Ethical Nomad Network
Imagine a world …
where travelling goes hand in hand with meaningful impact through support of local communities and sustainable development
where locals can host skilled travellers and open up their home in exchange for volunteer work on social change projects
Ethical Nomad Network’s mission is to provide a platform for young travellers to connect with worldwide entrepreneurs and generate social impact through an exchange of time and skills.
As the designer and, simultaneously, the participant in a social experiment, I co-created a solution for locals and globetrotters to connect in a meaningful way.
Client — Wellhabitworld, www.wellhabitworld.com
Services — service design
Industry — Non-profit
Location — Melbourne, VIC
INTENTION
provide a platform for young travellers to connect with worldwide entrepreneurs and, together, create social impact through an exchange of time and skills living & working together.
2. PROBLEM
A quarter of 1 billion international travellers every year are young people aged 15-29. They are money poor, but time rich and are eager to see the world with fresh eyes, acquire knowledge, and contribute locally in a meaningful way.
Then, there are local communities with citizens who are eager to drive change with social enterprises. They often have the resources but not the time or skills at hand to create impact.
This represents tremendous socio-economic opportunities for local communities as youth travellers stimulate local tourism, foster closer social interaction with host populations and champion environmental protection. Young people, recognized by the United Nations as a major force for development and social change, have the potential to drive sustainable development.
3. USE CASES
4. DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Safety first
Benefit mindset: promote wellbeing on both the individual and the collective level
The answers to the toughest questions are always around you
Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.
— Albert Einstein
ANALOGY
Cross-pollination, noun:
Botany. the transfer of pollen from the flower of one plant to the flower of a plant having a different genetic constitution.
a sharing or interchange of knowledge, ideas, etc., as for mutual enrichment
PARTICIPANTS
1. the change maker, entrepreneur or visionary: the person initiating the conversation and mobilizing resources into action
2. the traveller seeking meaning, knowledge and a sense of freedom
3. the support network facilitating the process with resources, knowledge and guidelines
PROCESS
An evolutionary perspective on life’s inherent intelligence to organize and innovate.
5. CONSTRAINTS & CHALLENGES
In designing a system for social impact through a co-live&work community of entrepreneurs and travellers, we have to evaluate:
The unpredictability of human nature
Bringing strangers together amicably requires a lot of social skills from both parties
Living together for short periods requires a lot of trust and open-mindedness
accountability for fair participation and value creation
HOW TO KEEP THE EXPERIENCE ENJOYABLE FOR EVERYONE?
The Ethical Nomad Foundation is the facilitator of the network. Their responsibility is to guard all the exchanges that are taking place:
they make sure that the matching process happens in a thoughtful and beneficial way for both parties
they give guidelines to develop an engaging and respectful co-live&work culture during the collaboration
they offer tools to monitor, assess and review the collaboration milestones
THE NETWORK
Change maker & traveller collaborate for the benefit and growth on the level of the social enterprise and the individual level.
SYMBOLS
6. JOURNEY MAP
VISUALIZATION OF 1 CYCLE
The traveller creates his/her profile page and gets matched with the right entrepreneur, whereafter they go through the process of collaboration, assessment and growth. The first cycle successfully concludes when value has been added to the social enterprise (SE). As a result of the process, a mutual exchange of knowledge has taken place.
5 PHASE-JOURNEY IN DETAIL
GROWTH
The whole process consists of 3 cycles of 3 months each, whereafter a measurable impact is achieved. Each 3 months can be spent within a different social enterprise in a different community, city or even in a different country. The 3 remaining months of the 1 year process can be spent on creating a social enterprise by the traveller.
THE NETWORK COULD LOOK AS FOLLOWING
The social enterprises are functioning as an independent cell, internally supported by the ethical nomads and externally facilitated by the Ethical Nomad Foundation (ENF). Each of the cells are functioning within a local community, which in turn can function as the provider of various assets and resources. An exchange of people, knowledge and other kinds of support is possible whit-in the network as a whole.
Areas of focus
for the travellers to focus on professional and personal development while exploring cultures and countries.
for the change makers to focus on their vision and social impact project with the support of talented travellers and the local community.
for the community to focus on the professional and personal development of their young citizens.
TARGET GROUPS
The target groups in need of connection, support and mentoring opportunities are:
Young people
Elderly
Disabled
Ex Prisoner rehabilitated
…
7. CASE STUDY - ETHICAL NOMADS
Wenden co-live&work community in Melbourne
Ethical nomads is a social impact model we have been developing and testing in our Wellschool home and community over the past three years. It has been so successful that we wanted to share it with other social entrepreneurs.
It brings together three key elements:
1. The Traveller – Who needs a home.
Skilled volunteers, usually from overseas location, who are looking for accommodation as they are on one year working visas. Volunteer skills can range from writing, project management, editing, design, social media, crowdfunding etc.
2. The Social entrepreneur – Who needs a community of support.
Social entrepreneurs may provide the home if they have the space, or may ask friends or supporters who live in a home with the space to house volunteers.
3. The Project – Which needs a community of support to make it happen.
Social entrepreneurs with social change projects become the focus for the volunteers to contribute skilled support, as well as a learning framework for about social enterprise and how to make change happen.
8. THE IMPACT
Well Habit World
http://www.wellhabitworld.com/
Well Habit World introduces a very different, inspiring approach to personal, planetary and peer-to-peer wellness. Participants learn the critical 21st century skills of peer coaching, wellness literacy, systems and design thinking so to develop authentic, relevant and best practice wellness skills.
We empower people to transform their lives, their community and their world.
We offer online training, workshops, tools, ‘action’ calendars and workbooks.
Our team are made up of collaborative minded, systems-thinking health professionals, designers and educators who create unique tools and training for change.
Published book: Well Habit Your Life
This book is an inspiring, beautiful and practical guide to help you understand wellness. It uses metaphors to simplify the inter-connected ideas that are the heart of wellness. With a simple six-step approach to habit change, you can design your very own well habit journey to a better version of you.
Ethical Nomads
ethicalnomads.org
Ethical Nomads is a group for international volunteers who co-live/work in homes with a host who runs a social enterprise, or project for environmental or social change. The idea has been piloted in St Kilda East, Melbourne, Australia
Eva has been running Wellschool with the support of a community of international travellers for the past three years with great outcomes for all involved.
Eva chooses the volunteers who have the specific skills needed to contribute both to the project and the running of the house and garden.
This group is a place for hosts to share projects which they may want to pilot for the model, and for Ethical Nomads to share their profile of skills and interests and where they may want to volunteer.
We have our second home being piloted in Richmond, California just outside San Francisco with Michael Passoff, an inspirational shareholder activist who needs some dedicated people on the team with online skills, social media and writing skills.
What people say
Thanks for opening your home to us & sharing the amazing space you’ve created. Was inspirational to see and get a feel for what people can achieve when we work together, creating opportunities to share their talents & gifts and a way of fairly exchanging & contributing to make things better. That’s community. So inspiring Eva. Many blessings.