05 December 2003

Stirling: Volunteer Development Scotland, a national centre for volunteering, organized the conference entitled "Volunteers leading change" to mark International Volunteer Day (IVD) on 5 December.

Conference participants discussed how to volunteering can make changes in society and explored its potential to be inclusive and diverse.

"Imagine a world where volunteering is diverse, inclusive and without barriers," says guest speaker Theo Van Loon, Vice President of the International Association of Volunteer Effort (IAVE). "Research shows that volunteers come from rich families, employed, young and well-educated," he said, "but what if you are unemployed, disabled, old? Are you still attractive to volunteer organizations?"

Workshops were held to address issues such as the barriers that makes volunteering inclusive and provide measures to solve these. The workshops helped participants plan their volunteer programmes to become more inclusive and diverse. The Spirals Project, for example, now aims to work with volunteers who have mental health problems, using volunteering to overcome these barriers and improve their skills and abilities.

Others shared how volunteering can be a tool to fight exclusivity. For example, Ark Trust, an Edinburgh-based organization supporting homeless people, provides volunteering opportunities to homeless people and implementing "open door" policy in its volunteer programme. Venture Scotland showed their integration programme, aimed at involving refugees and asylum seekers as volunteers.

Participants included volunteer-involving organizations such as The Falcon Project, a Scotland-based organization supporting adults with special needs; the Positive Voice, a community-based, self-help organization addressing HIV/AIDS problems; and the Primary Care project who works with older volunteers in delivering health care services.

The conference closed with these words from Kumi Naidoo, General Secretary of the World Alliance for Civic Paticipation (CIVICUS), "Volunteering offers a real opportunity for vast number of citizens across the world to be able to address their own issues, gain confidence, meaning and give expression to their citizenship..(and) thankfully the volunteering movement allows ordinary people to make lifelong commitments to act in the public interests and doing meaningful public service."

Read more about the conference

Read speech of Kumi Naidoo

Read speech of Theo Van Loon