Volonteurope has been actively engaged in a series of webinars and online sessions focussed on volunteering and building the skills and capacity of civil society.
Over the last six months the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE), of which Volonteurope has recently become a member, held a Global Forum Series discussing and promoting the importance of volunteering.
The series, which attracted over 300 participants from 70 different countries, saw Volonteurope’s Secretary General, Piotr Sadowski, moderate a workshop on tolerance and inclusion.
With presenters and panellists from UNESCO, the US Department of Veteran Affairs and Afghanistan’s Volunteer National Organisations, the session led discussions around how volunteering can help community cohesion and embrace diversity.
Volonteurope also ran its own series of free workshops for its members and their networks on how to use social media platforms and communicate effectively with the media.
Piotr said: “I know from my own experience that, after nearly 10 months spent in online meetings, we all have suffered from what seems to have been coined as a new word, “Zoom-fatigue”, though I have felt the same after spending a lot of time in other online platforms. However, at the same time, running things virtually has allowed us and so many people across Europe and globally, to still feel connected to a community of activists, changemakers, active citizens, volunteers.
“Our own and our partner networks’ events, such as the IAVE Global Forum Series, have helped us build capacity and establish new contacts which we hope to nurture, in person, in 2021. Whilst we should not expect a return to business-as-usual any time soon – rather, I think that a blended format of meetings and events will become very common in 2021 – in line with our new Strategy, we will continue to create and access opportunities for more development, capacity building and supporting our members and partners.”