Olympism for Humanity (O4H) Summit

Themes: Humanitarian action, prevention, restoration and resilience: bridges across agencies, policy and practice

 A call for humanitarian action and collective wisdom

O4H Alliance is organizing symposia and social entrepreneurship workshops (O4H Summit) during the first five days of each O4H Praxis program, aiming to advance interdisciplinary, academic human-centered alliances, scholarship and educational opportunities that will facilitate the resolution of existing global challenges.

History has taught us that the direct and indirect effects of the economic recession, unemployment, poverty, and civic disengagement are interconnected with xenophobia, immigration, war and violence across groups and cultures. While a number of scholars, academics, policy makers, practitioners and humanitarian agencies have been engaging in discourses and programming related to the resolution of existing social challenges, “the problems around us grow faster than the actions each one of us is taking.” Based on the foundation that “we can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them” (Albert Einstein), the annual O4H Summit is aiming to establish a world-leading platform of an inter-disciplinary community where youth, scholars, researchers, thinkers, policy-makers, and practitioners work collaboratively “to explore and enhance the contribution of Olympism to humanity.”

During this conference, academics, NGO practitioners, youth, educators and humanitarian actors showcase current humanitarian programs and scholarship and participate in workshops to embrace a shared vision.

The 5-day residential O4H Summit takes place in Athens, Marathon and Ancient Olympia, Greece every summer. This summit serves as a platform for introspection, community building, system re-design, social entrepreneurship and global action.

The annual Summit brings together academics, practitioners and humanitarian actors and agencies to serve as a platform for global action on sensitive and current global humanitarian challenges.

We envision this platform as an introspective venue for a journey across “time and space” in an attempt to build bridges across disciplines, cultures and institutions- merging development, social cohesion, civic engagement, peacebuilding, innovation, restoration and resilience.

Our vision is to create an inspiring and enlightened setting for the advancement of a discourse about social innovation and collective global-local actions where the academic world, change agencies, youth and humanitarian actors can be connected to the challenges of our local communities.

Our challenge is to advance applied interdisciplinary scholarship, local action and civic engagement opportunities that will potentially reform the role of academic institutions, youth and humanitarian actors into agencies that reach out and engage, support and collaborate for the improvement of the human condition.

Based on the Socratic notion of wisdom, this summit serves as a journey of knowledge uninhibited by borders of language, discipline, culture, time and tradition. Questioning our current state of being (personal and institutional) will advance collective knowledge and actions towards the improvement of the human condition-locally and across the globe.

This summit aims to serve as a space for introspection, inspiration, as well as a foundation for creating actions geared towards strengthening global humanitarian action. We, therefore, invite you to join a dynamic community at the birthplace of the Olympic Spirit. Join us in Olympia to light your O4H “torch” and become an “Olympian” in service of humanity.

O4H Summit Contributions

• 3 Keynote addresses, 3 Keynote Panels and 4 Parallel Session with Paper Oral Presentations
• 4 Roundtable Discussions, Workshops & Poster Presentation Sessions
• Site Visits: Ancient Olympia Museum, Ancient Olympia’s archeological site, cultural program

Applications for the 2023 World HOPE Summit & Praxis, which will take place at the birthplace of Democracy and the Olympic idea, will open in February 2023. Stay Tuned!

Be part of history – make your first steps towards your O4H Humanitarian legacy. 

Copyright 2012-2023, Olympism For Humanity Alliance, Inc. – All rights reserved.