The CorpsAfrica Model
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CorpsAfrica is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2011 by a former Peace Corps Volunteer seeking to recognize and build on Peace Corps's enormous success by offering the same transformative experience to emerging leaders in Africa - giving them the chance to be a part of the solution for their own countries. CorpsAfrica applies some of the best approaches to international development, including empowering local communities, promoting collaboration among NGOs and our development partners, and monitoring and impact evaluation.
CorpsAfrica recruits men and women to move to high-poverty communities within their own countries for a year, after successfully completing four weeks of training built around experiential learning to empower and equip Volunteers with the skills and mindsets they will need to be successful at their sites. Volunteers gain the community’s trust and understanding by engaging people in conversations and facilitating community meetings to identify and address changing and complex local needs in education, health, small business development, urban planning and infrastructure, agriculture, the environment, and more. They then initiate and facilitate projects that fulfill these key needs in their communities and whose impact and success can be carefully measured and monitored. |
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CorpsAfrica's Core Values
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Locals Helping Locals
We believe that qualified Africans can be part of the solution in their own countries. Our volunteers relocate to remote communities in their own countries for one year and begin to fully integrate by learning local customs, participating in day-to-day activities, and becoming trusted members of the community. Listening and Empowering We stress the importance of listening - our volunteers lead change by engaging people in conversations and facilitating community meetings to identify and address changing and complex local needs in education, health, small business development, urban planning and infrastructure. We believe that development efforts are most effective when “demand driven” – giving women, men and youth at the community level the opportunity to identify what needs to be done and to take the lead in doing it. |
Collaboration
Our volunteers serve as liaisons between their communities and the outside world. CorpsAfrica is uniquely positioned to collaborate with a wide range of Development Partners. These Development Partners include NGOs, development-related businesses, government officials, academics, social entrepreneurs and others who share their expertise and assist the volunteers with their project implementation. Monitoring and Evaluation We think that no effort is complete without thorough monitoring and evaluation. Before beginning their service, volunteers are taught the tools needed to evaluate and monitor their communities. After their service, volunteers begin measuring the project impact on the community or targeted population. CorpsAfrica also measure the impact on the lives of the volunteers that graduate from the program, who will have learned through hands-on experience the critical issues of community development. |
Accountability and Transparency
We want to show our Development Partners, the targeted communities and all interested outside parties what we're up to and be held accountable for everything we do. It keeps us motivated and encourages us to be the best that we can be.
We want to show our Development Partners, the targeted communities and all interested outside parties what we're up to and be held accountable for everything we do. It keeps us motivated and encourages us to be the best that we can be.
Hicham, CorpsAfrica/Maroc Group 3 Volunteer
CorpsAfrica's Impact
Soufian (second from left), CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Morocco,
facilitating a community meeting in his village
CorpsAfrica was delighted to work with a team of five graduate students from NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service for the 2013-2014 academic year.
The purpose of this team project was to take an academic approach to demonstrating the impact of the projects the Volunteers facilitate in addition to the program itself and the impact on the Volunteers' lives. The Capstone group worked closely with CorpsAfrica staff, Board, and Volunteers during training and in the field to develop tools for measuring impact as well as a system for collecting and recording results.
Read their report here.
The purpose of this team project was to take an academic approach to demonstrating the impact of the projects the Volunteers facilitate in addition to the program itself and the impact on the Volunteers' lives. The Capstone group worked closely with CorpsAfrica staff, Board, and Volunteers during training and in the field to develop tools for measuring impact as well as a system for collecting and recording results.
Read their report here.
