Ethical Policy
Since it’s creation in 1994 i-to-i has been trying to mix ethical practices with commercial success. It’s harder than it sounds, but we’re committed to making a difference and determined to make it work. We’ve developed an ethical policy which guides our business practices and, we hope, will also help to guide our customers.
The world is an ever changing place and as our company must evolve to accommodate this, so too will our ethical policy. Our core values will never change (we’re always going to try to make a difference in the world) but the way we make this difference will have to change to meet the changing demands of the world we live in.
Responsible tourism
At i-to-i we’re committed to providing responsible travel placements which serve to benefit local communities throughout the world, whilst minimising the negative environmental and social impacts of mass tourism.
We believe that responsible travellers can play a vital role in preserving the world’s natural resources and help to create a sustainable future for travel destinations and the industry as a whole.
Nature and wildlife
- We work with projects that are specifically designed to help local people conserve fragile eco-systems, and protect endangered plants and animals within their communities.
- We operate placements throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, Australia and Europe, working alongside local residents towards the common goal of sustaining their natural surroundings.
Customs and cultures
- We work with projects that endeavour to safeguard the traditional cultural heritage of the land in which they are based by preserving important historical, architectural and archaeological features within their community.
- We’re acutely aware of the importance of the local customs and cultures at our many destinations. We aim to uphold these traditions and treat them with the utmost respect.
- We brief all volunteers on local cultures and customs of the country they’re travelling to and ask that they sign our Code of Conduct before they travel to ensure that they too uphold these vital traditions.
Community involvement
- We aim to work only with projects initiated within the community in which they are located.
- We work in partnership with local independent businesses in each volunteer destination to help create jobs and boost the local economy.
- We try to place our volunteers in homestay accommodation while they’re away to ensure that a proportion of each volunteer’s fee goes directly to their host community. We currently succeed in placing 50% of our volunteer’s in homestay accommodation.
- We work closely with people and organisations across the globe to ensure that the volunteers and services we provide are those that are wanted and needed by the communities we work with. We believe that by working with our placement countries in this way, we can help to secure the long-term prosperity of these destinations and their peoples.
- We support a number of our projects every year through a grant scheme for tangible long-term initiatives such as renovating buildings, essential equipment and sustanable supplies
Child protection policy
We work with projects all over the world and a lot of them involve work with children. It’s our responsibility, as a volunteer service provider, to protect these children from those who would do them harm. That’s why we require all UK volunteers applying for a community development project or a teaching opportunity to undergo a Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) background check.
Follow the link to find out more about criminal record checks.
Community development
- We have community development projects all over the world but it’s important that we don’t lose sight of what’s happening in our very own community. Deirdre Bounds, i-to-i CEO, works closely with the local community to ensure that we continue to contribute to its development and improvement.
- She is a co-founder of the Leeds-based group, Female Emerging Entrepreneurs (FEE). This is a mentoring organisation that helps other women develop and grow their businesses.
- She was also a driving force in the establishment of a pilot scheme in Leeds which offers work experience for young people with behavioural difficulties. i-to-i welcomes these youngsters into our business and helps them to develop their CV by providing them with useful experience.
- She’s also a renowned speaker on topics such as corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurship and women in business. So she’s out there spreading the word and encouraging other businesses to think about the effects of their working practices.
In support of self-sufficiency
Your fee pays for a lot of things but it doesn’t fund your project, and for good reason! National aid organisations have observed that simply giving money to overseas projects can lead to a reliance on foreign aid. We don’t want that.
We work alongside projects and communities, we don’t control them and we don’t financially support them. We want to help these projects to become self-reliant so that in the future they won’t need financial help from us or anyone else.
We instead choose to support a number of projects every year through a grant scheme for tangible long-term initiatives such as renovating existing buildings, essentail equipment and sustainable supplies.
Promoting safe travel
i-to-i is an associate of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office 'Know Before You Go' campaign. This is a travel safety campaign designed to encourage travellers to be better prepared for their international travels.
The key messages of this campaign are:
- Get travel insurance.
- Research destinations.
- Visit a GP at least six weeks before travelling overseas.
- And make copies of all important documents.
We want to promote these messages. That’s why, as well as getting travel insurance, a fully researched placement and a cultural orientation with your i-to-i travel experience, you’ll also get heaps of advice covering everything from visa applications to health and safety. We also require all travellers to provide proof of their insurance before they can being their project.
Environmental responsibilities
We already operate a strict recycling policy and encourage travellers to off-set their carbon emissions but we want to do more. We are currently working with an external agency to develop and implement a company-wide environmental policy. This will be added to our ethical policy as soon as it’s complete.
