Visions Service Adventures

The VISIONS Framework

Since 1989 VISIONS has set the standard for international community service programs for high school students. VISIONS summer programs for teenagers blend ambitious service, cultural immersion, and exploration. Days of service and close camaraderie within another culture have a rhythm and substance that push you to tap into your potential as you and your peers work toward common goals.

You live in the heart of a host community, rooted to a very new, very different place in ways that are exceptional and that surpass the superficial. Local people welcome you, sharing their lives and views of life. You learn about, do and see things you never imagined. Lasting friendships form spontaneously with your peers, hosts and leaders.

You come to know the people whose lives you have impacted and experience the incomparable satisfaction of service when the effort is shared. VISIONS participants return home with genuine appreciation for our multi-cultural world and confidence as global citizens.

Everything we do in VISIONS, the degree of our success, depends on teamwork. We are interdependent, alternately supporting and leaning on each other. We live together, work together, explore and play together. Together, we live simply and enjoy our shared experience.

Service Work

VISIONS projects are ambitious. We work hard to meet service commitments that we plan with host communities in response to needs that they identify. The service encompasses both construction and non-construction.

We spend at least 55% of the program engaging in service. We partner with local governments, NGO's, civic sectors, and community-minded individuals. In some locations, our partners plan projects in stages, several progressive seasons ahead, confident in VISIONS high standards and our participants' proven capabilities.

Depending on the duration and size of a program, VISIONS contributes from $3,000 to $7,000 to fund projects either in full or by adding to a local organization's funds.

Every VISIONS program undertakes a ground-up building project. You learn the technical skills you need from staff carpenters, local masons and adobe maestros, on-site as you go. Your group will have a daylong tool and safety orientation, with a hands-on component, shortly after you arrive.

The length of your workday depends on cultural traditions, the weather and climate, and other planned activities. Everyone rarely works simultaneously on a single project. We break into small teams so that you can choose daily where you go and what you do.

What you can expect to build depends upon the program site you choose. Construction projects completed by VISIONS participants have impressive range: houses, schools, medical clinics, community centers, playgrounds, outdoor classrooms, bus shelters, public gazebos and picnic pavilions with tables and benches, athletic courts and fields. We have built roads and trails, walking bridges and stone walls, wildlife observation towers, steam baths, sweat lodges, and ceremonial arbors.

VISIONS incorporates sustainable development by building green houses, irrigation canals, cisterns, potable water systems and compost latrines, low-impact environmental walkways through protected lands, and fish and endangered species hatcheries.

Every VISIONS program includes non-construction service work as well. The nature and number of non-construction service options vary. Some sites have internships with micro-businesses, farmers, artisans, health workers, and others. We create and paint massive murals for community buildings. We organize and supervise day camps for young children, tutor in school classrooms, and volunteer with the elderly, orphaned or disabled.

VISIONS participants assemble and install better-burning stoves, plant trees, build dams and restore riverbanks. We help local farmers cultivate and harvest crops, occasionally helping them sell their goods at market. We protect endangered turtle populations by patrolling beaches at night, and gathering and recording vital data.

VISIONS maintains ties with national and local host governments, community outreach and charitable organizations, schools and other public outreach entities. These include ministries of social development, youth, health and education; national parks, local government and community sectors, NGOs, federal programs such as Head Start, tribal councils and native corporations. Of equal if not greater value are our relationships with individuals in the communities in which we live and work.

Program planning occurs during the off-season. Often we know the next season’s projects before the current summer season ends. Most projects are developed during winter months through regular communication with our partners in the field and personal visits to the sites before the summer.

Upon successful completion of the program, participants receive a certificate recognizing from 65 to 100 hours of service and listing the projects accomplished.

Culture & Language Immersion

Cross-cultural learning and friendship is a core focus. Working with and for our hosts is a doorway into their lives. You will learn about the place you go in many ways. Spanish- and French-speaking programs, with fluent staff leaders, offer constant language immersion that increases foreign language speaking skills.

We share work sites, meals and down time with folks who have become close friends over the course of many summers. Always there are opportunities to meet and mingle with local people. Our programs have the means, methods and opportunities for a variety of dialogues with native speakers.

Our Spanish- and French-language sites, the people with and for whom we work typically do not learn English. The strongest incentive to use your language skills is the desire to communicate with local friends and their desire to connect with you. Despite the language barrier, their enthusiasm to know you is real. Your leaders in foreign-language locations are fluent speakers of the language. They help build language bridges by interpreting, clarifying, practicing and playing language games with you, and nudging you to try your skills.

When the language is all around you and the people genuinely welcoming and eager to know you, practicing and improving your Spanish or French follows naturally.

Exploration & Adventure

Our goal is to provide a balanced experience overall. There is time to play and wind down throughout the program. VISIONS program sites offer a splendid variety of scenery, geography, wildlife and history. We explore the places we go in ways that are challenging, engaging and purely fun.

Depending on the location, recreation activities include rock or ice climbing, wilderness backpacking and hiking, snorkeling, scuba diving, sea kayaking, rainforest zip-lining, rafting, horseback riding, whale watching, underground cave exploration and more.

Although there are days we play the tourist visiting historic sites or enjoying fun pastimes, more often we go places only the locals know about and do things that tourists never experience. There are always sight-seeing excursions, usually with local friends as our guides. We relax at beaches or fresh water swimming holes. We visit markets, stroll avenues, browse shops, discover beautiful hide-aways and public fun spots. And sometimes we simply kick back, relax, and enjoy each other's company.