This October, our branches, partners, and contacts had the opportunity to meet in person in Vienna for the Exchange Platform Meeting. This year’s meeting was graciously hosted by SCI Austria and funded by Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation via the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.

The theme this year was “Youth, Volunteering, and Resilience: Fostering Peace through Community Engagement,” with most sessions focusing on these topics. Thirty-six participants from twenty-two countries spent a week together, exchanging ideas, discussing, preparing proposals, and voting. There was also time to explore the city, celebrate birthdays, and enjoy a wide variety of potato dishes at the canteen!

The week officially opened on Tuesday with sessions on youth participation, during which we explored how to better engage younger generations by understanding their needs, challenges, and motivations, as well as a session on the impact assessment results and recommendations. That day, we had the opportunity to split into groups, go outside, and discuss how we confront challenges in our organizations. On the second day, we addressed various topics, including better practices for international volunteering exchanges and ways to improve collaboration for our projects. We also had an inspiring session by the Climate team on the connection between Peace and Climate. On day three, we engaged in a critical discussion on the decolonization of international volunteering and had the privilege of meeting Corinna from WeltWegWeiser to discuss quality standards for sending and hosting organizations.  Day four was particularly active; we began the day by discussing all aspects of SCI’s working groups, including their past, present, and future. We also received presentations on the pool of expertise initiative, the FLOW project, the Climate team and Climate manifesto, and we had the opportunity to prepare proposals for changes in our movement. The final day started with an insightful workshop facilitated by SCI Switzerland on Peace Activism and Pacifism, followed by discussions and a vote on participants’ proposals that will bring about change in our movement!

It was wonderful to see such a diverse group of people coming together for this exchange. Familiar faces mingled with many newcomers to EPM, all excited to share their experiences, build connections and inspire change!

In the video below, you can get to know some of this year’s participants better.