We are pleased to share the newest journal article, led by Dr Moses Okech and co-authored by RYVU team members Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Dr Bianca Fadel and Dr Sarah Mills.  It was published open access in the Voluntas academic journal.

We are happy to share insights from RYVU on how the work with refugees and migrants can change policy and practice as part of the New Scientist’s 2023 campaign on Refugees & Migration.

We are excited to share our contribution “Working with refugee youth” as part of the RGS-IBG Guide on “Working with voluntary and community groups”. This piece was led by Professor Sarah Mills, and co-authored by RYVU team members Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Dr Bianca Fadel and Dr Moses Okech.

On 5 December, Professor Matt Baillie Smith was invited by the Kings Priory School and the Geographical Association (Tyne & Wear Branch) for a public lecture on “Volunteering, humanitarian crises and development: beyond the gap year” to promote critical debates amongst A-level students in Tynemouth, UK, and help inspire the geographers of the future.

On 10 October, Dr Bianca Fadel was invited as a guest speaker in the webinar series “The Common Good – Creating a Sustainable Future through Volunteering” convened by the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE).

We are excited to share this challenge paper on youth volunteering produced by Dr Moses Okech, with Professor Matt Baillie Smith and Dr Bianca Fadel, as part of the framing discussions for the IVCO 2023 Conference.

The annual conference of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) was organised by the Centre for African and Development Studies (CEsA), ISEG-Lisbon School of Economics and Management/University of Lisbon (Portugal) in July 2023. The central theme of the conference was  “Towards New Rhythms of Development”.

On 27 June, Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Dr Bianca Fadel and Dr Moses Okech joined the 2023 IFRC Global Innovation Summit to share experiences on the use of creative and participatory methodologies in volunteering research with practitioners from the global Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

For World Refugee Day 2023, the RYVU project showcased the project’s exhibition with a public talk at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, England. This year’s international theme was ‘hope away from home’, and RYVU activities on World Refugee Day also contributed to National Refugee Week in the UK.

On 21 June, Professor Matt Baillie Smith joined a panel of researchers and practitioners mobilised by the United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV) for a policy-oriented dialogue on youth volunteering for employability and skills development.

From 19 June to 4 July 2023, the RYVU Photo Exhibition ‘Volunteering, Displacement and Livelihoods, Photographs by Young Refugees in Uganda’ will be displayed in Loughborough, UK as part of the Refugee Week 2023. Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, resilience and creativity of refugees and asylum seekers, encompassing hundreds of activities across the globe and in the UK.

On 10 May, Dr Bianca Fadel was invited as a guest speaker to join the Community of Policy Practice series of online conversations as part of the Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE) Project.

On 24 March, Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Dr Bianca Fadel and Dr Moses Okech joined the RC3 Long Night of Research to share experiences on the use of creative and participatory methodologies in volunteering research with practitioners from the global Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Dr Moses Okech was invited by the International Geographic Union (IGU) to share RYVU findings and approaches during the virtual roundtable “Mobilising Geographical Research Methods in Times of Covid-19” which took place on the 24th of January.

The RYVU project is taking part in the 2023 “Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages”, an opportunity to celebrate diverse languages and cultures and the connections of the North East of England to the world through a range of online and in-person events and activities.

On 5 December, Dr Moses Okech joined the African Union’s International Volunteer Day celebrations for a panel discussion centred on the roles of volunteering to promote inter-citizen solidarity in the African Union Member States, drawing upon lessons learned from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda.

The RYVU project is celebrating this International Volunteer Day with the launch of a series of policy briefings and interactive games in Arabic, English, French and Swahili, providing tools and recommendations from the research findings for improving volunteer policy and practice amongst refugee communities.

We are happy to share a new book chapter co-authored by RYVU Principal Investigator Professor Matt Baillie Smith, alongside Dr Anthony Tibaingana, from Makerere University, and Dr Robert Newbery, from Northumbria University.

In 2022, the Annual conference of International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations (IVCO) took place in Saly, Senegal, from 17 to 20 October, and was co-hosted by Forum, Crossroads International and the International Bureau for Children’s Rights (IBCR). The overall conference theme was ‘A new dawn for volunteering in development’ and RYVU team members shared key findings from the research in different activities, including a photo exhibit, interactive games and a panel discussion.

In 2022, the Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) took place in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (with in-person, online, and hybrid ways to participate), between 30 August and 2 September. The overall RSG-IBG Conference theme was ‘Geographies beyond recovery’ and the RYVU project was presented by team members in two different panels.