CEV General Assemblies > 2008 - November (Luxembourg) - Volunteering and Intercultural Dialogue

 Volunteering and Intercultural Dialogue
6 - 8 November, 2008
European Commission, Bâtiment Jean Monnet, Kirchberg, rue Alcide De Gasperi
L-2920 Luxembourg

The CEV General Assembly Conference "Volunteering and Intercultural Dialogue" was organised in close cooperation with Agence du Bénévolat and it was held at the European Commission premises in Luxembourg on 7th and 8th of  November 2008, and it was atended by some 150 delegates.

The conference was focused on “Volunteering and Intercultural Dialogue”, CEV’s contribution to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. Speakers and participants  were exploring and defining the meaning of “Intercultural Dialogue”, its different aspects , specially the ones related with volunteering.

During the opening panel, the invited speakers, among whom where Suzzane Monkasa, president of the Council of African Communities in Europe and in Belgium, and Jacques Küntziger, Counsellor on volunteering within the Ministry of Family and Integration in Luxembourg explored and defined the meaning of Intercultural dialogue.

This panel was followed by the interactive Dialogue Café discussion among the participants on the issue of volunteering and intercultural dialogue. The Dialogue Café has been developed to strengthen and harness the power of conversation and discussion by: (1) providing delegates with the opportunity to identify and discuss issues related to the conference topic in an open, creative and constructive setting; (2) allowing direct interaction between a broader range of delegates than is possible in more structured conference activities.

In the afternoon session, some CEV members and other partner organisations presented good practices on volunteering and intercultural dialogue. The workshops dealt with the following themes:

• Workshop I: Intercultural experiences and intercultural dialogue in theVoluntary Service for all Ages, Deutscher Caritasverband (Germany)
  Transnational Senior Volunteers across Europe as a means of intercultural dialogue, SPES (Italy)

• Workshop II: Colorful Neighbourhoods and the Management of Diversity, MOVISIE (The Netherlands)
  Neighbourhood: an intercultural meeting place!, AMSED (France)
  
  
• Workshop III: « Courant d’air littéraire », Amitié Portugal - Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
  Festival of Migrations, Cultures and Citizenship and the Cultures and Book Fair, CLAE - Comité de Liaison des Associations d’Etrangers (Luxembourg)
  
  

• Workshop IV: RIVER SEE, Regional Integration through Volunteer Exchanges for Reconciliation of South Eastern Europe, SEEYN (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
  Youth Work in Contested Societies – People Understanding Boarders , The Corrymeela Community (Northern Ireland, UK)
  
  
• Workshop V: Anti-racism tools in sport, ENGSO (Europe)
  
  
• Workshop VI: Out and About in Leeds: Promoting Good Relations among refugees and local community, BTCV (UK)
  “Talent on Wheels”: through volunteering to get people to participate in society and to develop competences, Samenlevingsopbouw Antwerpen stad (Belgium)