What Volunteers Do
Find and share your passion
Peace Corps service lets you partner with communities to share your skills and passion at the local level where they can make a difference. Sharpen your skills in a field you've always loved, or challenge yourself with a new opportunity.
When you serve in the Peace Corps, you’ll be working together with your community to create a positive impact on people’s lives – now and for generations to come. We have diverse opportunities across six sectors.
Agriculture: Strengthen Food Security
Agriculture Volunteers work with small-scale farmers and families to increase food security and production and adapt to climate change while promoting environmental conservation.
Volunteers partner with farmers on techniques that prevent soil erosion, reduce the use of harmful pesticides, and replenish the soil. They work alongside farmers on integrated projects that often combine vegetable gardening, livestock management, agroforestry, and nutrition education.
Community Economic Development: Cultivate Opportunity
Volunteers work together with development banks, nongovernmental organizations, and municipalities to encourage economic opportunities in communities. They frequently teach in classroom settings and work with entrepreneurs and business owners to develop and market their products.
Some Volunteers also teach foundational computer skills and support communities in taking advantage of technologies that connect them to the global marketplace.
Education: Teach for Tomorrow
Education is the Peace Corps’ largest program area. Volunteers partner with communities to create links among schools, parents, and communities. They may work in elementary, secondary, or post-secondary schools, teaching subjects such as math, science, or conversational English; or as resource for teachers or teacher trainers. Volunteers also support the development of libraries and technology resource centers.
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate program
Some programs afford Volunteers the opportunity to earn a recognized teaching credential during Peace Corps service, a unique opportunity to meet global professional English standards. View TEFL program details.
Environment: Protect Our Planet
Volunteers work together with community partners on grassroots efforts to protect the environment and strengthen understanding of environmental issues. They teach environmental awareness in schools and to local organizations, empowering communities to support their own decisions about how to conserve the local environment.
Volunteers also address environmental degradation by promoting sustainable use of natural resources.
Health: Advance Health Equity
Health Volunteers work alongside their communities to promote important topics such as nutrition, maternal and child health, basic hygiene, and water sanitation.
Volunteers also work alongside communities members in HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs, where they train youth as peer educators, provide support to children orphaned by the disease, and create programs that provide emotional and financial support to families and communities affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Youth in Development: Empower the Next Generation
Volunteers work with communities to promote youth engagement and active citizenship, including gender awareness, employability, health and HIV/AIDS education, environmental awareness, sports and fitness programs, and information technology.