Guidelines - Responsible Exchange and Volunteering 2018

VII. Supervision at shared house (through host organisation or landlord?), legal status: who is the tenant, who is the landlord? Do hosting organisations have a legal status as either?) VIII. Crisis management – What happens if participants do not follow rules at the house? Reporting from neighbors, community, project stakeholders, landlord or other participants. If there are ramifications as a result of any of these points, then it is important the participant is aware of these ramifications early on.

Shared house benefits:

I. Sense of community and peer support; opportunity for new friendships & potential cultural exchange if the house is hosting multiple participants from different countries II. Often not too disconnected from participants comfort zone and therefore some of the exchange related transition challenges are reduced III. Reduces the sense of “being in someone else’s space” that can be experienced in home hosting scenarios IV. Logistics, safety and security may be easier for host to manage [reduced stress on the host organisation] I. Low awareness of others in the house and general slackness, so even when the rules are being maintained, there is still friction and inter-personal dynamics that are not healthy. This leads to other project related problems as an unhappy participant starts to focus on negatives and misses the positives. II. Participants feeling disconnected from the realities of the project as the houses are often comfortable and in more affluent areas than the project. This must be managed through careful and clear communication as to why the organisation has opted for shared accommodation. Reasons could include logistical management, safety, the impact home hosting can have on families etc.

Typical shared house challenges:

African German Youth Initiative Page 33 of 67

Click for Contents Pages