The following post is copied directly from a discussion hosted by Jon Marino and Nathaniel Whittemore (me!) on www.socialedge.org during the last two weeks. The first part is the introductory post where we explored a variety of questions focused on global youth volunteerism. The second part is my final wrap up. For more, please check out: http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/philanthropy/global-youth-volunteerism

Global Youth Volunteerism: Pitfalls and Potentials

by Social Edge — last modified 2007-06-12 10:32

Hosted by Jonathan Marino and Nathaniel Whittemore (June 2007)

Jonathan Marino and Nathaniel Whittemore are founders of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement, a global program design center that focuses on preparing students to partner with communities in the pursuit of responsible, effective, and sustainable change.

Uganda: A case study

Each year at Northwestern, we run the Global Engagement Summit. This event brings approximately 50 young change agents from 20 countries and 35 universities around the world for a week of global capacity building. Participants each bring a specific project, and at the end of the event, we provide resources for the best developed programs to begin implementation.

This year, three groups of students will implement projects in Uganda –in microfinance and community health. These 20 young Americans will find there a blossoming community with other programs – Invisible Children, Loyola University Invisible Conflicts, Operation Crossroads Africa and the Foundation for Sustainable Development.

This phenomenon is reflective of a broader trend.

More than ever, young people see the world’s problems as shared across borders of nation and class, and seek to go abroad to help solve them. This has created a large market for volunteer-abroad service providers, such as Foundation for Sustainable Development, Operation Crossroads Africa and American Jewish World Service, to name just a few.

Yet, as long as there have been young global volunteers, there have been critics arguing that such activity actually produces harm. Critics argue that young people don’t have adequate training to make a positive impact; that in the end they really only serve themselves; and that they reinforce oppressive power relationships between the giver and receiver of service.

At the start of this new summer – during which undergraduates from universities across the world will flock to all corners of the world doing all manners of change-related work – we want to have a conversation about the pitfalls and potentials of global youth volunteerism.

Here are some questions to get the conversation going:

1.    Who is the primary beneficiary of global youth volunteerism – the volunteer or the host community or organization? Who should it be?

2.    What are situations in which it’s inappropriate for young people to volunteer abroad?

3.    What are some strategies for increasing the short and long-term impact of global youth volunteer experiences while minimizing unintended harmful consequences?

4.    Related, what is the role of educational institutions in preparing people for this type of global engagement experience?

5.    What are some real-world examples of “effective,” or on the other hand “harmful,” global volunteer projects?

Wrap up from Jinja, Uganda

 Posted by Nathaniel Whittemore