Hub Coordinators' Meeting
The Importance of the Community Spirit
Greetings! My name is Valentina Bellina and I started an internship at Love Foundation as social media manager in March 2022. I started remotely due to the pandemic, but finally I had the chance to meet some Love Foundation members in Brandenburg during the Love Captains’ meeting in April 2022.
Love Captains are the coordinators of the various hubs located in different cities. Monthly virtual meetings take place where we update each other on the activities and events organized by each hub as well as exchange and elaborate on our different ideas. Along with these online meetings, the Love Captains meet in person annually, such as the Brandeburg meeting I was a part of.
The three days in the countryside of Brandenburg were crucial for me to learn more about the dynamics of Love Foundation. Additionally, the people I met, the food I ate, and the music I enjoyed were phenomenal during these days. All of this promotes the idea of community spirit as one of the main pillars that upholds Love Foundation.
The coordination meeting of the German hubs was held in a wonderful and peaceful place, which was the right choice to develop new ideas together.
My trip to the countryside of Brandenburg was accompanied by Lucas, my supervisor, and Mitch, a member of the Munich hub. We left Berlin to reach a house, totally lost in nature and surrounded only by silence. When we arrived, it was already late, but we spent some time together with other members and started writing down a list of the main topics we would like to discuss the next day.
The second day was the busiest one. We woke up in the early morning and had breakfast together that someone was kind enough to prepare. While we were drinking coffee, my shy gaze crossed with that of others - I was very curious about how the meeting would take place.
Due to the warm weather, we decided to start outside in the garden. First, we talked about how the pandemic decreased the interest of members of some hubs, mainly due to the overwhelming difficulty of organizing events in the last two years. The next topic was related to how to use and improve visibility through social media channels. I had talked about this with Franze, who manages the Love Foundation Berlin Instagram profile, before, so I was able to get to know some of the ideas and challenges that had come up over recent years.
On the third and last day, we spent an amazing time together at the Seftenberg lake where we enjoyed the fabulous landscape. Then, we organized the rides home, hugged, and went our separate ways, all with very big smiles on our faces.
The friendly atmosphere during these two and a half days was essential to understanding how the community functions and especially how important it is to attend these meetings: not only to keep raising awareness for diversity, gender equality, and change, but it also serves as a reminder to why and how we volunteer for Love Foundation in the first place. This is why I loved asking for and listening to the stories of community members and how they came to become part of Love Foundation.
The amazing thing about this community is not only the different personalities but also how the pillars of the organization are mirrored in each of us, from those who are more connected to environmental protection issues, to those who are more interested in political dynamics. I strongly believe that this diversity of interests makes this community unique and meeting all these amazing people reminded me of why I decided to become part of this project originally.
In the beginning, when I decided to move to Berlin, without speaking the language properly and without any acquaintances, everything seemed to be very complicated and tough; but through my involvement in Love Foundation and the power of its community, I realized the importance of collectivity.
While I still have to learn a lot from this experience, I have already realized that by doing an internship in social media and my presence at events, such as the Love Captains’ meeting are crucial first steps. Since I am interested in photography, documenting such events with pictures will be one of my main goals.