Connecting the Characteristics of International Volunteer Experiences with Their Impacts: A Canadian Case Study

Abstract

The direct relationship between international volunteer experiences and impacts has rarely been explored and yet is important for understanding why certain impacts occur in the lives of volunteers upon returning home. This information helps organizations to develop effective international volunteer programs. This interpretive case study of the Nova Scotia-Gambia Association’s volunteer program explores the interactions between motivations, experiences, and impacts of volunteers who participate in short-term, development aid projects. It utilizes qualitative interviews and participant observation with recent volunteers and interviews with past alumni to understand these relationships. The findings identify three distinct types of volunteer narratives connecting experiences and impacts—personal, professional, and negative categories. The key characteristics of the experience are living situations and conditions, location selection, work placement options, and non-work related activities, frame experiences and effect impacts, influencing the nature of the narrative. Narratives are also strongly influenced by volunteer personalities and characteristics of the local culture.