International scope - mentioning several countries

The United Nations General Assembly has mandated December 5^th each year as “International Volunteer Day.” This day is viewed as a unique chance for volunteers and organizations to celebrate their efforts, to share their values, and to promote their work among their communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government, and the private sector. 

Armed with social media hashtags and themes, organizations around the world utilized this day in 2017 to highlight the work of their volunteers. In this Voices, writer Allyson Drinnon shares stories from individuals and their different organizations on how they used this day to recognize volunteers. What worked? What did not? Can you effectively recognize volunteers in a single day? Through Drinnon’s report, it may be possible to start planning for the 2018 International Volunteer Day event right now!

The United Nations is leading a worldwide effort to achieve clearly stated “Sustainable Development Goals.” Hundreds of organizations are selecting how they will contribute to the effort and, within that process, many are also determining where volunteers fit in. What are the essential elements of an environment that enables volunteerism? And what type of environment will ensure that volunteers make the greatest possible contribution to achieving sustainable development goals?

In this Voices, Bonnie Learmonth, James O'Brien, Shaleen Rakesh, and Goopy Parke Weaving identify and explore some of the environmental elements that contribute to the success of volunteers and the organisations that rely on volunteers to achieve their mission. These include contextual elements like how well people understand and recognise the impact of volunteerism; actor-based elements like the role of the state, civil society, and the private sector in enabling volunteering; relationships and power dynamics between actors; as well as system-wide factors like partnerships, technology, and funding.

The article draws on a discussion paper prepared by AVI (Australian Volunteers for International Development), VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas), and the Volunteer Groups Alliance for this year’s IVCO (International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations) conference. Between them, VSO and AVI have over 100 years of experience in sending international volunteers. The paper includes case studies of volunteering in an emerging democracy, Myanmar, and of private sector partnership in India.

In this Voices, Kerry Martin explores the evolution and significance of TimeBanking, a concept that operates on a very core principle: For every hour of service that members provide to one another, they earn an hour that’s redeemable for another service for them.

Through stories from and about TimeBanking members, Martin reviews the nuts and bolts of this growing movement. He explains how TimeBanking has expanded to 40 countries, why individuals and organizations are included, and its growing symbolism as the “core of community.” As Martin writes, “TimeBank members open their hearts to not only help one another but also be helped by one another.”

In this special Voices, Allyson Drinnon, the director of the Volunteer Resource Center for Habitat for Humanity International in Americus, Georgia, reports from the field at the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) World Volunteer Conference that took place in Mexico City, November 2016.

Through her reports and on-the-spot audio interviews, Drinnon presents an array of diverse voices and opinions from the international volunteer community, capturing thoughts on issues, challenges, and ideas. Read and listen as Drinnon talks with Joselito C. De Vera, Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency; Alex Torres, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; Viviana Zazil, Centros de Integracion Juvenil; Anita Ramachandran, Micromentor; and Alejandro Mayoral Banos, PhD student from York University. 

Lutheran Community Care SA/NT (LCC) is an Australian community services organization that utilizes a formal model of volunteering. In response to changing trends in volunteering and the desire of new volunteers for more flexibility, the organization has experimented successfully with more informal types of volunteering. In this feature article for e-Volunteerism, Rachel Friebel, the Volunteer Administrator at LCC, explores the model of “micro-volunteering” – related to but different from other informal volunteering – and the potential it offers organizations, the volunteering sector, and the community at large. Friebel explains why micro-volunteering can attract wider community engagement. 

In 1954, the Seventh International Conference of Social Work convened in Toronto, Canada, with the theme of “Self-Help in Social Welfare.” While self-help is an important component of effective social work, it can also be seen as a challenge to the formal social work profession. The multi-day event in Toronto presented many speakers and panels in an effort to examine self-help organizations from many different perspectives, and resulted in a 342-page book known as the Proceedings of the event. In this historical Voices, we select key points made by authorities from various countries at this conference, key points that have stood the test of time.

 

Whatever Happened To . . . is a recurring feature at e-Volunteerism that allows us to revisit past articles to see what has been happening since we first published the stories. 

In this issue, we revisit “Perspectives on Membership Development,” a story from 10 years ago about the Soroptimist International of the Americas, a global volunteer women’s organization. In 2005, the story revealed, Soroptimist International had recently faced a downward spiral in membership numbers and the closing of local clubs. Unlike other similar organizations in the same situation, Soroptimist had risen to the challenge by deciding to motivate its members to revamp tradition, discover new ways of doing things more relevant to women, and grow its membership.

In this fascinating update, Soroptimist’s Executive Director Elizabeth Lucas and Senior Director of Membership Marketing Darlene Friedman explain what Soroptimist is doing today to meet the challenges facing all volunteer and member-based organizations. The organization has created “an online community empowering offline action” called LiveYourDream.org, “a self-motivated community of people who wish to support women and girls in their quest to lead better lives, while gaining inspiration in their own lives.” We can all learn from this so-far successful approach to engaging non-members in volunteer activities (more than 50,000 people have signed up to date), and other changes Soroptimist has made to revitalize its approach to volunteerism in the 21^st century.

On November 5, 2014, for the 15th consecutive year, volunteer management professionals around the world will celebrate International Volunteer Managers Day (IVMDay). This global event acknowledges the people who lead volunteers, salutes them for their essential role in creating dynamic volunteer opportunities, and works to raise the profile of the volunteer management profession. While still evolving, IVMDay is growing in visibility, with more and more celebrations taking place in many countries.

But just how did it all begin? What mechanisms have kept the show rolling for 15 years? And just what might the future hold?

Join e-Volunteerism's Andy Fryar and members of the International Volunteer Managers Day Committee as they present and review the evolution of this important annual event.