World Bridges supports young adults in gaining the experience, knowledge, and skills required to be effective, globally-minded leaders in multicultural and international environments. Through unique service-learning and alliance-building programs, participants gain a deeper understanding of their individual connections to the global community and of our country’s role in global affairs.
Our Programs have 3 goals:
- to prepare and mentor young adults to engage in the world by participating in international internships and volunteer experiences in Africa, Asia, Europe, or Latin America. Trainings are based in popular education and include local service-learning internships.
- to offer different world perspectives to young people who cannot travel abroad by hosting young volunteers and organizers from our partner countries to intern or volunteer alongside our participants and alumni and work with local collaborating organizations. They focus on building multicultural alliances, collaborating on environmental projects, and finding solutions to common problems.
- to engage our participants, alumni, visiting international partners, and the broader community in dialogues to explore the role of people of color in international movement-building and find sustainable solutions locally with a global vision.
The Leadership Exchange (LEX) Program: World Bridges' core program engages young adults of color from low-income backgrounds in eight months of leadership, civic engagement, and cross-cultural training in the SF Bay Area, and provides first-time travelers from the Bay Area with an opportunity to take part in a volunteer project or internship outside of the US (2-12 weeks abroad). World Bridges also supports LEX participants with travel preparedness and fundraising trainings, a travel scholarship, and mentorship. Our program is centered on principles of participatory, experiential education with a vision of social justice. Program participation requires attendance at 2-3 meetings/events per month and 8 internship hours per month -- all in the SF Bay Area. Participants must be living in the Bay Area during the program year, as well as the following year. We cover 80% of the program costs, including most - if not all - of the international airfare, travel insurance, and the international volunteer project-related costs.
To be eligible for the program, you must:
• Be a US citizen or US Permanent Resident
• Be a young person of color, age 18-26
• Be a Bay Area resident through 2010
• Be able to attend every program meeting and complete an internship
• Be able to demonstrate financial need
• Have not traveled abroad on your own before
• Have experience learning about or addressing social justice issues
• Have a strong desire to learn about different cultures & communities at home & abroad
• Be very self-motivated & reliable
• Demonstrate prior active community involvement and/or peer leadership
• Be willing and able to share their experience with other organizations & individuals
2009 Applicants, please note! We are no longer accepting applications for our spring/summer '09 LEX program. However, we may run a program in the fall. Please check back with us in June. We understand that you may have been eager to apply for the spring/summer program and sincerely regret that we can not accept more participants at this time.
The Environmental Service Exchange Program: In past years, World Bridges has invited young people from around the world to spend 2 weeks in Northern California volunteering in an environmental service camp while learning about different efforts in the U.S. and around the world to address environmental concerns.
Partner Delegations: World Bridges hosts delegations of young people from our partner organizations abroad who come to share their experiences working for peace, justice, and environmental health in their own countries and to learn from young people here who active in their own communities. If you would like to host a delegate in your organization or volunteer to coordinate their visit here, please contact us!
Community Dialogues: As people in the U.S. grapple to understand their role in world affairs, World Bridges offers spaces for dialogue for young people of color to explore how their role in their local communities is impacted by and in turn can impact international events and movements. Check the Events listings for current programming.
