"Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”

In concert with our partner organizations, VISIONS runs quality, customized service programs for education groups, service clubs, language clubs or other groups who want to travel with the spirit of community service, cultural immersion and adventure. Custom programs are open to all ages and may be tailored to specific needs, keeping in mind that community service will always be a component of the trips.

We invite you to plan a custom service program with VISIONS. In doing so, you are assured of the highest quality volunteer travel experience. VISIONS will collaborate closely with you to create a program that meets your group’s goals and desires within the unique VISIONS framework and with program elements firmly in place that ensure a rewarding experience for all.

VISIONS Service Adventures offers customized experiences in domestic and international locations in which we have lived and worked for many seasons. Our custom programs incorporate a successful program framework that has been the core of VISIONS since our founding in 1989. Your experience will be intimate, dynamic, and, we assure you, memorable.

Your group will live for awhile, from 8 to 20 days or more, in a community well known to VISIONS and with whom we have forged solid, trusting partnerships over time. Almost immediately upon arrival, you will enter an “environment of flow,” meaning that your group will be immersed in the community from the get-go, will mix and mingle with your hosts socially and while working on projects that directly benefit their community.

Woven into the days are ample opportunities to explore the surroundings in ways that are engaging, exciting and occasionally simply relaxing. VISIONS offers a specific kind of experience. If you haven’t already, please read our website under Program Details, The VISIONS Framework, Projects. This information will give you a solid sense of our working philosophy, how we shape our experiences, and the ambition of the service work you will undertake.

Then, please contact us, and the process begins. We provide references from educators and other groups with whom we have worked who are happy to speak frankly about their customized community service program with VISIONS.

Through service work and dynamic experience, VISIONS offers new perspectives and deep learning while working for and with under-resourced communities.

As the world’s local communities become increasingly interdependent, the need for understanding and learning across cultures increases. By providing an engaging cross-cultural, experiential learning experience within the context of service work, exploration and community-building activities, a VISIONS custom program offers the opportunity to gain the confidence and capacity necessary to build the relationships and inter-cultural competencies that will strengthen your local and our global communities.

A customized volunteer travel program is based on VISIONS’ fundamental beliefs about learning.

• Knowledge is acquired not only through classroom study or within discrete academic disciplines, but also, and equally importantly, through personal and social relations, through experience. In this realm of aesthetic knowledge interpretation is not the thing. Experience is the thing. More than mental agility and the capacity to absorb information, consciousness flourishes in relationship and through engagement in the world.
• True experiential learning is more than experiencing the world. As David Kolb has written, “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” That transformation occurs through reflection and application.

VISIONS Custom Program Learning Objectives

What We Offer

• At least two seasoned, specifically qualified VISIONS leaders will be stewards of your experience on the ground, assisted by local individuals with whom we have worked for years.
• A complete itinerary for the program’s duration.
• All pre-trip preparations and program logistics, including room, board, recreational excursions and fees, in-country travel are handled by VISIONS. Well ahead of the program, your group receives comprehensive information about the program location, the community and the service project, a packing list, health information, medical resources and emergency response protocols, and more.
• Chaperons from your group will receive a letter from our leaders with thoughts and expectations about how best to work together to ensure safety, program flow, and outlining tried-and-true protocols that bolster program integrity. (Depending on your group’s size, VISIONS typically offers tuition-free participation for two chaperons from your group.)
• Administrative assistance, including application and enrollment forms, advice on travel reservations, useful web links, and more.
• We will be in close personal touch with the custom sponsor well ahead of the experience to help shape the program, answer questions, and pave the way. if possible, a VISIONS leader may meet personally with your group.

We look forward to working with you.