If you are a teacher or head of community service programs for teens in your high school or other youth group, consider asking VISIONS to create and facilitate a custom program for your students. VISIONS has organized custom programs of community service and exploration in English speaking sites, Spanish speaking and French speaking countries for high school students and youth groups for several years, applying the wisdom and practical knowledge we have gained from over two decades of successful teen summer community service programs abroad and in the U.S.

VISIONS teen summer service programs are unique. VISIONS uses its long-standing high quality summer service programs as a model to collaborate with and respond to high school and other youth groups’ desires for shorter, custom service programs for their students. For this reason, our custom programs of service, culture and language immersion are equally distinctive. The length of the experience can range from seven days to 14 days or more. While living within a community, inside another culture, high school volunteers and chaperons have the opportunity to accomplish useful service while learning about the culture and the environment from our hosts and exploring the surrounding area together.

The VISIONS program framework underpins and ensures a well organized, well rounded experience. Whether a foreign language trip or an English speaking country abroad, the strength and diversity of VISIONS programming can be adapted and applied in different yet equally successful ways to highlight a group’s interests. For example, you may seek a custom program that is marine-life or water-based, or a trip that focuses on environmental issues and sustainable development work, or your group’s interest may be mostly foreign language immersion. VISIONS has cultivated strong partnerships with host communities overseas that are French speaking, Spanish speaking, and English speaking.

The service projects and recreation activities, day-to-day content and itinerary will be carefully planned with your input. A VISIONS director will work closely with teachers and organizers to create a challenging, dynamic trip abroad. Overall, the goals VISIONS has for its custom programs are to:

• Enhance high school volunteers’ knowledge of the culture, history, and society of the host country
• Increase the skill of communicating cross-cultural
• Improve communication and community living skills required for successful group living
• Develop hard skills required on the work site, including tool use
• Increase understanding of and respect for diversity in the broadest sense
• Increase confidence in students as engaged members of a community and as agents of change
• Cultivate further a positive attitude fundamental to interacting, learning, and exploring across cultures