Volunteer at Alexandros
Volunteering
Each season, people come from across the world to volunteer at the Alexandros center and enjoy the magical beauty of the Pelion mountain region. Volunteers are the heart of our community, they co-ordinate the daily rhythm of the center and many return regularly each year. The typical activities include planning and cooking meals, organizing clean-ups, assisting with driving, help with gardening, home maintenance or administration. Volunteers have the opportunity to facilitate our regular group circles, organize events within the community and are very welcome to bring in their own skills and ideas in support of our community.
As a volunteer you can stay between 2 weeks and 5 months. We ask for a contribution of Euro 90/week to cover costs. Depending on your life circumstances and interest, it is possible to grow into a more permanent and more responsible volunteer role in which case we offer work-exchange.

What volunteers do at Alexandros
Typically, the first month (May) is all about setting up for the season, getting things out of storage, cleaning, stocking food, building yurts and tents, repairing and building things around the house and garden and of course cooking meals! In this time period, we are especially looking for people who bring skills and interest in building and maintenance work, gardening, plumbing and generally enjoy physical work, and people who would love to cook delicious food in our vegetarian kitchen.
From June onwards and until September, our community is hosting Community guests, Facilitators in Residence, Workshop Facilitators and their Participants. Also participants and guests contribute for about 4-6 hours per week to the smooth running of the community. They might assist in the preparing of a breakfast, an evening meal or in the washing-up after dinner. Those light tasks are a great opportunity for community building, not seldomly participants of a workshop, inspired by this experience, have booked-in as volunteers for the next year.
As sharing is central part of our philosophy, volunteers also have the opportunity to take part in a workshop to a very convenient price if they have been volunteering for at least 3 weeks and depending on availability in the workshop.
From September onward the energy in our centres changes again. After the busy ‘workshop season’ is over, our community becomes smaller again, we share a more quiet and intimate time with mild days. Again, we need hands-on people to help taking down tents and yurts, carrying out repairs and cleaning and storing everything away.
We especially invite individuals with a holistic perspective and those with some previous experience with communities or working with groups, although this is not essential. However, you should have an interest in learning and living in community and enjoy working in groups of diverse people, which includes sometimes stepping forward as a leader and sometimes following someone else’s lead.

What will a typical day at Alexandros be like?
Full-time volunteers offer around 30 hours of work per week, with a full day off and regular afternoons at the beach/free time. Depending on the season and how many people are currently part of our community, the daily rhythm can be changed and adapted as necessary. However, a typical day could look like this:
Early morning is quite time with a meditative quality and marvelous sunrise to be witnessed right ‘out of the sea’
- 7:30 – 8:30 A few volunteers begin breakfast service
- 7:30 – 8:15 There may be an optional Yoga, ChiGong or TaiChi session depending on
availability - 8:30 – 9:30 Breakfast and cleaning up together
- 9:30 – 13:30 Workshop session with tea- and coffee break at 11:00
- 9:45 – 11:00 Volunteers, guests and FIR’s meet in a sharing circle. This is a chance to check
in with yourself and deep sharing with others, offer appreciations, bring
things into the group’s awareness, or address or deal with conflict.
After that we discuss any practical matters for the day, and people organize
themselves around certain areas of work. - 12:30 Lunch preparation starts
- 13:30 – 14:30 We all have buffett lunch together and clean up afterwards
- 14:30 – 17:45 Beach and leisure time
- 18:00 – 20:00 Some guests work with volunteers to prepare dinner, in the garden or in the administration
- 20:00 Dinner
- 20:45 Clean-up
- 21:30 Evening activities, performances, singing or other creative offerings,
depending on competences, skills and gifts of all those who are present in the
community. - 23:00 Quiet time, the center goes into Ashram mode until 8am the next morning
An enriching part of your experience as a volunteer will be learning about living in community and from each other. Many of our volunteers have professional skills and sessions to offer themselves and we encourage as much exchange and learning from each other as we can.

Weather
More Info
Community Work
Alexandros is run by and as a full community comprising the unpaid volunteer staffers and guests. You’ll be joining the cooking team once in the week, and helping with clean up or gardening. The work is not onerous, 6-7 hr in the week. This makes our programs more affordable and helps us build community together.
Stay longer than just a week
Our very affordable (from €39o) Living-in-Community program welcomes you to stay on a week before or after your retreat to relax and fully enjoy this special unspoiled region of Greece.
Questions
Many Questions you may have, are already answered in our FAQ. If you do not find an appropriate answer please don’t hesitate to contact us.