Youth Volunteering and Social Change, 3rd of Oct, 2023 (IAVE)

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Oct 3, 2023 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

https://www.iave.org/event/youth-volunteering/

 

In continuing to give thought leadership to these topics IAVE is delivering a series of 4 global webinars for 2023 focused on youth volunteering. Attend all 4 sessions to receive a certificate of attendance! Learn more at https://www.iave.org/event/youth-volunteering/

Final session of IAVE's 4-part webinar series, "Youth Volunteering and Social Change: Challenges and Opportunities".

 

 

Youth Volunteering and Social Change

October 3, 2023 at 9:00-10:30am EDT (GMT-4)

What role can young people play in shaping social change? How can volunteering become a pathway for young people to become development actors? In this webinar, a global panel will explore the role of youth volunteering as it both responds and adds value to social development. This session will draw from some of the insights generated from previous webinars in this series.




About the series:
IAVE continues to have a strategic interest in youth volunteering and the key issues that are challenging young people today. IAVE networks and members continue to place a high priority on their engagement with young people. In listening to these voices IAVE made the decision to consider a further two youth volunteering focused topics. The topics chosen of youth well-being and youth activism have been influenced by experiences recorded during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. There is evidence of an emerging crisis in young people’s well-being particular their mental health. There is also evidence of young people being more interested in unstructured volunteer involvement that is organized and led through informal youth networks focused on issues that young people are passionate about and want to add their voices and actions to bring about positive change.

 

 

Background and Context

During 2022 IAVE gave renewed focus to raising awareness and understanding of how the corporate sector can influence and support volunteering as an agent of sustained systemic change to help young people enhance their employability and find employment. IAVE sought to encourage and enable more innovative involvement by business including working in partnership with leadership for volunteering organizations to create a community of practice.  A briefing or ‘Challenge Paper’ was commissioned to frame and set out the issues and this was used to inform a series of global dialogues involving participants from some 100 organizations across 75 countries. The dialogue discussions were captured and informed a final ‘Insights Paper’ (published in early 2023) that provides evidence of views on what actions need to be taken to facilitate and support young people through their volunteering journey to develop skills, knowledge and attitude towards enhancing their livelihoods, employability and /or entrepreneurship.

IAVE continues to have a strategic interest in youth volunteering and the key issues that are challenging young people today. IAVE networks and members continue to place a high priority on their engagement with young people. In listening to these voices IAVE made the decision to consider a further two youth volunteering focused topics. The topics chosen of youth well-being and youth activism have been influenced by experiences recorded during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. There is evidence of an emerging crisis in young people’s well-being particular their mental health. There is also evidence of young people being more interested in unstructured volunteer involvement that is organized and led through informal youth networks focused on issues that young people are passionate about and want to add their voices and actions to bring about positive change.

In continuing to give thought leadership to these topics IAVE is delivering a series of 4 global webinars for 2023 focused on youth volunteering. Three of the webinars will consider the following key issues –

  • Youth Volunteering, Employability and Sustainable Livelihoods: Exploring the Role of the Corporate Sector (read Insights Paper, and corresponding Challenge Paper)
  • Youth Volunteering and Youth Wellbeing: Exploring How Volunteering Can Make a Difference (read Challenge Paper)
  • Youth Volunteering and Youth Activism: Exploring How Volunteering Can Empower and Build Leadership to Affect Change (read Challenge Paper)

Each of these webinars is supported by a briefing paper (corresponding links above) commissioned by IAVE and written by Dr. Chris Millora, setting out the key evidence and issues.

The fourth and final webinar will explore the broader theme of Youth Volunteering and Social Change as it relates to the issues emerging from the three previous webinars.

Position: Co -Founder of ENGAGE,a new social venture for the promotion of volunteerism and service and Ideator of Sharing4Good