2024 Annual Report

Message from the Chair
Welcome to IVP’s 2024 Annual Report. In it you will hear of the mechanics of IVP’s functioning
from the teams responsible for building on the achievements from IVP’s 37 years of existence.
Rita Warleigh has been at the centre of those achievements and continues to inspire,
encourage, and exhort the current cohort of volunteers that make up those teams. Rita, with
Chris Dunstan and Vern Cork founded IVP in 1988 with the intention of sparking the message of
peace through international voluntary service.
Vern had a long association with Indonesia as a scholar, and developed deep personal ties
there. With deteriorating health, he began working with Rita on a library project that blossomed
into an SCI workcamp co-organised between IVP Australia and IVP Indonesia. Sadly, he died
shortly before volunteers arrived on the island.
The Vern Cork Library will give local high school students access to a rich collection of books. It
has also initiated a special connection between the two IVPs, and we hope introduce more
young Australians and young Indonesians to wider horizons through IVS.
2024 has seen the Goulburn Farmers Market consolidated through a dedicated committee on
the back of concerted efforts of the small IVP team that nursed the GFM to life. It continues to
demand Rita’s experience, time and skill as Market Manager but now has its own momentum,
while remaining constituted within IVP. Among other impacts, it gives us for the time being, a
financial foundation.
IVP continues to provide an organisational base for the Raising Peace festivals, cementing our
place in the Australian and international peace movement.

IElsewhere in the report, you will read from the teams responsible for placements,
membership, communications, IT, projects, finance and human resources. The latter has
become a vital function as we improve our procedures for recruiting people to fill roles on the
committee, to brief them, keep in touch, find roles that accord with their situation,
acknowledge their talents and record their contributions.
Many of the new people taking on roles on the committee and working groups have not had
workcamp experience. However, professional skills among recent recruits bode well for their
contribution and for IVP as a whole.
We had taken for granted working relations when we operated out of a physical site. We are
adjusting to building the same working conditions on-line, with rare opportunities to meet in
person. The patience of the newer members of the committee in this process is acknowledged.
Our outlook and purpose have not changed.
As usual it is the volunteers – past and future – to which this report pays tribute: those who
have joined us in roles on the committee and teams during the year; people from other
countries on a first Australian visit who we pick up from the train station ready to devote 2
weeks to physical work on a community project, and are still smiling when we drop them off
afterwards; and those young and older Australians inspired to see the world after searching
through our online projects database.

With funding from SCI’s Re-Granting Scheme, we hosted Peace Across the Sea, a weekly online training throughout July, bringing together 20 participants—10 from Australia and 10 from Indonesia. This collaborative programme is a joint initiative between International Volunteers for Peace Australia (IVP Australia) and the Bhumi Horta Foundation Indonesia (BHF).

The training aimed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge needed to design and implement impactful local actions within their communities and organisations. Sessions were led by Mauro Carta from SCI Italy, Rita Warleigh from IVP Australia, and Sany Mardlotillah from BHF, with communication and technical support from Lexi (Indonesia), Doris, and Xinge (Australia).

The course was divided into four key phases:
Phase 1: Understanding SCI’s Approach
Participants explored how Service Civil International (SCI), with over a century of experience, promotes peace through volunteer projects worldwide. Case studies, including the “Tent of Nations” in Palestine and the GAIA Project in Kosovo, highlighted SCI’s informal yet powerful approach to fostering community participation and creating positive change.

Phase 2: Conflict and Leadership Styles
Participants learned about different types of conflicts that can emerge in social projects and explored leadership styles—passive, assertive, and aggressive—along with their strengths and weaknesses. Discussions highlighted how conflict management varies depending on leadership approaches and group dynamics. Emotional intelligence and social-emotional learning were introduced as essential tools for effective and empathetic leadership.

Phase 3: Project Cycle Management
To help leaders stay grounded in their project’s vision and mission, participants were guided through the stages of Project Cycle Management. This framework supports informed decision-making and strengthens the sustainability and impact of social initiatives.

Phase 4: Evaluation and Sustainability
Finally, participants discussed programme evaluation methods and the role of leaders in ensuring continuous improvement. This phase emphasised sustainability, encouraging participants to consider how their projects can create lasting impact beyond their immediate implementation.

With the online training complete, participants will now prepare local action proposals throughout August. These proposals will receive partial funding through SCI International’s regranting programme, and outcomes will be shared at the online Final Evaluation Seminar in December.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all participants for their dedication and to Service Civil International for enabling this initiative. Together, we move one step closer to building a more peaceful world through collaborative action.

• Resident in Australia or Indonesia (Australian or Indonesian nationality is not a requirement)

• Minimum 18 years old

• Good knowledge of the English language

• Available to attend the introductory meetings, the 4 webinars and the final evaluation meeting

• Belong to an organisation connected with peace, intercultural understanding, environmental sustainability or other similar organisation, or be enrolled in an aligned university course

• be interested in peace education, project management, non-formal education, intercultural projects, voluntary work, and strongly motivated to improve their competence and experience in these areas

Click here if you would like to know more.

Contact us (projects@ivp.org.au)

Apply by filling this form

Roslyn Thompson with freshly grown potatoes at a previous Goulburn Farmers Market. The market is at the forefront of fresh moves to reduce plastic in Goulburn. Photo: John Thistleton.

Goulburn Farmers Market organisers and community action group The Goulburn Group are combining their efforts to get the community, Goulburn Mulwaree Council and retailers to reduce plastic, which takes 1000 years to break down in landfill.

The plastic reduction campaigners have met Goulburn Mulwaree councillors and pointed to a trial conducted by Wingecarribee Council on soft plastics, which involves residents taking them to a depot, from where they are picked up by a Victorian firm and turned into various products.

The Goulburn lobbyists want to approach all levels of government to stem the flow of plastics into the food and wider consumer system and, dreaming big, to add Goulburn to the growing list of plastics-free regional centres.

The Farmers Market has adopted a ‘minimal plastics’ policy, is encouraging buyers to bring their own containers and has asked for coffee vendors to offer a discount for bring-your-own cups.

Boomerang Bags, made out of reusable fabric to replace plastic bags, are also coming back as part of the fresh drive to keep plastic bags out of the waste stream.

Beginning in Queensland, Boomerang Bags swept the world a little over a decade ago. The concept quickly spread across Australia and took off in Goulburn after former Labor senator and community leader Ursula Stephens and Sue Soley sparked local enthusiasm.

Goulburn Soroptimist and Gallery On Track were among the groups that became involved, as a target of making and distributing 500 bags was set.

At well-attended sewing bees ‘sewing ninjas’ got to work making the handy carry bags. Volunteers helped by ironing the handles and rumpled fabric to speed up production lines. Soon after, Boomerang Bags began appearing at places like the Rotary markets and Riversdale.

Goulburn Farmers Market convenor Rita Warleigh said volunteers had enough of the bags left over to begin circulating them again at the monthly markets.

“We are setting up a table at the Farmers Market to assemble them and sell them for a few dollars. We already have offers of more material,” she said.

The Farmers Market and The Goulburn Group also conducted a plastic audit at the monthly market.

“We believe Goulburn Farmers Market can be a perfect contained study group to start looking into alternatives to plastic,” Rita said.

Volunteer Heather West making Boomerang Bags several years ago when Goulburn joined a worldwide campaign to introduce the recyclable bag as an alternative to plastic bags. Photo: Boomerang Bags/Facebook.

“We need to stop using it before manufacturers will give up making it, as it is a lucrative product, especially now that there is pressure to reduce petrol consumption,” she said.

She said some plastic packaging was required by legislation and more law-making was coming that would require more plastic packaging.

“Australian Farmers Markets Association is fighting back on behalf of food markets and small growers,” she said.

“Stallholders support the minimal plastics policy of the markets and are actively seeking packaging solutions that use more sustainable alternatives,” she said.

“Of the stallholders we have approached so far, they are happy for buyers to bring their own containers to be refilled,” she said.

After their initial small steps and studying reduction efforts at other local government areas, they would like to approach other retailers in Goulburn to raise awareness and to reduce plastic packaging.

“Our starting position is that the use of plastic needs to be urgently minimised, given frightening projections, such as that by 2050 the volume of plastic in the ocean will equal that of all marine life,” The Goulburn Group’s Mike Steketee said.

“So recycling is a second best option but nevertheless necessary given the millions of tonnes of plastic, particularly soft plastics, going to landfill or simply thrown away,” he said.

Mike said the group was aware of other residents in Goulburn and district doing everything possible to minimise plastic use and who wanted to recycle what currently couldn’t be avoided.

“That’s why we are keen for the council to do more and for supermarkets and other large outlets to take up the initiative,” he said.

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