Volunteer Information

Why we’ve ended our international volunteer program…

For the last ten years we have been running an international volunteer program at our skatepark sites in Palestine. The placements have been either 1 or 2 months, and the volunteers have been helping run sessions with some of the older skaters around Palestine. We have aimed for a 50/50 gender split in our volunteer groups, as we wanted to encourage more local girls to participate, and we are very glad to see almost equal numbers of boys and girls attending our sessions.

Our long term plan was always to gradually phase out our international volunteer program and encourage local skateboarders to run the sessions instead.

There are a couple of reasons for phasing out the international volunteer program. Primarily it is because we don’t want the skaters in Palestine, especially the new younger ones, to associate skateboarding only with internationals and with SkatePal. We also want to focus more on the new generation of skaters who can lead sessions and develop the scene on their own.

Since 2023 we have been supporting newly established organisation Skateboarding.ps, who have taken over with the running of classes at our skateparks in the West Bank.

Although we have phased out the international volunteer program, we will still be encouraging skaters from all over the world to visit and skate Palestine and plan to replace skateboard volunteers with skateboard tourists! We recognise the importance of having other skaters visiting Palestine in order to bolster the skate scene, just as other skate scenes across the world are more vibrant when other skaters go to visit them.

We also recognise, however, the benefits that a more structured cross-cultural exchange can bring, and therefore we are planning to collaborate with Skateboarding.ps to host summer camps where international volunteers will work alongside local volunteers.

We will announce on social media when it is safe to hold our next international volunteer program and will invite people to apply as before.

If you are interested in visiting Palestine as a tourist - please keep an eye on this page for information or drop us an email.