Working Groups

Several international working groups are active in SCI. The working groups consist of volunteers and staff, representing different branches and partner organisations from all over the broad SCI network. The working groups are either active in specific thematic areas, such as sustainability and climate change, or youth and social exclusion. Other working groups deal with the technical aspects and promotion of long term volunteering and finally, there are several working groups that have a regional focus, for example the Africa Working Group or the Asia International Working Group. These regional working groups mostly deal with promotion, facilitation and evaluation of volunteer exchanges to and from a certain region. To this end they work closely with the partner organisations in the specific region.

Regional Working Groups:

• Abya Yala (Latin America)
• Africa Working Group
• Asia International Working Group
• Midi Working Group (Mediterranean and Middle East)
• SAVA (Balkan)

Thematic Working Groups:

• Youth and Unemployment Working Group
• GAIA (Sustainability and Climate Change)
• Long Term Exchange Group

Informal groups and networks

The working groups listed above are the ones that are officially recognized within SCI. These working groups apply for the international working group status every year at the ICM, the most important meeting of the SCI network. However,  also many unofficial groups are active within the SCI network. For example there is the Peace Messengers Network, consisting of a very active group of volunteers who travel from workcamp to workcamp to provide peace education workshops to participants. Or the No More War -team, who facilitates SCI branches in implementing workcamps with a special focus on non-violence and peaceful conflict resolution. You can read more about these initiatives in the “Culture of Peace” section.