This year MAVA is taking our Annual Meeting on the road to Greater MN in addition to offering it in the Twin Cities Metro. Join us on Tuesday, October 30 in St. Joseph, MN or Thursday, November 8 in St. Paul, MN for a day of learning, networking, and advancing the field of volunteer engagement!

Our topic for the day is Inclusive Volunteerism in Action: Building Relationships Across Cultures. We have an exciting lineup planned that includes speakers from the YWCA’s Racial Justice Team, focused small-group discussions, a panel of volunteer engagement leaders who have successfully built relationships across differences, and action planning for moving forward.

You’ll leave these events with a better understanding of:

• What volunteerism looks like across cultures and how differences are reflected in "formal" (serving at an organization) and "informal" (helping your neighbor) volunteerism
• How current systems and structures around volunteerism need to be assessed for inclusion and equity
• New ideas for approaching relationship-building across cultures
• How to present the value of a relationship to communities before asking for their time
• Resources for how to repair relationships and recover when mistakes are made
• How their own culture and experience shape their approach to relationship-building.

We hope you will join us at one of these events to further explore the important topic of inclusive volunteerism! Learn more and register here. (Be sure to pick the training location and date you plan to attend.)

MAVA is also offering trainings on Addressing Privilege and Inclusion in Volunteer Programs on Tuesday, September 26. These are not pre-requisites for the Annual Meeting, but the content may be helpful for those new to addressing inclusion and inequality issues in volunteer engagement.

To learn more or register for either event click here!

Questions? Contact Lisa Joyslin, Inclusive Volunteerism Program Manager, at ljoyslin@mavanetwork.org.