UK Programme
// hosting A UK project
Concordia has been hosting projects since 1993. The first project was hosted by the Countryside Service of Brighton and involved seasonal conservation work in the beautiful South Downs. Since then the programme has developed and now we run over 20 projects each year ranging from conservation work, supporting children’s playschemes and summer camps, helping to run festivals and working with adults with learning difficulties.
Concordia works in partnership with a diverse range of community and environmental organisations and local councils to fund and run short term international volunteer projects.
>> View our 2006 Project Hosts
Why host an international volunteer project?
- International volunteers can undertake large projects that require more than a few days or weekends to accomplish. Most projects run for between two and four weeks.
- It is a great way to publicise the work of an organisation. The local media is often very interested in a group of international volunteers coming to the area to volunteer.
- Hosting an international group in a community can help to broaden the horizons of local people who may decide to take up the opportunity to do a volunteer project abroad themselves.
- The volunteers can promote international relations locally. Meeting and working alongside a diverse international group can help to break down cultural stereotypes and promote international understanding.
- Hosting international volunteers gives communities an insight into other cultures.
Criteria that an organisation needs to fulfil to host a Concordia project:
- It must be an organisation that is not-for-profit and community based; private landowners or businesses are not acceptable as the volunteers must not replace paid staff – though they can work alongside paid staff.
- There needs to be enough work for 8-15 volunteers to undertake in 2-4 weeks.
- The work needs to be interesting and worthwhile.
Information for potential hosts:
- the projects have 8-15 international volunteers
- the projects run from 2-4 weeks
- the projects usually run from June to September
- the average group size is 10
- the majority of the volunteers will all be from abroad
- the volunteers are all over the age of 18
- the volunteers will all speak some English – for children’s projects we request they speak a good level of English
- Concordia will provide a co-ordinator - an experienced volunteer - to look after the group in their free time and will organise the food shopping and getting the group to work on time etc
- the accommodation only needs to be very basic – the volunteers will be happy to sleep on the floor and will bring their own sleeping bags & mats. The host is responsible for ensuring that the accommodation is insured to sleep in and is safe.
- the host is responsible for covering the cost of the food, accommodation and if necessary the transport from the accommodation to the work site. We recommend the host budget for £3.75 per volunteer per day for food, however they can provide the food themselves if they wish.
Concordia’s responsibility
Concordia will:
- promote the project with our partner organisations and find the volunteers
- provide an experienced and trained co-ordinator who will look after the group outside the work hours and also help to supervise them during the work
- undertake all of the administration required and also assists volunteers who need a visa by liaising with the British Embassy in their home country and writing official invitations for the volunteers
- provide support during the project including 24 hour emergency support for the duration of the project
- provide a social budget for the group to use in their free time
- provide basic accident illness and third party insurance for the volunteers for the duration of the project, however the host must have public liability insurance for the work and the accommodation.
Interested in hosting?
If you think your organisation has a project which would benefit from a Concordia project please contact the UK Volunteer Programme Co-ordinator Helen Pheasey on 01273 422 535 or helenpheasey@concordia-iye.org.uk for an information pack.
“Apart from the benefit of us getting practical work done, the local community benefit by being reminded of how nice their locality is and the material benefits of being able to negotiate previously difficult paths, one member of the public I was talking to on the Friday afternoon commented on how she had noticed that the woods were a lot nicer to take runs in over the last 3 years. Some locals had been asking for a number of years for certain things to be fixed and the large body of volunteers that running a project can provide means we can hit an area and really make a difference, getting larger jobs done that would be very hard with just a couple of people”. Sam Talbot, Castle Morpeth Borough Council - host of 3 Concordia Projects
Office Volunteer
We welcome volunteers to help us with our administrative task at our office in Brighton. For more information, please contact the office on 01273 422218 or email info@concordia-iye.org.uk