FAQ
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What does the cost of the program cover?
Participating in Amble offers you a unique and exclusive opportunity to stay in authentic and affordable lodging in a beautiful place, while giving back to an organization that helps the local community and environment. The program fee covers the costs of programming, materials, and project management throughout your one-month stay—as well as any fixes or enhancements to the lodging to ensure it is safe, clean and comfortable. Creatives will also be invited to a Welcome and Farewell dinner with other creatives in the program and community hosts, as well as additional programming opportunities (all optional) throughout the month at no additional cost.
It does not cover transportation or meals.
Yes, you can take a sabbatical for less than this amount and may even find nearby accommodations at comparable rates. We encourage you to think about the type of sabbatical experience you are looking for, and consider all of your options before deciding to participate in the program. See other options for your sabbatical below, under “What is Amble’s role? Can I do this myself?”
Wait, am I paying to do work?
Think of it this way—for work on small creative project, utilizing the expertise and skills you already have, the program provides creatives with a deeply discounted rate for a place to stay for one full month while on a destination sabbatical. Many of these accommodations provide unique and exclusive access to lodging and landscapes otherwise unavailable to the public. At this time, we try to keep costs to $50-60/per day for 30 days.
How many hours of creative work are required?
Participants should spent no more than 1/3 of their time on projects—roughly 15-20 hours (or, 2-2.5 days) a week. We will work with participants and community hosts to identify how hours are best distributed throughout the week (i.e. full days vs. a few hours a day throughout the week).
Remember, we are your advocates and it's our job to make sure your time is protected, even if you wish to spend more time on the work. Our main goal is to provide a rejuvenating and unique sabbatical experience for creative professionals. We will be available throughout the month to ensure there is a fair exchange, with milestones and deliverables met, and a workload that does not exceed 15-20 hours a week.
We will be keeping a close eye to make sure there are no project scope creeps and that you are giving yourself time to recharge, explore and take time away during your sabbatical.
What is Amble’s role? Can I do this myself?
Amble leverages our strong relationship with community hosts to lead, define and manage design projects, and in turn offer meaningful and unique experiences for creative professionals.
Our role is to work with these organizations to identify creative project needs and find qualified, talented creatives specifically suited for their projects. Once selected, our team will work with these creative professionals and organizations to outline goals, set realistic milestones and deliverables, and set expectations before even arriving for their sabbatical. Once you do arrive, our team will be on-site to help you settle in and kickoff projects, as well as at the end to help wrap up and hand off project work.
There are lots of other models (i.e. artist residencies) or ways to travel—for free!—in exchange for your time. We encourage you to explore all of your options to find the best fit for you! For starters, check out WWOOF and Habitat for Humanity. If you’d like to work remotely, we recommend RemoteYear.
How can I ensure the project can actually be accomplished in a month?
Amble works with community hosts to protect your time away, by identifying smaller projects that can realistically be tackled in this amount of time, and acting as project manager during the sabbatical, to ensure your meaningful experience.
We also recognize every project is unique and every person has their own ways of working.
Once applicants are selected, we will schedule two calls before the sabbatical—one with our team to get a sense of how they work, share a bit more about the project and discuss what is accomplishable. The second call will be between our team, the creative professional and community host. This will provide the community host an opportunity to share more about the project, answer questions and come to a consensus with creatives on realistic goals and deliverables. Our team will provide an agreement following this call outlining these milestones and deliverables, as determined and agreed upon between all parties.
Can my employer pay for me to participate?
Absolutely! In an ideal world, this program is covered 100% by your employer, at no cost to you.
Looking forward, we hope to work with more employers to offer Amble as a unique employee benefit for enterprise companies.