The Dismas community is a village comprised of people from all walks of life and many corners of the world; Volunteers for Peace has enriched this little kaleidoscope of ours for decades. 

As an organization, Volunteers for Peace has a rich and long-standing history going back to the late 1960s when Peter Coldwell, Founder of Volunteers For Peace, participated in international short-term voluntary service projects in Hungary and Czechoslovakia through a program sponsored by the Unitarian-Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) in Boston. The value of working on a shared project, helping a community, and forming ties with other volunteers, coupled with his frustrations with the state of the world, motivated him to create an American international voluntary service organization.

In 1982, Volunteers for Peace was formed as a Vermont non-profit corporation for “promoting peaceful relations among nations.” For the remainder of the 1980s, the organization was heavily involved in the exchange of volunteers between the former U.S.S.R and the U.S., promoting citizen exchange and peace during the heart of the Cold War era.

Over the past 35 years, they have moved from organizing local to regional to national domestic voluntary service projects. They have grown from sending hundreds to thousands of volunteers to partner organizations’ projects abroad. Here in the United States, they have partnered with the USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, various affiliates of Habitat for Humanity, Burlington Dismas Houses, and dozens of non-profits and environmental and community action groups.

What do Volunteers for Peace do at Dismas?

Volunteers for Peace join the Dismas community wholeheartedly. They share the residence, meals, activities, laughs, and sorrows with all of us. They fully immerse themselves in our world, bring their own to share, and provide invaluable support as local and global ambassadors for the Dismas model.

As they get to know people in Chittenden County, they share what they've learned at Dismas with them. Furthermore, volunteers are encouraged to travel while they are in the United States and bring back their travel stories to the Dismas dinner table. It is an eye-opening learning opportunity for us to see our own land through the eyes of a traveler.