>>> Start date: September 30, 2008
>>> Sex: All are welcome
>>> Area of Focus: Art, Architecture, Music, Children and Youth, Communications Access and Infrastructure, Community Building and Renewal, Community Service and Volunteering, Computers and Technology, Crime, Safety, and Victims’ Issues, Disability Issues, Disaster Relief , Economic Development, Education and Academia, Energy Conservation and Green Living, Environment and Ecology, Family and Parenting, Farming and Agriculture, Foundations, Fundraising, and Philanthropy, Gay, Lesbian, Bi & Trans Issues, Health and Medicine, Health, Mental, Housing and Homelessness, Human Rights and Civil Liberties, Immigration, International Cooperation, Job Training and Workplace Issues, Law and Legal Assistance, Library or Resource Center, Men's Issues, Microcredit, Multi-Service Community Agency, Network of Nonprofit Organizations, Peace, War, and Conflict Resolution, Personal Finance, Poverty and Hunger, Professional association, Race and Ethnicity, Recovery, Addiction and Abuse, Rural Issues, Social Enterprise and Economic Development, Sports, Recreation, and Leisure, Urban Affairs, Victim Support Services, Voting, Democracy, and Civic Engagement, Wildlife and Animal Welfare, Women's Issues.

>>>Description:

Short-term and long-term Volunteer/Partners are needed in education, the environment, youth, health, economic development and cultural development. VPs may work one on one or in group settings, facilitating training and educational activities, and/or coordinating programs and activities. Long-Term and short-term Volunteers help achieve program goals and objectives by working with community partners, managing service areas for targeted audiences in the community and seeking out funds and resources to make the program sustainable and effective. Program descriptions are as follows:

- Education programs provide support to existing educational institutions and aim at broadening the educational scope of what's present in the community, in areas such as computer literacy, environmental education, geography competencies, life skills, leadership development, academic support for K-12 learners (literacy, math, sciences), literacy for adults, personal hygiene and personal growth.

- Environmental programs help produce change in three areas of personal development:
a) preservation,
b) behavioral change,
c) action.

Monthly and annual events help keep a presence in the community as connections are built between daily personal life and the life of the earth in a variety of settings.

- Youth programs: help equip audiences with basic life-giving and life-enhancing tools and knowledge, particularly in regard to personal health, social skills, leadership and civic involvement and responsibility. Programs are developmental, with emphasis on hands on practices and with a focus on activities that are age-relevant and psychologically attractive.

- Health programs seek to provide support in specific life-cycle areas such as pregnancy and maternal care, personal hygiene, HIV/AIDS/STD education, diet, family dynamics and holistic medicine.

- Economic development programs provide participants with basic knowledge and skills in budgeting, economic planning, small business development, and skill-building around specific crafts and skills.

- Cultural programs seek to benefit the community through cross-cultural activities, multicultural development and global outlooks. Social and educational programs help enhance the global and the local. Study abroad, international interns and educational exchanges are long-term objectives.

- Technical support. The Foundation could benefit from assistance in Web development, fundraising, recruitment of Volunteers, public relations, digital media production (flash, video, audio), radio, TV, newspapers, etc. SHORT TERM VPs work a year or less (1-week minimum), delivering short-term components of any of the above programs. They may also participate in any of the following activities:

- Tutoring and Advance Literacy (in Spanish). Assist with academic development in specific subject areas for K-12; help adults learn to read and write; support library program training youth and adults on reading comprehension and reading/writing skills.

- Tutoring and advance literacy (in English) support English learning programs in private and public schools, providing support to English curriculum, conducting support activities, enhancing language acquisition, helping completiong of homework.

- Conversational English (all academic levels and adults) conduct tutorials and conversational groups for children, youth and adults; enhance conversational English skills for tour guides, tourist guides, hotel employees, citizens in general with an interest in learning the language.

- Children and youth programs--summer camps, spring camps, winter camps, start and upkeep hiking trails, create/organize/arrange for youth activities, teaching kids how to swim, doing crafts, camps, team building, sports, caring for the environment, home garden projects as well as school garden projects, teaching specific crafts and manual skills (boys and girls), teaching the use of musical instruments

- Health basic health training for mothers, single mothers, and parents in general; diet training, cooking schools, general hygiene workshops and training.

- Professional skills helping young adults and young professionals on basic skills such as customer service, basic clerical skills, basic accounting, basic budgeting, program planning and implementation, leadership for clubs and community organizations, multicultural leadership, lifeguard training, CPR/first aid training, fire department training, police training, waiter/waitress skills and training

- Life skills training personal habits, personal hygiene, basic academic skills, learning how to learn, HIV/AIDS, STD training and protection, learning a trade or craft - Landscaping and the environment designing, creating and establishing landscaping projects around town, particularly flower gardens, reforestation, composting and home gardening (vegetables).

- Technical support Web development, fundraising, recruitment of Volunteers, public relations, digital media production (flash, video, audio), radio, TV, newspapers, etc. Volunteers will get the chance to see first hand the realities of a two-thirds world country, will be presented with the great potential for doing good and will become change agents even as they themselves are transformed.

The most successful volunteer will be resourceful, cross-culturally skillful, culturally respectful, hard working and focused. Self-starters, self-managed and team players are a plus, particularly if they want to make a contribution to organizational change, organizational learning and organizational growth. We can use all the help we can get!

>>> How to Apply:

The Center Cultural Guanin and SAS are committed to sustainable and people-centered development and also to providing volunteers with the best possible experience.

Application Form