Journeys Within Our Community: Nonprofit, Charity, and Philanthropy in Cambodia and Southeast Asia

JWOC Community Center

On May 1st JWOC took possession of the organization's very first property and facilities. The new location will allow JWOC to play an even greater role in the local community and meet several longstanding organizational needs. These include office space, volunteer accommodations, village bank, language school, and community meeting space. Additionally we considering the possibility of a cafe which supports JWOC and provides vocational training.

Journeys Within Our Community has grown exponentially over the last couple of years because of our dedication to solving problems related to poverty, education and health in Southeast Asia. People visiting Cambodia have witnessed our work and the opportunities we provide to local communities and they want to be a part of this social impact. Over the past couple of years we have capitalized on this support and maximized the resources available to us in the most efficient manner possible. Due to this efficiency JWOC has been able to expand the reach of its projects and greatly increase the number of Cambodians who benefit from them.

Due to this growth, JWOC reached the point where it needed to invest in its own organizational infrastructure in order for the project growth to continue and quality of work be maintained. Since its beginning JWOC has shared office space with the Journeys Within Tour Company and B&B. This has worked extremely well because it has allowed JWOC to operate on very low overhead costs by not paying for rent or utilities. However, now that the organization has additional full-time staff members, more than 40 scholarship students who are our part-time staff, occasional interns and a constant flow of volunteers we needed to have our own offices and facilities.
Since this meant an increase in administrative expenses we sought to move to a space that met multiple needs for us and served several functions. The following is a list of how through this new facility we can better carry out our stated mission of solving problems:

Office Space – JWOC had only enough office space for its full-time staff members. There was no room for interns and volunteers to work with us in the same office which limited the amount of administrative help they were able to contribute.
Classroom Space – Although we have two language schools they are located in other parts of Siem Reap. Our offices however, are located near one of the largest slums in Siem Reap. The new facilities will mean we can open a third language school to serve the large number of children who live in the slum behind us.
Meeting Space – As the number of JWOC staff has increased and our involvement in the local communities has grown we continually found ourselves lacking the space to conduct meetings. Whether it is locals coming to discuss loans or scholarship student functions there has been a constant need for a place to hold these meetings.The new property has plenty of space which will accommodate large gatherings of people.
Volunteer Accommodations – Since the new building was originally designed to be a guesthouse it has three rooms and with in suite bathrooms These are perfect for volunteers who wish to spend time working with JWOC. It will mean they no longer have to worry about transportation to and from our offices and by charging a minimal nightly fee we are able to make some extra money which will go towards our operational expenses.
Visibility – By having our own facilities it will give JWOC a visible presence in Siem Reap which we have lacked up until now. By creating a place that people can easily visit, see and participate in our work we instantly bring greater awareness about JWOC.

The property had been sitting empty for quite some time so a heavy scrubbing and some minor renovation was needed. Thankfully students from Loyola Marymount University in California and the JWOC scholarship students were on hand to help flip the place. After a couple days of hard work cleaning, sanding and painting the crew had the building looking like new. However, there is still much work to be done before the space reaches it full potential.

Please contact us at info@journeyswithinourcommunity.org if you would like to know more about our plans for the community center or would like to see how you can help us build a center that best serves the needs local community.