are guided by their shared
need to gain real mutual benefits: a ‘win-win’ volunteer experience that is
built within our own core values of accountable, ethical and responsible
volunteering.
What do we do?
In 2002, the Cape Town Declaration said that tourism should ‘actively
involve the local community in planning and decision-making, and provide
capacity-building to make this a reality.’
We firmly believe this approach should also be applied to volunteering
abroad, and it’s the very basis of how we work.
Every one of the projects we work with originates in the local community
– NOT here. Each project is proposed by
a local partner and their needs discussed with people and places before we start to recruit and match
volunteers. Before any volunteer is
matched with a project, we will have shared with them information about that
volunteer and their skills and experience.
Only with the project’s consent will a volunteer placement be confirmed,
and at that stage the volunteer will also be consulted about the proposals for
their work – this is what we mean by ‘informed consent’.
Where do we work?
We work in 11 different countries around the world, and on a
variety of different types of project, ranging from education, to business, to
community support, to health and social care, to conservation. In
each case the project has been identified by our local partners – we believe it
is more appropriate, more effective and more responsible to work WITH local
people rather than INSTEAD of them. That’s
why there are no people and places’
employees working in host countries.
In preparation for working with a local project, we carry
out rigorous due diligence – ensuring that both the volunteers and the people
they work with are safe and well-prepared.
Every place where volunteers work has undergone a full risk assessment
and any particular safety issues will be addressed with volunteers in the full
local orientation which takes place at the start of each placement. Every local partner also provides 24/7
support for volunteers throughout their placements. The safety of local communities, and of our
volunteers, is our primary concern.
Volunteers can comfortably prepare for their placements in
the knowledge that we’ve already addressed the social, economic and
environmental criteria that make up responsible volunteering abroad.
Our history
people and places
started with a chance meeting in 2005 between the three founders of the
organisation. Their conversation rapidly
centred on volunteer travel and in particular the chasm between marketing and
reality in a significant number of volunteer offers, with both sides –
volunteers and local communities – frequently finding themselves being sold a
project that had little resemblance to the real situation. So people
and places was started to address such potential exploitation of both
volunteers and local people. To achieve
positive and long-term change, our own unique model of ethical and responsible volunteering
was developed, whereby all parties would be best-served and which would be
totally open and honest in all its activities, including financial matters.
So people and places
was born – a social enterprise committed to responsible volunteering.
Who are we looking
for?
We are looking for volunteers who have the skills and
experience to meet needs identified by each of the programs we work with. These are available on the program pages on Volunteer World, and are updated regularly in consultation with the projects to
ensure needs are still current. You do
not need formal educational qualifications to volunteer with people and places. Everyone has transferable skills – we take
the time to find out what they are and design a placement outline for you which
ensures these skills can be fully used to benefit the local community.
Why choose us?
Choose us because we are internationally recognised as the
best organisation for skills-share volunteering. You will have a placement outline
specifically written for you to make use of your skills and experience. You will know that the work you do is of
value because it has been structured to meet needs specifically identified by
local people at the project where you will work – a ‘win-win’ experience both
for you and for the people you will be working with.