Volunteering
Lots of people send us mail asking if they can volunteer to work with the Road Trip. This is great, but there are a few things you need to understand.
First, the Serious Road Trip isn't a single organization, but many. There's no 'head office' where you can apply for a job. Instead, pick one of the local groups and contact them directly. Choose the group that's closest to you geographically, or the one whose projects sound most interesting to you.
Second, the individual member groups are all fairly small and generally short of money, so they're unlikely to be able to pay you. If you think you'd like to have a paid job doing humanitarian work, you're better off trying one of the Big International NGO's (BINGO's) like CARE or Oxfam.
Third and most important, don't expect us to tell you what to do. Lots of people write to us saying "I want to volunteer. Please tell me how I can help."
This is very nice, but if you write a message like that you may never get a reply.
Generally, getting ideas for projects and people to work on them isn't difficult. The hard part is finding the money and other resources to make the projects happen. So if you want to work with the Road Trip, you have to be a self-starter. Come to us with a detailed proposal that says what you want to do and how you plan to do it. Things to put in your message include:
- a description of a project that you'd like to do
- what special expertise or skills you have that could be useful
- how you intend to raise money to make the project happen
- why you think the Serious Road Trip should get involved
- what assistance you want from the Serious Road Trip
- what other assets you have - contacts with local groups, materials, sources of sponsorship or support etc. - that could be useful for this project or other projects
- what previous experience you have of working on or organizing similar projects
If you think you have good answers to the questions above, send us a message (or better, send it direct to one of the local groups.