BUNAC

Info:  On a BUNAC programme, you have the chance to experience the real everyday working life of a country and explore some of the world's most amazing places during your stay. Imagine all those destinations you've always wanted to visit. From the Grand Canyon to the Great Barrier Reef, from the ski resorts of Banff to the beaches of Queensland, from San Jose to Siem Reap, the choice is entirely yours.

Whichever programme you choose, you'll be in a different culture, gaining job and life skills, and meeting a whole new circle of friends in what has the potential to be one of your most fun, memorable and life-changing experiences ever.

Citizens Advice Bureau

Info:  The Citizens Advice service helps people solve their legal, consumer and other problems by providing free advice, and by influencing policymakers.

Every Citizens Advice Bureau is a registered charity and over 20,000 of the people involved in the service are trained volunteers, helping people to resolve over 5.5 million new problems a year.

Concordia International Volunteers

Info:  Concordia first started in 1943 during the Second World War when young people were encouraged to support the war effort by gathering fruit and crops in the fields. After the war young people from Europe were invited to take part in a scheme in order to rebuild international friendships and to promote peace.

Today, the scheme is known as the Seasonal Agricultural Work Scheme (SAWS) and offers foreign students the opportunity to do paid seasonal farm work in the UK.

Concordia is now a registered charity based in Brighton. Part of the work in the SAWS and the other part is the International Volunteer Programme. These two schemes run independently although the International Volunteer Programme relies on financial support from SAWS.

CSV

Info:  Community Service Volunteers (CSV) was founded in 1962 by Mora and Alec Dickson who also founded Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

The aim of our founders was to involve young people aged 16-35 in voluntary service in the UK, to enrich the lives of volunteers and those they help and to generate social change.

40 years on we are the UK’s largest volunteering and training charity.

Last year we involved nearly quarter of a million people in volunteering in the UK, we trained 12,000 disadvantaged young people and helped 29,000 people to find learning opportunities through our links with BBC local radio.

True to our founders’ vision, full-time volunteering remains a core focus of our work. Last year, 971 young people volunteered away from home for 4 months to a year, transforming their lives and the lives of others.

Above all, the philosophy upon which CSV was founded still guides us today. We believe that everyone should be able to take part in the life of their community.

Do-it

Info:  Do-it was launched in 2001 with the first, and still the only, national database of volunteering opportunities in the UK.

Do-it is part of the registered charity YouthNet, a non-profit-making organisation. We do not charge people to use the database as we believe that volunteering should be free to the user and so make a small charge to organisations registering their opportunities to ensure this.

Down 2 Earth International

Info:  We exist to:

* Work towards economically sustainable means of living that will empower people who are living in disadvantaged circumstances

* Protect species and their habitats, especially in regions of high biodiversity

* Support and promote cultural diversity and indigenous traditions

* Encourage cross cultural skill sharing and education which engenders a culture of universal citizenship and reaffirms a personal sense of responsibility to the Earth and its inhabitants

* Create a platform for the vulnerable to excel, and give them an opportunity to utilize their skills

* Develop cultural links between communities overseas and the UK

We undertake the following:

* Research and development

* Training, education and skillsharing

* Cacapity building of local stakeholders

* Provision of material resources which will have a demonstrable positive impact