Today we are proud to launch the IVCO 2024 Background Paper, Building and Sustaining Connections for Change: Volunteering for Solidarity. Co-authored by Dervla King and Fiachra Brennan of Comhlámh, and Dr Bianca Fadel, Sichelesile N. Maxine Mpofu, and Prof Matt Baillie Smith of Northumbria University, the paper sets the scene for the IVCO 2024 conference by exploring pressing global challenges and the ways in which volunteering can address them by reinforcing solidarity and forging deeper connections between people, organisations, and nations.
Amidst unprecedented crises, the paper emphasises the importance of solidarity and deep connections to tackle widening inequalities, environmental threats, and social injustices. Recognising the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgency of climate change, it advocates for solidarity-based models grounded in mutual support. The paper is also available in French and Spanish.
These themes will be explored when the global volunteering community meets at IVCO, the annual conference of the International Forum for Volunteering in Development from the 9th to the 13th of September. IVCO will be hosted by Northumbria University with support from Comhlámh in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK. Through participatory approaches, delegates at IVCO will engage in sessions focused on the roles of volunteers in crises, the concept of failure as a catalyst for change, and re-imagining volunteering for resilience and sustainability. IVCO 2024 seeks to foster curiosity and strengthen commitments to volunteering for transformative change.
Along the release of the Background Paper we would like to invite you to watch a short video where the team behind IVCO 2024 is setting the scene for the conference and provides some insights of what you can expect at the conference. You can watch it below.
In addition to the background paper, Forum will be publishing a fortnightly series of short think pieces, starting on the 19th of this month and running up to the conference in September.
You can access and download the full paper here and learn more about IVCO 2024 on the different pages of the conference website.
