Volunteering for democracy (VfD)

Ready to become a dynamic leader of change? Join an empowering workshop designed to unlock your leadership potential in the world of volunteer project management. Gain insights into the unique dynamics of non-profit organizations and discover how to navigate the distinct challenges and incentives that drive volunteer projects. Explore strategies to effectively manage diverse teams and stakeholders, ensuring your projects create a lasting impact. From crafting compelling incentives to mastering project planning on a shoe-string budget, this transformative journey will equip you with the skills to revolutionize the non-profit landscape through your leadership. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a difference!

What is culture? Why do we always talk about intercultural? What do we mean when we say this? National cultures? Regional cultures? Yes! But what about company cultures? Or group cultures? Do we have an AFS culture?

Most probably you have discussed some of these questions with fellow AFSers before. In this workshop, we will go beyond the surface level of cultural stereotypes and explore the underlying theories that influence our perceptions and behaviors.

Through interactive discussions and reflective activities, we will delve into cultural models, such as iceberg, onion and sandberg, but also dive deeper by looking at the fuzzy cultures model, to gain a more faceted understanding of culture.

You will reflect on how cultures have shaped you and how we can use our understanding of cultures to thrive in the complexities of modern-day democracy.

Every group lives through the participation of its members. Creating psychologically safe spaces to facilitate open communication, especially in an intercultural context, is a challenging part of leadership.

In this workshop we will look at the importance of psychological safety in intercultural teams and how it can drastically impact outcomes and performance. But how do we create psychologically safe spaces? Here we will focus on the role of leadership to create and maintain these spaces.

This is a workshop best suited for experienced participants, ideally with first experiences in leadership.

Being a volunteer is a journey. In this workshop, we will discuss how to help keep volunteers with development plans that reasonably meet their needs and expectations. Moreover, you would also have a chance to think about your volunteer journey (whether it’s 1 year or 20) and your future goals. Join this workshop if you are interested in a volunteer journey and can learn more about setting reasonable expectations for volunteers.

Is it possible to work more efficiently, flexibly and quickly by making all our systems in AFS associations more agile and increasing our areas of freedom both within the association and in our professional lives? We will proceed with a presentation and interactive work around the concept of agility.

We all need to understand its importance and contribution as we move towards a more horizontal form of governance that focuses on people and impact instead of structures and processes. We can be “agile agents” in all the organizations we are in, starting from the AFS association. In this workshop, agile methods and tools in AFS organisations will be discussed and the definition, implementation and opportunities of AFS Volunteering are talked about. An interactive workshop designed to change the quality of education and ways to improve it are experienced.

We will discuss the adaptability and dissemination of AFS education and volunteering to global education methodologies. Also, we will discuss methods of both in-group information transfer and active involvement for democratisation and information dissemination as a volunteer.