Originally I thought the ideal situation for a helpful Peace Corps guide was for it to be given to every Volunteer once they signed up for Peace Corps - maybe in their invitation packet or during their interview. It would provide advice on how to make it through Peace Corps and improve your quality of service, much like the A Few Minor Adjustments pamphlets Peace Corps has created and distributes each year. However, as I continued to collect questions and answers throughout my Peace Corps experience, I realized we needed more than a pamphlet and that people needed it before they even started interacting officially with Peace Corps. Being an Unofficial Peace Corps Volunteer Handbook allows us the freedom to do that and more:
- Help people interested in Peace Corps before and after they prepare, apply and serve
- Raise proceeds that can be given back to Peace Corps to fund projects worldwide
- Comment collectively on many areas of the Peace Corps experience as applicants, trainees, volunteers, returned volunteers and staff
It has been said that Peace Corps service starts when you become a Volunteer and ends with the rest of your life. This handbook can be an important part of that lifelong journey and community conversation. It will be an ever-changing handbook that grows with the organization, one that is updated every year by honest, reliable and knowledgeable PCVs and staff who want to help others enjoy years of happy, healthy and meaningful service. Peace Corps belongs to the world, to the millions of people whose lives it has changed, and this handbook is be part of that worldwide community. It starts the conversation with people who want to serve the world through Peace Corps and ends with people who have continued serving long after their 27 months are over.
