Our Trips
Meaningful travel through collaborative design.
CoDA trips provide creatives with intimate travel experiences where you’ll engage with communities abroad, apply your skills to important challenges and implement solutions in the field. Our trips offer you the opportunity to work and network with like-minded peers and learn new design skills, while making profound connections through sharing culture and ideas. Join us, travel with purpose to a unique destination, unplug, roll up your sleeves and achieve something meaningful.
Because we travel with small groups (8-12 people), and the goal of each trip is to work with a community with needs that can tangibly be met through design, we do respectfully ask that you complete our application form. We try to balance the right skill set according to the project we work on. Don’t worry, you likely have the goods, as our methodology relies on using an interdisciplinary team approach. CoDA supports the process from beginning to end.
ZANZIBAR 2023
OCTOBER 15th to 28th
We are returning to Zanzibar to work with project partner Barefoot College. Join us for sunshine, tropical tides and a history and culture infused with spice. For centuries, Zanzibar was a destination for explorers and merchants seeking clove, nutmeg, vanilla, black pepper, and coriander. Today, the exotic locale offers outstanding beaches, Swahili culture, a culinary fusion of Indian, Arab, Chinese, Portuguese and African cooking traditions and the historic capital of Stone Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
TANZANIA 2023
OCTOBER 21 TO NOVEMBER 4 2023
The Usambara Mountains, Tanzania, offer spectacular panoramas of Maasai lands below. Cooler than much of the country, the fertile terraced mountain slopes are dotted with small villages, where individual and families support themselves through the subsistence farming. As the population in the region increases, opportunities to find new sustainable livelihoods – especially for girls – are rare. Joining our partner in the community, you will work collaboratively with girls to help them build healthier, safer, and more economically secure futures.
GUATEMALA 2024
FEBRUARY 17th to MARCH 2nd, 2024
Guatemala’s charm and rich cultural history will be on display in the city of Antigua and the Petén region. Petén, the centre of the Maya world, is where the most spectacular Maya sites are located. It’s also the home of our project partner Itza Wood, where we’ll spend our days in the heart of the Lacandon jungle, sharing our skills with a budding social enterprise and learning about the region’s proud people and rich craft history.
UGANDA
DATES TBD
Our Ugandan project is presently being developed, as we work with our community partner to better understand their needs.
For this project we are looking for a specialized team of Design Educators, Strategic Foresight specialists and Industrial Designers.If that is you, and you would like to learn more, please contact us.
RAJASTHAN
DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED
Beginning in Jaipur, the Pink City, we get an overview of the rich craft history of the region by visiting important historic sites and cultural institutions. Then we immerse ourselves further in the local culture by staying on the campus of Barefoot College and working closely with their artisans.
COMING SOON
PROJECTS TO BE ANNOUNCED
It takes time to build new projects to be sure we are serving the communities we work with. If you have a project or want to work with us we’d love to hear more about it!
Join Us
Because we travel with small groups, and the goal of each trip is to work with a community with needs that can tangibly be met though design, we do respectfully ask that you complete our application form. We try to balance the right skill set according to the project we work on. Don’t worry, you likely have the goods, as our methodology relies on using an interdisciplinary team. Just sometimes, we might be looking for a particular skill.
Who can apply? Anyone who’s willing to roll up their sleeves, and share their skills. Each project is unique and determined by the skill set of the team.
What happens after I apply? We will send confirmation of receipt of your application. Once a team is finalized, you will have a period of time to pay a deposit to confirm your spot and we will provide more trip information, including a payment schedule and detailed itinerary.
When should I apply? As soon as you can! Once our trips fill up, we will close applications for that particular trip.
For FAQs or information on our payments schedule or cancelation policies, please see our resources. Or contact us if you have any questions
GUATEMALA 2023
We returned to Guatemala with an interdisciplinary team of nine creatives, seven with varied design experience, and for the first time two team members who work in communications and market research. Connection was at the heart of our project when we asked “how can we combine wood and natural fibres?” Itza Wood artisans were asked to make a wood object with no particular function in mind to give to the weavers. Weavers reciprocated by responding to the piece they were given. Together through iteration and collaborative problem solving we considered ways to create a a variety of products including lighting, serving trays and decorative items.
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TANZANIA OCTOBER 2022
We traveled to the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania where we collaborated with the Sisters Workshop. This vocational training program helps girls, unable to continue in school, develop entrepreneurial skills in an area where jobs for women are rare. Working collaboratively, we shared critical thinking skills and creative tools through the design sewn products. .
GUATEMALA FEBRUARY 2020
We traveled to Guatemala with Sheridan College students to work collaboratively with the artisans at Itza Wood. After visiting Antigua and immersing ourselves in the rich craft traditions of the country, we flew to our project site in the jungled Petén region. There, CoDA supported Itza’s sustainable zero-waste by designing products to be made in scrap wood easily dried in their solar kilns. The collaboratively designed collections were eventually launched in New York in August 2022.
ZANZIBAR OCTOBER 2018
We traveled with a team of professionals to the island of Zanzibar off the East coast of Africa to work once again with our partner Barefoot College. Here we collaborated with women sewers and bee keepers to develop a protective, climate appropriate and cost effective bee keeping suit to generate income opportunities.
INDIA MAY 2017
We traveled with students to work with the artisans of Barefoot College in Tilonia. We collaborated on the design of three appliqué collections (each including table top, bedding, bags and clothing) to address issues of quality control and standardization.
Questions?
Feel free to contact us with any questions or join our mailing list to be sent news about upcoming projects and trips.