Abstract
ABSTRACT Short-term volunteer outputs of youth voluntourism have been documented, yet more recent studies have examined longer-term youth voluntourism outcomes and impact and voluntourism’s transformative features. However, research gaps exist. Less is known about how individual volunteers may be personally shaped by past voluntourism experiences in the long-term – including on hindsight – shifts across short-term outputs to long-term outcomes, and programme features influencing different outputs and outcomes. In an exploratory manner, retrospective, in-depth interview data from diverse Singaporean volunteers who have participated in a range of one-off, recurring, or long-term voluntourism programmes has been used. Findings indicated that whether respondents transitioned from short-term outputs to longer-term voluntourism outcomes was contingent upon reflection depth and continued participation in local volunteerism or overseas voluntourism. Short-term outputs centred on volunteers included achieving personal and national objectives and possibly developing some self-awareness, while long-term outcomes focused on host communities included problematisation of volunteerism and evaluations of sustainability. Long-term impact was further observed when both volunteerism and voluntourism were sustained. Consequently, this study has implications for voluntourism programme evaluation and design to improve future youth outcomes and impact.
Published Version
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