Katimavik – which means “meeting place” in the Inuit language - was founded in 1977, in “its own” words, “to allow Canadian youth to travel the country and get involved in community projects.”

People between 17 and 21 participate for nine months, and during that time work 35 hours per week in community projects in three different cities (two English-speaking and one French-speaking). They also participated in “structured learning activities” – as far as I understand including language and leadership workshops, among other things.

The work itself could be manual labor, office work or other support for the activities of a non-profit organization – and different volunteers work with different community organizations in the same general location. Up to five volunteers may work with one organization, but an effort is made to ensure these volunteers don’t end up working only with each other.

Katimavik is funded by the Canadian government, and pays for lodging, food, and travel to the different sites; volunteers receive a small daily allowance and a “bursary” of $1000 upon completion.

Volunteers live in groups of eleven, sharing a house or apartment with other volunteers and a project leader, but spend a portion of the time with local families as well. There is information about how the living arrangements work and guidelines for conduct during free time in the FAQ’s.

The groups are in fact formed in an effort to make a “mini-Canada” in each group – in other words to replicate the proportion of Canadians coming from each region in each group. This first of all means that your chances of being accepted are proportionate to the number of applications from your province, but more importantly means that not only do volunteers have the chance to experience the community in which they are living and volunteering, they have a chance to interact with a group of people from all over their country.

A somewhat parallel program in the US might be AmeriCorps – however, there are a number of significant differences (which I actually find quite interesting to contrast but won’t go into here), so I’d only compare these in the sense that both offer young people the opportunity to volunteer in their own countries for an extended period.

For much more information, check out Katimavik’s FAQ’s and also the this page, to get an idea of some of the possible locations. Also read a Volunteer Logue interview with Neil, a Former Katimavik volunteer.