A Call to Global Leaders to Stand for Peace

A letter from the IAVE Executive Director

As Executive Director of IAVE, I get to meet some phenomenal people and do some phenomenal things.??What that looks like on any given day changes, but today, it finds me in Jamaica, participating in the annual conference of our Global Network for Volunteer Leadership Network member, Jamaica Council for Social Service (CVSS) in Kingston.

Jamaica is indeed, a paradise.??The people are incredibly welcoming, and the country is warm and gorgeous (especially for someone like me from the Northeast of the United States).??And of course, the conversation at the event has been fascinating and deeply informative.??We talked a lot about many things but one we kept coming back to was the idea of collaboration. How, with the challenges we are facing, we must rely on each other to act in the face of uncertainty and chaos because the moment calls us to help one another.??

As our recent?research?into national volunteering leadership organizations during the pandemic?showed, volunteer leadership organizations understand that partnership and collaboration are often the key to delivering more meaningful outcomes.

With the recent escalation of political events, I remind us all to continue to create connections through volunteering.??And to hold the truth that volunteering is ALWAYS the fastest and most enduring pathway to peace.??

I’d like to repeat something I wrote last year:?

When we volunteer, we don’t see our differences, we see the things that bring us together across gender, race, nationality, and across circumstance.??Human need and human kindness meet, and when these two elements come together, even the most truculent problem can be overcome, and miracles can happen.

May our collective work continue to be an instrument of peace,

Nichole Cirillo

IAVE Executive Director