Guidelines - Responsible Exchange and Volunteering 2018

2. Change Action Projects – appropriate support structures and networks (practitioner and / or alumni network) can catalyze extraordinary successes through participant-based change projects as an on-going benefit to the exchange experience. Returning participants can be encouraged to channel their learnings and enthusiasm into meaningful, localized projects for the enrichment of their communities. As a practitioner there is a responsibility to provide the appropriate information and / or support to allow the new alumni the scope to engage towards an action project.

3. Social media

All exchange participants should be encouraged to follow practitioner platforms and contribute to driving social media reach for practitioners. Word of mouth is a powerful agent for practitioners and potential participants for exchange are most likely best influenced by past participants. Platforms outside of the immediate program influence could include uploads to sites such as TripAdvisor and travel guides. Blog sites populated by exchange participants should be managed by practitioners and these blogs can include the host or sending partner directly requesting participants write of their experience (during and post blogs recommended) 4. Fundraising – with many practitioners already typically functioning with over-stretched workloads and insufficient budgets, exiting participants with the correct support can become useful fundraising agents. This allows creative and meaningful post project engagement with the host Organisations and offers a real post-project purpose and attachment between host and exiting participants. As a caution, it is noted that fundraising can be time consuming and runs the risk of the host Organisation being drawn into supporting fundraising beyond the value of the funds raised. Select which initiatives and which past participants you want to work with carefully so as to avoid becoming over-burdened for little result. 5. Exchange / Volunteer Ambassador – within every batch of exchange participants, it is likely that a few will emerge with a special potential to become exchange ambassadors. Obviously all past participants are, to an extent, ambassadors. But formalizing an ambassadorial role for selected alumni can provide practitioners with extremely powerful agents of exchange who engage on behalf of the sector at the political level. Young, vibrant, exuding leadership qualities and displaying strong evidence as critical thinkers, these ambassadors become symbolic representatives of the power of exchange and the importance to invest in exchange as a mechanism of education for sustainable development.

African German Youth Initiative Page 46 of 67

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