Responsibility & sustainability comprise an important part of our core values. We’ve addressed the issue of ‘responsibility’ elsewhere on this site, and explained what we mean by it, but what about ‘sustainability’?

The same ‘triple bottom line’ – social, economic, environmental – that is applied to responsibility, can be (and we believe should be) applied to sustainability. When development is also brought into the equation, you can begin to grasp our own understanding and interpretation at people and places – that sustainable development is active, well run, inclusive, safe and fair for everyone – now and in the future.

All of our local partners share this fundamental and essential understanding, and we all support each other in maintaining the sustainability of each individual project.

Together we apply a few simple rules:

* The needs of the community, as identified by that community, form the basis of a project. A project is ‘fine-tuned’ by the local community and project management team together.
* Volunteers need to share their skills & expertise. They work with and alongside local people, not instead of them.
* There needs to be ongoing volunteer input – what we tend to refer to as ‘passing the baton’. Every volunteer achieves something, and ensuing inputs take that into account.

To paraphrase a definition of sustainable communities used by the Northwest Policy Institute in Seattle

"Sustainable projects foster commitment to place, promote vitality, build resilience to stress, act as stewards, and forge connections beyond the project"

This is what we aim for and what we can achieve - with your help.