"The Camphill Movement is an attempt, an impulse, a community of men and women who try to live and work in common for a spiritual purpose."
Karl König

Volunteers - Co-Workers

You can choose either to work in the School with children as a volunteer or in the Farm with adults as a volunteer. Since Farm and School have a different rhythm it is generally not possible to work on both at the same time or to swap after some time.

The work at Camphill is done on a voluntary basis. The volunteers are called co-workers. All co-workers receive their board and lodging and a modest monthly pocket money. Each person gives the benefit of their work to the community and receives from the community to cover for their basic needs. 
Depending on your commitment, you are either a short-term or long-term co-workers. For a long-term coworker you need to commit for at least two years. 

Long-term co-workers
Long term co-workers serve as houseparents and workmasters in our workshops. They are expected to uphold the cultural life of the village as well as overseeing the management and administration of the community. Some long-term co-workers are couples with their own families who share a home with 6 -12 school children or villagers. We have musicians, artists, teachers, master craftspeople, bakers and biodynamic farmers and gardeners in the community. The presence of families and of such a wide range of talents and backgrounds among our co-workers helps to create the feeling of living in a village.

Short-term co-workers
Short term co-workers live and work in the village for a minimum of 12 months. The major functions of short-term co-workers are:

• Take on full care for one child or a small group of children
• Assisting houseparents in caring for the villagers
• Assisting teachers during school time as class-helpers
• Working alongside long-term co-workers and villagers in the various workshops
• Helping with general household tasks such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.
• Contributing actively to the communitys rich cultural and social life.

Co-workers have to be at least 19 years of age.

Training for co-workers
Each newcomer must participate in our one year introduction course. It consists of weekly sessions covering topics relating to Camphill, Anthroposophy and the needs of our residents. This course will help the co-workers to be better equipped for their task here. For co-workers who wish to further their training in curative education or social therapy, there will be a weekly in-house seminar conducted by experienced co-workers and invited experts.

How to become a co-worker
If you are interested in becoming a co-worker, please read our co-worker information sheet (pdf) carefully, answer the questions, collect all the required documents and send them to us:

Camphill School
Reception Group
P.O.Box 68
Hermanus 7200
Western Cape
South Africa

or

Camphill Farm Community
Reception Group
P.O.Box 301
Hermanus 7200
Western Cape
South Africa