Community Project

• Support community development in Costa Rica
• Coordinate events and activities
• Experience non-profit work in Costa Rica
• Volunteer abroad safely & affordably

Project Summary

The local community center was established to provide space for the needs of the community activities. Volunteers teach English to local adults or children at the community center. It is a non-profit center and volunteers teach the English classes in order to keep prices low so that everyone in the community can participate. Publicity and website work are also projects that the community center needs. Therefore, community development, advertising, website and technology majors can find that their skills can be utilized. Volunteers can also help arrange town events such as the Festival of Dance or the Angels for Christmas project.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

Beginner to intermediate knowledge of Spanish is preferred (but not mandatory). If you cannot speak Spanish, we suggest you enroll in our Spanish language course to make your stay more rewarding – both for you and for the children you are helping. There are no further qualifications required to work in the library. Besides varying levels of Spanish fluency, there are no further qualifications required to work directly in the community center. The length of commitment is the most crucial requirement as many activities occur only once a week and it takes several weeks to make a significant contribution. Volunteers are expected to be reliable, flexible and patient.

Volunteer Responsibilities

The community center volunteers in Atenas project assist with English classes for children or adults and can work with publicity and website management as well. Support for community projects includes creating brochures and flyers, distributing information and organizing activities with the community. If you have experience with maintaining or creating websites, you can also lend a hand with the community website.

Accommodation/Food/Supervision

In Costa Rica, all volunteers stay with well-screened host families. Our host families are socially respected and are well versed in the art of hosting international volunteers. Host families offer a safe home, private rooms (occasionally rooms will be shared with other same-gender volunteers) and shared bathroom facilities with running hot water and a “western” style toilet. Volunteers have the ability to do laundry at the house or the host family may offer to do it for you for a nominal extra fee. You receive three prepared meals per day. If you will be out of the house during lunch hour, you can request a lunch "to go" that you can take with you or eat out on your own. Host families provide typical meals that are traditional to Costa Rica.

Throughout the volunteer project, our local staff stays in contact with volunteers either with face-to-face visits or via email/telephone. With longer placements, we visit our volunteers every two weeks (when possible) and volunteers are always welcome at the local office. If project placement is local, we request that volunteers stop by the office once a week to keep us posted on how they are doing with their home stay and project. If project placement is very far, then our local staff members maintain communication by either email and/or phone.