Voluntourism

Just what exactly is "voluntourism?" We find ourselves explaining this word often. Almost no one we know has ever even heard of the word. We explain it by pointing out the obvious, "It's a combination of the words 'volunteer' and 'tourism'." To anyone who actually KNOWS about voluntourism, it's so much more, of course. However, at least this simple explanation gets people thinking about the topic.

Volunteerism industry observers are fond of saying that voluntourism is the "next big thing." Some wide-eyed commentators say there will be a tsunami of voluntourism. So far, we sure haven't seen it and we wonder if this buzzword is just a passing fancy or a mini-fad.

There are ample resources out there to help assess voluntourism on your own. Most voluntourism opportunities are typically associated with the genre of "volunteer vacations." These types of volunteerism involve an individual, couple or family booking their total vacation around a specific volunteer activity, typically overseas in some exotic location.

Another segment of voluntourism involves spending only a portion of one's vacation time volunteering. As an example, the Jane Doe Family might be motoring West to see the usual sights such as Yellowstone, etc. They might stop off at a pre-arranged location to spend a day or more in a short duration volunteer opportunity.

Some opportunities being billed as voluntourism opportunities are really long-term, multi-month positions that require a length commitment from participants. Most of the voluntourism opportunities on the Take Pride in America website fall into this category. Yes, they are technically voluntourism opportunities but, no, they aren't short duration and you can't squeeze them into your summer vacation.

So, as we approach the 2009 summer vacation season, it's worth pondering the comparative realities of voluntourism. How can a non-profit or governmental agency truly benefit from voluntourism? The first step is to attempt to identify if you actually HAVE something that could qualify as a voluntourism opportunity. Can you describe it? Does it sound appealing and fun? Can you manage the opportunity easily? Will the volunteer's contribution(s) actually make a difference? Then, how are you going to promote your opportunity?

Interestingly and luckily, we think Idaho has the best approach to voluntourism. Idaho tourism officials have crafted a superb strategy to harvesting the energies of potential voluntourists. The official Idaho tourism website has a tab for voluntourism. This tab takes you to a link to a Twitter account that's always updated in real time for the latest opportunities. The management of this strategy is inspired genius! We that Idaho is in the national forefront of voluntourism and we are very proud that they have chosen to highlight some of the current East Idaho RSVP opportunities! You will find a lot of resources on voluntourism there.

Now, the "rest of the story" of voluntourism is up to all of us in this exciting industry. Let's give it some effort and see what we can do and what kind of results we can create. Whether history judges voluntourism as a passing fancy or a major milestone in volunteer opportunity development is going to be determined by how well we meet this challenge.

Congratulations to Roberts Senior Center

We went to the Roberts Senior Center May 6 for their Mother's Day Luncheon. It was another awesome production. Our purpose there today was to award the Center with their "official" World Famous certificate for their Chicken Fried Steak. We took some still photos but not much video as we already have a great YouTube of the meal on their webpage. Click here to see the photos we came home with. The text below was what we passed out to the attendees at the lunch.
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Eastern Idaho Retired & Senior Volunteer Program & Area VI Agency on Aging offer congratulations and kudos to the Roberts Senior Center for their World Famous Chicken Fried Steak and what it means for publicizing the Roberts Senior Center.

Not only is the Roberts World Famous Chicken Fried Steak awesome and tasty in its own right but it’s doing workhorse duty helping draw visitors to the Roberts Senior Center webpage.

In the entire year 2008, there were only 24 recorded visits to the Roberts Senior Center webpage. So far in Year 2009, there have been 118 visits!!!! That’s more than four times as many visits to the webpage in five months as the entire year of 2008.

Also, visitors to the webpage have been clicking through to the video as there have been 99 views recorded of the video. This puts it in the Top Five ranking videos of the 22 that RSVP has produced this year. Clearly, people love looking at your World Famous Chicken Fried Steak. There have even been some overseas visitors from Europe that have viewed the video.

RSVP & AAA are both dedicated to helping the Area VI Senior Centers in any way we can. We believe that fresh new ideas like making a video on the Chicken Fried Steak will help bring fresh faces to the Senior Centers. The videos will help showcase Senior Centers as a fun, lively place to go for food, friends and fellowship.

If you haven’t visited the Roberts Senior Center webpage, why not click here to give it a try?

Knit For Kids

Florence Avery shows off one of the sweaters she has made as a RSVP Volunteer serving the "Knit For Kids" international effort sponsored by Guideposts magazine. Florence has been a RSVP Volunteer for 15 years, serivng mostly with Friends of the Library in Idaho Falls. She works with Carolyn, Rosella and Edith to create beautiful sweaters that are sent all over the world. Several other women in the Idaho Falls area participate in this worthy effort.

Last fall, Zions Bank at Taylor Crossing conducted a Yarn Skein Drive to help benefit a baby cap knitting program in local assisted living facilities. Some of the yarn donated was a heavier weight than is needed for baby caps. This yarn has now found a home with Florence & Friends to benefit the Knit for Kids project.

Since starting in 2006, Knit for Kids volunteers have knitted over 500,000 sweaters for children around the globe! If you wish to donate yarn or join this group, please email us via the address shown at the bottom of this blog page.

Click here to visit the Knit for Kids website.

110 trees in 2 hours!

Volunteers once again showed how a "team effort" can produce startling results. About 2-3 dozen volunteers showed up for the Idaho Falls Arbor Day May 2.

They made super quick work of 110 trees---getting them all planted along Sunnyside in a mere 2 hours.

The City of Idaho Falls is proud to fly its Tree City flag! RSVP Volunteer Photographer Susun McCulla covered the event on behalf of the Mayor's Office.

Click here to view a photo album of the event.