Michael Boampong

At the request of the United Nations Volunteer program, I will be a speaker at the upcoming CIVICUS World Assembly.

This speaking engagement will be at the “Connecting People Through Technology” workshop.   My presentation is expected to highlight some of the key opportunities and challenges following my previous engagement with UN Online Volunteers.

Below is a brief detail about the nature of the Workshop:

Connecting People Through Technology: Volunteering online – TBC

Format:Flash Presentation or Engagement workshop – TBC
Description: The expected outcome for participants will be to identify strategies to leverage online volunteering to bring people together to advance social issues.
Different organisations will showcase their own experiences of online volunteerism.
Thus, the United Nations Volunteers programme will present how through its Online Volunteering service, it has contributed to opening up volunteer opportunities to a broader pool of people, mobilizing action on an unprecedented scale and facilitating civic participation.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs will speak about how online volunteers helped develop a Libya Crisis map used by the UN and other international organizations such as the Red Cross to plan and coordinate their humanitarian support by monitoring news and social media.
The RESPECT Refugees Education Sponsorship Programme will present how to raise awareness on refugee issues among youths and to build bridges between refugee and non-refugee students through pen-pal letter exchange. Online volunteers have been critical for the success of this initiative, coordinating teachers and other volunteers.
And Ghanaian NGO ‘Young People We Care’ will share with participants how a team of online volunteers helped it to develop a strategic proposal to address youth migration issues and involve youth in international dialogue and decision-making. This initiative led to the creation of the first youth statement at the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Manila (2008).

Presenters :
Jeffrey Villaveces, Information Management Officer , United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, USA/ Colombia
Summer Johansson, Head Coordinator & Tutor , Refugee Education Sponsorship Program (RESPECT, Canada) University Project, USA/ United Kingdom
Michael Boampong, Founder, Board Member and Principal Advisor, Young People We Care YPWC, Ghana
Elise Bouvet, Online Volunteering Programme Specialist , UNV, France/ Germany
CIVICUS(TBC)

See: http://www.civicusassembly.org/Day2.php (Programme Track 3 : Connecting People Through Technology)

Will you be at the CIVICUS World Assembly? Have you ever been a virtual volunteer? What is your take on virtual volunteering vis-à-vis on-site volunteering?

3 people like this post.

Like

Unlike