Global Xchange is a partnership programme managed and delivered by the British Council, Voluntary Service Overseas, and a number of local partners around the world. We develop international volunteer exchanges and other activities to help create active global citizens who value volunteering, diversity, community development and social action.
Our vision is to build a world where active global citizens create positive change and build mutual understanding and respect between different people.
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Building Global Citizens – including the bilateral exchanges; the Global Citizenship Framework; and Regional Xchanges |
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Promoting Community Cohesion – including Community Xchanges and the Community Learning Toolkit |
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Promoting Active Citizenship globally – including a book entitled Volunteering: Global Citizenship in Action; a web based campaign and research into engaging young people from across the social/economic spectrum in the UK on programmes like Global Xchange |
We are working on a range of pilot projects during 2008/9 and will also be introducing volunteering opportunities to young people globally to increase the number of young people engaging with the programme.
We will also be engaging with UK government structures and departments on the emerging community cohesion agenda in local authority and national government level.
We offer international bilateral volunteering exchanges to give young people from different countries a unique opportunity to work together for 6 months, to develop and share valuable skills and to make a practical contribution where it is needed in local communities.
The bilateral exchanges include teams of up to 18 young people (aged 18-25), with equal numbers coming from the UK and from an overseas partner country. The participants are recruited, and the teams are formed, to reflect diversity in terms of geography, ethnicity, ability, education and gender.
Volunteers live with host families and work in host communities for 3 months in the UK and 3 months in the overseas country. They live and work in cross-cultural counterpart pairs, one from the UK, and one from the exchange country. Global Xchange is designed to be fully reciprocal and involves cross-cultural partnerships in every aspect of our work.
For more information about the bilateral xchanges and the opportunities they offer, please visit the Global Xchange Website.
Based on the Global Xchange bilateral model Regional Xchange, is piloting different models of exchange that incorporate more countries to maximise the impact of intercultural dialogue and intercultural learning and allow an exchange to work across our network of overseas regions.
This is a new innovative initiative offering formal and informal community leaders the opportunity to develop professionally by participating on an accredited training programme.
The purpose of Community Xchange is to work with communities through community leaders to facilitate the positive participation of young people in their communities and to develop inter community and inter cultural dialogue that makes a positive difference to those communities.
Community Xchange works with teams of up to 30 community leaders with equal numbers coming from the UK and an overseas partner country. Participants work in host communities for 3 weeks in the UK and 3 weeks in the overseas country.
Over the course of an exchange participants take part in professional development modules, work attachments and shadowing, and community events to promote active citizenship among young people.
A key supporting product of Community Xchange is the Community Learning Framework. This is a set of principles and tools designed to inform and support community leaders working with communities. The framework is an emerging piece of work and will be developed with input and expertise from a range of stakeholders. It includes three components: the Community Learning Practice Tools, a Facilitators’ Guide and a research report.
The research provides a basis for the framework based on established definitions of community work and global youth work. The core principles of the Community Learning Framework are to help identify community learning from involvement in community activities and to be able to positively measure the impact.
To support the delivery of the Global Xchange programme we have the following products and tools:
Counterpoint, the cultural relations think tank of the British Council, has worked with Global Xchange to produce a publication ‘Volunteering: Global citizenship in action’ based on the learning from Global Xchange over the last 3 years.
The purpose of the book is to inspire all those working in the volunteering sector and to clarify the nature, scope and benefit of volunteering for social action and community exchange. It will increase awareness of how and why individuals and communities become engaged in social action and a greater understanding of how this exemplifies cultural relations through intercultural dialogue. The book will help motivate individuals, organisations, communities and governments to experience and share the benefits of volunteering.
For more information, contact Aurelie Broeckerhoff on +44 (0)20 7389 4363; or Nick Wadham-Smith on or +44 (0) 20 7389 3171.
We are developing an interactive on-line space to share global resources and engage young people and communities in the debate on active global citizenship.
The website will describe how and why individuals become engaged in social action, the debate on active global citizenship and it will publicise Global Xchange as a route to active global citizenship opportunities for young people.
To complement our ongoing commitment to diversity, a research study has been commissioned in partnership with the Runnymede Trust into Engaging young people from Diverse Faith Groups and Marginalised Backgrounds.
The research will build on the recommendations in the International Access for All report (carried out by Global Xchange in 2007/08 and funded by The Russell Commission) by expanding the research to cover the broad spectrum of social economic groups. It will also develop practical tools to enable us to recruit volunteers from more diverse faith groups and marginalised backgrounds.
To find out more about the Global Xchange partnership, the programmes we deliver and the opportunities we offer, please contact the Global Xchange team on +44 (0)207 389 4674.
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