CS Cares

Note: This is a proposal for future CS Enhancements. They are nowhere near fully developed or at all set in stone. In the essay below, I concentrate mostly on providing a strong justification for why CS members should be interested in developing this project. This content is intentionally weak on design detail and technical schematics. I encourage you to rigorously challenge my assumptions and the feasibility of implementing these ideas in the appropriate group forum.
Thanks,
Alexevasion

At present, online hospitality exchange networks are primarily utilized by highly advantaged populations in developed countries. This is mostly an issue of wealth disparities and access to digital infrastructure, things that an organization like CouchSurfing cannot begin to rectify. However, our stated mission is to help our users make the world a better place - one couch at a time. Some may say that this is a ridiculously lofty and idealistic goal given the constraints of our current system. While we contend that the act of CouchSurfing itself encourages social change, we must also concede that it is a somewhat passive strategy when put in context with the dire problems facing poor people globally.

We suspect that the same values that make CouchSurfers willing to open their home to strangers will also make them willing to volunteer some of their travel time to a worthy cause. This gives CS the unique opportunity to facilitate the doing of good works while simultaneously promoting cultural understanding in a whole new manner. Accommodation sharing would thus expand its potential by connecting grassroots community development projects with potential volunteers from around the world. During their stay, they could lend skilled and unskilled labor and reap the benefits of a truly rewarding relationship with local peoples in need. Why isn't this happening already? Let us begin with a hypothetical situation indicative of the current dilemma:

A group of socially conscious American students from Austin, Texas decides that they want to drive south across the U.S./Mexico border, travel for a couple of months on their summer break in Central America, and do some good works along the way. When they go online to try and locate some places and organizations conducive to volunteering, they find themselves summarily disappointed. While there are indeed many options available, most programs require advance payment of a fairly large nonrefundable fee (often exceeding $300) and a mandatory extended stay in one location. Like most people who have pursued this avenue in the past, they feel discouraged. They strongly dislike the idea of paying to volunteer. Moreover, they want to avoid the institutional burdens the application process entails and the restrictions placed on their freedom while traveling. They simply want to show up somewhere on short notice and have their abilities put to effective use where they are most needed.

There are thousands of small volunteer organizations doing incredible work around the world that you will never hear about because their work goes unpublicized outside the local community in which they operate. As a whole, they accomplish far more than the larger nonprofits and NGOs you regularly hear about through their websites and PR campaigns. The CS Cares module hopes to make more information about these kinds of volunteer opportunities available to interested our interested members. The first step is to create a framework for volunteer coordinators who want to recruit CouchSurfers, sponsor projects, and field potential bureaucratic difficulties. Because they serve as the linchpin in this enhancement and represent CouchSurfing to a wider community, it is important that we establish some policy guidelines for this important positions.

1. They must be or become verified CS members;

2. Their sponsored project must be approved by the CS Cares Director;

3. They must secure free accommodation for their volunteers;

4. There can be no mandatory monetary transactions involved;

5. They must operate within the terms of the CS user agreement ;

Once members are approved as coordinators, they will post the details of their volunteer project within the CS Cares module. A tab will be created on the CS home page to direct users to listings of participating organizations. There will be a search tool to provide an easy way to find volunteer opportunities based on location, duration, and skills needed. Deeper descriptions would be provided by the volunteer coordinator on request. Their page would also contain references left by past volunteers on their experiences working with the organization.

Integrating a volunteer component will change the nature of CS and its model for expansion in the developing world. Often we hear complaints that CouchSurfing (and travel in general) is much more challenging in these places. The only real remedy we can offer is to spread the CouchSurfing spirit of trust, reciprocity, and tolerance through all parts of the world. We can do this most effectively by engaging with locals, giving a hand to those who need it, and creating supportive relationships across national, class, and language barriers.