From July the 28th till the 30th, the 21st Volunteering Summer School took part, for the first time in an online format version for obvious reasons that everybody knows.
The sessions were dedicated to current issues and, from a practical point of view, helped us to reflect on issues that affect our daily lives as volunteers and workers in third sector organizations, such as the need to adapt to changes and introduce more agile management systems (Workshop: ‘The entity’s strategy: let’s adapt!’) or digital applications that can be useful to keep in touch, work together and , in short, learn to make more intensive and extensive use of new technologies (Workshop: ‘Easy-to-implement smart-working tools’, Workshop: ‘Create videos for social networks with mobile’, Workshop: ‘Instagram Stories to create community’ ).
The School provided solutions, advice and techniques to move forward, first as people, and second, as leaders of Catalan non-profit organizations, which offer and intend to continue offering a range of activities and services to hundreds of thousands of people living in a situation of great uncertainty and vulnerability.
The School was attended by hundreds of heads of organizations and volunteers from all over the country and who work in various fields and sectors, mainly carrying out social volunteering programs in care of people.
Despite participating in 4 of the 6 workshops, I am satisfied with the 4, such as the one dedicated to understanding the agile project management system and the changes that need to be introduced in the way organizations work to adapt to this. new reality.
I found especially useful, however exciting, the session conducted by the writer Mercè Brey, which we can describe as sensational, touching on sensitive issues from an enormous sensitivity and wisdom, a workshop that was focused, in this case, on recognizing the value of listening, understanding and expressing one’s own needs and emotions in order to be able to accept and manage them (Workshop ‘Key aspects to learn to live with uncertainty’).
We thank the General Directorate of Civic and Community Action for this opportunity, and congratulate it on the choice of topics and speakers, wishing that, in future editions, overcoming the current health crisis, we can dedicate ourselves to other issues. We are convinced that the experience of making a School fully online will serve for future schools to take place semi-face-to-face and online, a format that, it seems, and regardless of the health crisis, has come to stay, taking into account the clear advantage that means being able to access the workshops from anywhere with an internet connection.
The DGACC will soon upload all the workshops.
Lluc Martí.