FUNDRAISING – If you think you could help PWB with its fundraising efforts, social media presence, newsletter, volunteer recruitment process or want to put on a fundraising event yourself then please get in contact.
PWB-UK is looking for people to help out develop partnerships with groups working with young people who lack access to Circus and Theatre in the UK. This could mean simply suggesting suitable Partner Organisations and putting us in contact, or it could mean approaching them and helping to develop a project together.
PWB-International advertises for skilled and experienced circus practitioners from around MAY to AUGUST each year. We recruit about 20 people to go on different tours to work with young people in India, Kenya, Nicaragua, The Philippines, France or wherever we can set up new projects every year. The teams that undertake our tours are volunteers drawn from the talented pool of performers and teachers from around the world. From around May to August every year we send out ‘calls for volunteers’ to find people to undertake tours. If you would like to be the first to hear about volunteering opportunities sign up to our newsletter at the bottom of this page or find us on Facebook and please read on for more details below.
We are looking for experienced performers and circus skills teachers, who have preferably travelled on a budget and have some experience working in a team. Full details of of the job specifications are given here.
If you are successful in applying to go on tour with PWB, it’s a big commitment, but an incredibly rewarding one. It means fundraising, travel, teamwork, learning, teaching, eating exciting food, playing, quite possibly becoming ill at least once, having loads of fun, languages, sunshine, great shows, and, in the words of one past volunteer – “one of the best experiences of my life” (see below for other positive testimonials and our Volunteer Blogs).
The journey begins when you are accepted into a team, and you have to start planning for the tour. Each tour is slightly different, and each team is unique. There’s funds to be raised, ideas to be shared, and many months of fevered anticipation. After you apply anytime between April to August, you will be interviewed and will know if you are accepted by September at the latest. You then have 4 months to raise around £1000 plus what ever your flights, travel insurance, police check and vaccines will cost. Food, travel and accommodation on tour is budget and basic (vegetarian) , so will have to pay for any ‘luxury’ extras or any trips in your free time yourself.
When you make it out on tour, the basic plan is as follows – create a show with your happy and slightly jet-lagged team, travel to some incredible places, teach lots young people who are invariably extremely excited to see you, perform your show lots and lots of times, and have many incredible experiences along the way. You’ll improve your teaching, organisational and performance skills, and you’ll have stories and memories that will last you a lifetime.
Please read on if you want to know more details.
We are looking for experienced, adventurous and self motivated volunteers who can perform and teach a range of skills whilst travelling on a PWB tour. Tours lengths vary between 10 days to 4 months and you might be spending up to a month at a time with various groups of under circus’ed children, teaching the young people, teachers and performing in the local area for various Partner Organisations.
We give volunteers from around the world the opportunity to come together and work with groups of young people in developing countries. We give these young people the chance to learn performance skills and through having fun, their developmental capacities. We aim to build long lasting relationships with the Partner Organisations we work with and their communities. We do this through regular visits, equipment donations and on-going work with these groups. Please see below for some testimonials from previous volunteers.
How to apply
Want to see more photos?
To see more photos from Performers Without Borders, head over to our Flickr profile
See more photosPAST VOLUNTEER TESTIMONIALS
In 2020+ we started a blog series called “Looking back with past Volunteers” to try and capture some magic insights to tours and share the volunteer voice.
In 2018 we conducted a survey of all of the people that had volunteered on tour for PWB to build a picture of how the experience has effected them. Of those who responded 20 people rated their performance and skill development on tour as “pretty good”. And 14 people said they experienced “really significant” personal growth whilst on tour. We also asked an open ended question to get some stories of significant change.
THE QUESTION:
Looking back at your time working with PWB, what would you say was the most significant change you saw in yourself which you attribute directly to that time?
A selection of responses:
“PWB inspired me to follow my passion of using performing arts to change vulnerable youth’s lives. They were the first company who gave me a stepping stone into the work of performance outreach, teaching me that play therapy is vitally important. Everything I have done since my PWB days has been inspired by lessons I learnt on tour and not a day goes by when I don’t think how grateful [I am] for the experience.”
“My time with PWB was a life changing experience! It helped me grow in confidence on a personal level and as a teach and performer. The experience taught me that anything is possible through practice, perseverance and support from your friends! Learning and sharing circus skills illustrates this perfectly where the impossible becomes possible through practice and fun! I was not the only one to benefit from this experience, seeing the positive impact it had on the children we were working with was so powerful and inspiring.”
“There have been multiple changes to my life through PWB projects. The ability to take on new challenges in teaching and performing, navigating group dynamics in terms of knowing myself in a group and facilitating others to achieve their best. Learning and exploring new cultures with the support to travel and connect with people from many different backgrounds and situations. To learn that to believe in yourself is a gift for yourself, and also a gift you can share with others, no matter your ability at the start.”
“Being part of a PWB project made me realise the power of social circus which has made me take part in other projects such as a circus volunteering project in Indonesia and taking PWB to Calais a few times in various forms.
I also became a better and more professional circus performer due to taking part in a tour, having the opportunity to perform regularly and devise shows, spending time training with circus performers and learning new disciplines form various people on my tours. I was gained more confidence as a clown, as circus performer, as deviser and a busker. Additionally, when I was on my first project in Nicaragua in 2013 I conceived of an idea for a new project which I am in the process of applying for funding for – The Sexual Health Circus!”