About VFP
Staff
Matt Messier – Executive Director Matt has been active with VFP since 1995 when he participated in his first workcamp in Italy. Other camps have taken him to many locations both internationally and locally. Matt joined the VFP Board of Directors in 2002 and in 2016 took on the position of Executive Director. In May […]
Board of Directors
Board of Directors Peter Coldwell – Founder, Treasurer Peter holds a B.A. from The American University and additional credits from Assumption College and Castleton State College. He speaks conversational German, Russian and some Spanish. Peter has traveled, lived and/or worked in some sixty countries. Peter did his first workcamps in Czechoslovakia and Hungary in 1968. He […]
Our Mission
Founded in 1982, VFP is a non-profit organization offering over 3000 voluntary service opportunities around the world. Volunteers For Peace (VFP) organizes, promotes and supports voluntary service opportunities in the USA and abroad as an effective means of intercultural education, service learning, and community development. VFP empowers host communities to work cooperatively for environmental sustainability, social […]
History of Volunteers For Peace
During the summer of 1968, Peter Coldwell, Founder of Volunteers For Peace, participated in international short-term voluntary service projects (workcamps) in Hungary and Czechoslovakia through a program sponsored by the Unitarian-Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) in Boston. The value of working on a common project, helping a community and forming ties with other volunteers, coupled with his […]
What is International Voluntary Service?
The idea of International Voluntary Service came from a Swiss pacifist, Pierre Ceresole, following the First World War. Not able to sit idly he searched for the “moral equivalent for war,” and the concept of international workcamps was born. He founded “Service Civil International” (SCI) with its emphasis upon constructive, voluntary service for peace through international work […]