This weekend YCI’s Volunteer Advisory Council met in Toronto for the first ever VAC Retreat. It was an exciting two days packed with training and project planning. Folks came in from as far away as Victoria and as close as St. Clair and Bathurst! As a refresher for those who might not be aware of what the Volunteer Advisory Council is or how it functions within YCI here is a brief description:
Youth Challenge International’s Volunteer Advisory Council is the leadership body for our active, national Volunteer Action Network. Our Volunteer Advisory Council members are youth leaders inspiring and encouraging others to Make a World of Difference through the development of innovative community initiatives that focus on pressing global issues.
The two main goals of YCI’s Volunteer Advisory Council are:
To encourage grassroots initiatives in Canada that generate awareness, solutions and action on pressing global issues – through the leadership of action teams in the Volunteer Action Network; and to support and inform YCI’s activities through interaction with the Board of Directors. (The Chair of the Volunteer Advisory Council sits on YCI’s Board of Directors.)
YCI’s Volunteer Action Network facilitates youth-identified grassroots projects aimed at developing creative ideas and policy solutions to pressing global and local issues and provides a supportive platform from which to nourish those ideas into action! Each team is made up of 5 to 8 volunteers working on a specific goal or objective over the course of a year. Ultimately, the aim is to develop a greater understanding about global development issues, but also to produce a distinct contribution through action and an output.
Stay tuned for some of the awesome initiatives coming out of this year’s super talented council!
Cheers,
Erin, Canadian Programs Director
To learn more about the Volunteer Advisory Council, go to http://www.yci.org/html/inCanada/council.asp.
Youth Challenge International 