Volunteering with CUSO-VSO
Congratulations on your selection as a volunteer!
Now that you are selected, we'll be increasing the investment in our relationship with you. Volunteers are essential in helping us to meet our organizational goals both overseas and in North America. Our expectations of you are high, and we want to support and maintain your motivation to volunteer in ways that are rewarding to you as a person, and to us as an organisation. Our support to you includes the following:
- Providing the information you need as you prepare for a placement
- Organizing many of the practical considerations involved in moving to and living and working overseas for a long period.
- Helping you to prepare for and adapt to the inevitable challenges and uncertainty in your placement
- Developing your existing skills and abilities in ways that will help you to be effective overseas: providing support to and increasing the capacity of one of our development partners
We welcome suggestions for improvements. email us here
- Course designer: Al Webb
This area applies to all volunteers.
Our Training and Learning program includes support to you at a distance, guiding you through online learning modules and bringing you to Ottawa for a 5 day training course. (You won't be booked onto that course until you have a firm placement). The Training and Learning area is a guide to this process.- This area applies to all volunteers.
There are plenty of logistical and administrative tasks that contribute to getting you overseas in the right placement at the right time. The Administration area contains most of what you and we will need. - This area applies to all volunteers.
We want to help you make more of your experience as a volunteer than just a period of time overseas. Involving others in your experience, changing perspectives and inspiring action in North America makes your impact wider and deeper and longer lasting. We will be supporting you practically:- to tell great stories about your experience ('great stories' are those that are consistent with your motivations and our values and goals)
- to get those stories out to many people through networking, media work and events
- to enable others to take action as a result of your outreach through fund raising, volunteering and in other ways.