Global Volunteers has been called a "Mom and Pop Peace Corps." That makes Michele Gran "Mom" and husband Bud Philbrook "Pop." Indeed, the idea for Global Vounteers was conceived on their honeymoon.
The St. Paul, Minnesota couple were already booked for a honeymoon cruise when Gran had a change of heart. She wanted a more meaningful beginning together. Philbrook had participated several years earlier in a community development project in India, and he knew of a similar one in Guatemala; the couple spent their first week of married life in a Guatemalan hut, working all day on community projects. When they returned to St. Paul, they found that—thanks to a newspaper article about their unusual honeymoon—other people asked them about travelling to serve. "People were coming up to me and saying, "I've always wanted to do something like that, but the Peace Corps is too long a commitment,'" says Philbrook.
Philbrook, an attorney and former state representative, and Gran, who holds a master's degree in international communications, decided to bring average people together to do cross-cultural community development around the world. Global Volunteers was born.
The nonprofit organization recruits North American volunteers who pay their own travel and living costs to work a few weeks far from home. US volunteers don't show up and start directing the action; they join teams directed by community leaders. Gran and Philbrook explain to volunteers that they're going to work with and learn from their hosts, as a one-person-at-a-time way of waging peace. Much of Gran and Philbrook's work is in identifying communities that can use help and working with the communities leadership.
Supported entirely by Gran and Philbrook, Global Volunteers operated in the red for years. The couple has faced bankruptcy more than once; their home continues to be collateral for the organization's credit rating. While they cope with economic worries, Philbrook and Gran also have had to contend with the opinion of some foreign aid professionals they were "idealists stuck in the 60's," and with the insinuations of some journalists that there was a hidden agenda behind the program.
Undaunted, Gran and Philbrook, now the parents of three children, are waging peace today with as much passion and conviction as ever. They've gone from one project that sent nine volunteers to Jamaica, to sending over 2,000 volunteers a year to 17 countries, including the US.
Their next big challenge: the Millenium Service Project will put 10,000 volunteers into impoverished rural communities in every US state and territory between now and the millenium. The effort will culminate in a celebration of service in 250 rural communities between December 26, 1999 and January 1, 2000. Michele Gran and Bud Philbrook ask, "Where will you be on New Year's Eve, 1999?"
Update: 2013 is Global Volunteers' 30th year in action, starting with sending nine volunteers to Jamaica three decades ago. They've now sent over 30,000 volunteers to 32 countries (including the US) on six continents.
In 2012, they launched two new programs:
The St. Lucia Project is an ambitious demonstration of the critical long-term effects of short-term volunteers. Team members help deliver essential services to impoverished children and their families in that West Indies island nation.
The CUBA Now! People-to-People Program enables Americans to legally travel to Cuba and meet with local people on topics designed to advance understanding and respect between the two cultures.