The Requirements

The Employee 
• Provides his/her services without monetary compensation as an international volunteer
• Volunteers overseas for approximately two to three weeks
• Participates in two days of pre-departure training.
• Volunteers overseas for approximately two to three weeks
• Shares his/her knowledge and skills witha local partner during the assignment
• Communicates his/her experience with co-workers through presentations, newsletter articles, etc

The Employer
• Sponsors the employee and allows him/her to share the Leave for Change experience in the workplace
• Facilitates the volunteer selection process
• Permits employees to share their Leave for Change experience with co-workers before and after the assignment
• Covers a part of the costs trough the payment of 5000$ per volunteer employee


Uniterra 
•Manages the volunteer selection process
•Provides pre-departure training and covers the following costs: vaccinations, insurance, airfare, lodging and daily stipend
•Facilitates the volunteer’s integration into the local partner’s work team
•Coordinates transportation and other in-field logistics as well as integration with the local partner
•Monitors the well-being and security of the employee
•Assists the Leave for Change volunteer with his/her communication activities, with the employer’s approval

Congé solidaire

How to Leave

What is Leave for Change?
>> See our Current Postings <<

Leave for Change:

• Enables employees from participating organizations to transform part of their annual leave into a 2 or 3 week volunteer assignment
in a developing country.

• Enables these volunteers to contribute their skills and advice to an international development project with the support of professionals in the host country.

Why participate in Leave for Change?

Everybody wins:
• Employers invest in the development of their human resources, thereby strengthening their competitiveness in Canada’s evolving work­force. They recognize the commitment of their employees who are fulfilling a dream by volun­teering in a developing country. They also
demonstrate leadership in corporate social res­ponsibility at the international level as well as the local one. In return, public recognition and employees’ pride in their employer is increased.

• Employees expand their personal and profes­sional horizons and acquire a deeper under­standing of our globalized society and markets.

• Both contribute in a rapid and tangible way to a specific, result-driven development project.
 
• Partner organizations in developing countries acquire valuable new skills and working tools.

Types of assignments and needed skills

All Leave for Change volunteers work with local partner organizations in the following sectors: private sector development, agriculture and rural development, HIV/AIDS, basic education, health and nutrition or youth programming. As the needs of our development partners are diverse, so are the skills we look for in volunteers. They can include computer and internet training, accounting, business management, marketing, engineering and communications. Some are as basic as a natural ability to help people improve their reading skills.


Learn more about our Senegalese partner RIPESS through the work of Michel Arsenault, who took a Leave for Change with City of Montreal >>

If you are an employee and are interested in volunteering with Leave for Change, your employer must first enter into an agreement with Leave for Change to become a partner of the program.

 

Simple steps for becoming a Leave for Change partner:

1.Agree to offer Leave for Change to your employees.

2.Provide program and application information internally.
3. Sign a letter of agreement with Uniterra.

A few examples:
Nepal
- database management
Guinea
- budget planning
Niger
- basic computer skills
- audio-visual training
Botswana
- cabinet making
Burkina Faso
- graphic design
- website development
Senegal
- marketing for small business
Guatemala
- fair trade management


Take a Leave for Change !

Put a key resource person in your organisation in touch with us to explore its potential involvement with Leave Change by contacting:

Philippe Leduc, Leave for Change Programme Officer
pleduc@wusc.ca