Recreation of the Volunteer 68 team as a way to expand consciousness

Among the relatively new terms that have come into our lives as a result of the deeper integration of Ukrainian society into the system of Western values and social technologies is the concept of “retreat”.

Today, this borrowing appears in a very specific context and means a relatively long stay of a working team in a certain location in order to strengthen relationships among colleagues, gain communication experience and jointly generate new ideas. In this way, the retreat differs from the already widely known neologism “team building”, which does not imply training or creative work.

For the " Volunteer - 68" Humanitarian Aid Center, the experience of the retreats was, without exaggeration, fruitful. Along with museum visits, hiking in picturesque towns, and spa treatments, we gained important experience in guided collective meditation. Perhaps this model is best suited to voluntary organizations.

The retreat in Zhovkva, Lviv region, made it clear to my colleagues their strengths, as well as some personal aspects in their work that they need to pay more attention to. The trainers Olena Reshetnyak, who led the topic “Teamwork,” and Natalia Konovych, whose topic was “Dealing with Risks,” were very helpful. For which we are sincerely grateful to both specialists.

In a playful way, the volunteers learned to work out the elements of teamwork, try on roles with different functionalities, and rationalize the distance from plans to their implementation.

Performing tasks in crisis conditions and group interaction with limited time proved to be real fun and at the same time an example of professional skills development. As for giving constructive criticism, some were surprised at their own unconstructiveness, which was also a good lesson for everyone.

Realizing the ultimate goals of their work and thus their own self-identification was an unexpected discovery for many colleagues. Common goals and shared values, which were clearly highlighted during this event, not only strengthened the team spirit, but also shifted the focus from secondary things - the routine of daily work - to issues of worldview and essence. For example, such a seemingly simple technique as metaphorically interpreting the activities of your organization through the images of an animal, a person, a house or a tree, surprisingly clearly revealed the structure, functionality and philosophy of the volunteer association and the place of everyone in it.

We have seen from our own experience that some of the technologies used to build the capacity of organizations of foreign origin work well. Despite the fact that their name is still a little bit jarring in its lack of authenticity.

The team of the NGO “Volunteer - 68”

All of this was made possible by the support of our Drive for Inclusion project within the framework of the Capable and Strong program, implemented by the Eastern Europe Foundation with the assistance of Switzerland.