Custom Trip Frequently Asked Questions

Custom trips exist as an option for groups who would like to have more control over their schedule, programming and meals, etc. For Custom trips, we provide housing, kitchen and shower locations, a thorough service schedule for each full day, and resources to support you as you fill in the rest of the details.

For groups who aren’t interested in planning and leading their own meals, creating their own programming, and who want a more guided experience, we offer our Pre-packaged YouthWorks trips. Find out more about those here.

We will not have YouthWorks staff to guide you through the week, though you will have a Designated YouthWorks Representative to help you prepare for your trip, as well as a local host to provide a housing site orientation, basic logistical support and troubleshooting during your trip.

Our Custom trips do not include any of our thematic programming, including devotional books and elements of The Gathering. If you are interested in using previous YouthWorks themes, you can purchase digital curriculum and/or physical Trip Journals in our store. We will provide a guide that includes questions for processing your trip, tips for leading large and small group times, and ways to go deeper with students.

You get to decide! We’ll give you some meal ideas, but ultimately your group is responsible for creating menus, buying ingredients, and safely prepping, serving and cleaning up meals. Each housing location will have a kitchen stocked with cookware and cleaning supplies and will have a place for your food storage. You can bring along volunteer cooks for the week, or you can split your students into groups that prepare and cleanup meals.

We provide a service schedule for your group, which takes place generally from 9am-3pm. In many communities, showers will happen directly after the service portion of your day. Anything outside of this time is available for you to schedule as you desire.

We utilize our long-lasting service partnerships in each community so that your service will be a continuation of efforts compounding throughout the years. We listen to our community partners to understand the needs and service goals of the community and provide groups like yours to participate in what God is doing in those communities. 

Custom experiences are affordable. Experiences range from $69-$204 per person plus a setup fee. Cost varies by length of trip. Cost per participant includes:

• Service Partnerships
• Lodging
• Designated YouthWorks Representative

Custom trips have a $500 setup fee.

Custom trips work for any group size. There is not a minimum amount of spaces required. 

We can help you through this process. Adding spaces can happen at any time provided we have availability. Please contact us as soon as possible, as we may need time to find sufficient service for your group. There are some deadlines for decreasing spaces. Please check out the Registration Process for more specifics.

Each Trip Leader will get a Custom Planning Guidebook which covers logistics, safety requirements and recommendations, and schedule elements to consider as you set up your trip – everything from planning your processing time and discipleship elements, to meal suggestions, to sample schedules and general community activity ideas to do in the evening. You will also get access to our Trip Leader Resource Library, full of resources on promoting your trip, fundraising ideas, tips for recruiting students and adults, and many topical resources for your planning and youth ministry.

Trip Leaders will have a contact in the office throughout the year to answer any questions and will have a scheduled information sharing time leading up to your trip.

What’s great about Custom is the flexibility you have on when you go on your trip. We can set up a mission trip for your group any time throughout the year. We generally need a minimum of two months to plan your Custom trip.

We offer full week trips  (4 service days and 5 nights) and partial week trips (2 service days and 3 nights). Start and end dates are customizable, however, Sundays are typically only an arrival or departure day.  Contact us if you have questions about the length or dates of a potential trip.

Registrations for a YouthWorks mission trip must be made through a church or organization. Because of YouthWorks’ program and policies and agreements with ministry partners, we have a minimum age of 12 (or going into 7^th grade) for those attending the mission trip.

Adult Leaders also play a key leadership role on Custom trips. A leader needs to be at least 20 years of age and be willing to take a role of leadership with your teenagers. We welcome multigenerational groups on Custom Trips, and you can bring parents, grandparents, and other adults from your church or organization.

• High School Trips: A minimum of 1 Adult Leader for every 7 students
• Middle School Trips: A minimum of 1 Adult Leader for every 5 students
• Mixed Trips: A minimum of 1 Adult Leader for every 5 students

Yes. Each church group will need to conduct a national (multi-site) criminal background check and sex offender registry check on any participant (adults or students) that is 18 years and older. Church groups will then provide YouthWorks with written confirmation that every participant 18 and older has been approved to work with youth and children, and will provide written confirmation that all participants (youth and adults) are deemed safe.

For more on this check out the Background Check FAQs on your paperwork page of the dashboard.

Safety is of the utmost importance to our organization and we want participants to feel safe throughout the entire week. Trip Leaders are responsible to enforce safety procedures and guidelines during our Custom experience and must certify they have set policies in place addressing sexual harassment, and child safety and protection. Leaders must enforce the YouthWorks standard adult to minor ratio, and participants under the age of 12 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Each YouthWorks site is unique. We encourage you to take a look at the specific community pages to learn more.

It depends on the YouthWorks site. We seek to meet the needs of our community partners and their ministries. Some of our organizations prefer the same volunteers to come back each day, all week long so there is consistency in the relational aspects but also logistically as well. In other situations you might serve with multiple partners during the week.

For Custom trips, your group will be the only group participating in your customized mission trip.  You’re welcome to sign up alongside other churches if you choose, but you would need to initiate that relationship. Talk to us before you register so we can set this up correctly for your groups.

If your group is larger than seven people and has more than two Adult Leaders, you will most likely be split into different ministry/work crews for the week. Each crew will have anywhere from 7 – 10 people with 1 – 3 Adult Leaders depending on the needs of our service partners, the size of the group on site, and the number and size of vehicles available.

Each group is responsible for transportation (vehicles, gas and mileage) to and from the YouthWorks site and throughout the week of your trip.

Bus accessible communities are designated as locations that can accommodate groups traveling on buses. Buses are defined as any vehicle that is larger than a standard 15-passenger van. We do not allow buses at all of our sites because of safety, the needs of the community and the problem of parking. Even if a site is designated as bus accessible, we still require that you provide additional transportation for participants during the week.

Groups are housed in a local church, school or community building. Participants need to bring their own sleeping bags, pillows and sleeping pads or air mattresses that are twin-size or smaller. We will plan that all females and males sleep in separate rooms. Please contact us if there is a need for special sleeping arrangements or accommodations needed for individuals in your group.

Showers are available either on site or at a nearby location. Off-Site showers may be at local community center, YMCA or public high school which may include open shower rooms or private stalls. Specific details vary community to community.

YouthWorks welcomes youth and adult participants with disabilities and works collaboratively with Trip Leaders to provide accommodations to need and circumstance. Due to the diverse nature of our 45+ mission sites and on-going changes at service locations, creating a coordinated plan with a Trip Leader is important to help us discern if and how the special need can be accommodated. While we are working toward greater accessibility in each of the communities we serve, there are some mission locations that are more easily equipped to handle special requests than others and some communities that cannot fully accommodate all needs. For more information, please talk with a Trip Consultant, if not yet registered for a trip, or a Mission Trip Associate, if you are registered already.

We believe Christ-centered mission trips….

• Disciple Students
• Develop Leaders
• Serve Communities

We’ve built a mission trip structure that can spot, empower, and launch student leaders. We utilize a mission trip model based on servant-leadership that prioritizes what God is already doing through the local Church and community development organizations so together, we can serve communities respectfully.