UPDATE: SustainFloyd has now hired a Voluntours coordinator.
Project coordinator needed to prepare for, organize and oversee a group of 25 college students on a weeklong trip to Floyd County in early March. The Coordinator will work with SustainFloyd and Via International to organize and carry out the trip itinerary, troubleshoot and ensure things run smoothly. This position requires someone who is familiar with the Floyd Community, has people skills, is energetic and can multi-task. $750 turnkey fee. For more information or to apply, call 540/745-7333 or email Mason [at] SustainFloyd.org.
SustainFloyd is working with Via International, of San Diego, Calif. and Tijuana, Mexico, and St. Joseph’s University of Philadelphia, to develop Floyd County as a site for Voluntours, a program that combines education, cross-cultural exchange, and volunteerism while directly supporting community development and sustainability efforts in local, grassroots communities.
Voluntours intends to introduce Floyd’s rich culture and community to young people who are seeking experiences that will help them shape and develop lives with purpose and meaning. In Floyd they will learn first-hand from a community that builds on its strengths, welcomes strangers, and has a vision for a sustainable, resilient future in the midst of global change.
Developed and pioneered by Via International, Voluntours provides students and groups a service-learning, travel experience. In partnership with communities, Via International opens the door to meaningful educational travel and service learning opportunities for young people from colleges and universities, middle and high schools, churches and youth groups, government agencies, community organizations, businesses and corporations.
Via Voluntours has enabled students to experience the rich culture and heritage of local communities in the San Diego border region, New Mexico, Guatemala, Mexicali and Tijuana. In response to growing interest in sustainable development, rural Appalachian culture and innovation for community economic development, Via International is now adding Floyd County, Va. to the list.
For its inaugural project with SustainFloyd, Via will send a group of 25 college students (sophomores, juniors and seniors) as part of its relationship with St. Joseph’s University – a Jesuit university with undergraduate and master’s degree programs in the humanities, natural and social sciences, and business – to Floyd the week of March 2-9, 2013.
SustainFloyd is currently preparing the schedule for the Voluntours group and is hiring for a Coordinator who will assist in the planning stages and then work with the group during its visit to Floyd County.