A couple of weeks ago Ana Carolina Casiano, from the Educator Relations department in AFS International, facilitated a very successful workshop on Volunteer Development for ICOM (Instituto Comunitário da Grande Florianópolis).
ICOM is a community foundation that promotes social development in the areas of Grande Florianópolis and Santa Catarina, Brazil. Through training, resources and consulting, ICOM helps civil society organizations improve their management and reach their goals. One of the ways they do this is through Café Social.
Café Social seeks to increase the social capital of organizations through workshops, exchange of experience and networking. Focusing on specific areas related to management and social innovation, they’ve used this space to discuss planning, resource mobilization, and most recently, volunteer development.
In a 3-hour workshop, Ana Carolina shared with 30 participants from community non-profits the volunteer development tools used by AFS. By explaining the AFS Volunteer Journey they were able to reflect on the path of volunteers in their project, as well as explore resources to optimize engagement.
Even though our Volunteer Toolkit is directed to the AFS experience, any organization can benefit from these resources. The participants found it extremely helpful and were inspired to incorporate elements of the toolkit into their work.