Cross-Cultural Solutions

Cross-Cultural Solutions is committed to the continuing quality and impact of our programs. Our goal for volunteer quality is to have a satisfaction rating above 99% for all volunteers who travel, and to have an excellence rating above 70%. In 2013, the last full year of reporting, both of these goals were met.

Additionally, we measure the impact of our volunteer programs through annual in-country surveys to our partner organizations. Our goal is to have over 90% of partner programs report that our work has been "positive" or "highly positive". In 2013, the last full year of reporting, our impact was measured above 99% "positive" or "highly positive".

Our programs are carefully structured for program quality and maximum impact.

In terms of program quality for volunteers, our programs are led by experienced, dedicated professionals, all local nationals, who make up the in-country staff. The programming is carefully balanced to include meaningful volunteer work experiences alongside unique cultural exchange opportunities, as well as free time and personal reflection and feedback. Regularly, we review each of these program components to ensure they provide the most high-quality experiences for our volunteers, and continually improve each of these components.

Our impact is at the center of our programs. We rely on local community members to determine what is best for their own communities and programs, and support them based on their requests for volunteers. Annually, we measure our impact through a survey to our partner organizations, and weekly, our in-country staff visits these organizations for feedback and suggestions. While our impact is overall highly positive or positive, we are continuing to focus on volunteer preparation through a new tool called myCCS to provide idea and activity banks as well as videos and information on being an effective volunteer to increase this impact.

Our primary capability is our in-country staff, who are led by a recognized expert in the community as the Country Director, leading a full team of professionals in guiding the quality programming for volunteers as well as the impact on partner organizations in the local community. We continue to rely on and train our Country Directors, as well as share best practices across the 10 countries where we operate, to lead the continued quality and improvements in quality and impact.

Over the past few years, we have also been responding to volunteers needs for information through making resources available to volunteers in new, dynamic ways. Through working in partnership with development firms, we have expanded our quality and quantity of information to ensure that our volunteers are well-trained before arriving in-country for an effective and impactful volunteer experience.

We have also expanded our partnerships with colleges and universities, community organizations, and corporations to make these programs available to a wider cross-section of individuals, working alongside each partner to ensure that the selection and preparation of volunteers is well-supported from all stakeholders, and customizing programs to meet individual needs and goals.

Information captured annually through surveys has helped us to determine best practices for improvements in quality and impact of the volunteer experience, such as hosting orientation programs to include partner programs and running annual workshops to train partner organizations on how to best utilize CCS volunteers. To date, as of the last full year of survey data available, we have met and exceeded our benchmark goals for quality and impact of our programs across all sectors. However, we continue to focus on improving those measurements and increasing our goals through identifying each area of the volunteer experience. Just recently, an online volunteer preparation portal called myCCS launched, with a large focus on preparing volunteers for effective work in the local communities.