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Thanks to work funded by City of Calgary FCSS and our ongoing work and friendship with Dr Moyo Mutamba, we were able to complete what we hope is the start of a deeper dive into understanding the colonial structures inherent in volunteerism. Here is an excerpt from the report:

"We can assume that asking racialized people to interact with the police to request a police check could be triggering, but we would be remiss in not understanding more about this experience. How many people are affected by this potentially harmful practice and what other barriers do BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) volunteers face in the sector?

We knew that to get a clear picture of these issues in our sector, we needed concrete data from volunteers."

Find the full report here - An Anti-Racist Approach to Volunteering

This is the type of thing that frustrates me. If you think society works just fine then this post and article aren’t for you.

Government admits there’s a resourcing issue and the solution for youth mental health is to punt into nonprofit land. This would be fine and even perhaps better for the individual IF nonprofits weren’t a) chronically underfunded and b) put under undue administrative burden just to collect and report on those precious little resources.

If you think society works just fine then this post and article aren’t for you. I’m telling you though … our “great” society is so broken and aligned to the wrong values and articles like this expose it yet again.

Simple answer of what to do until society wakes up … increase your 2022 donations to nonprofits, without strings attached, let them do their great work of being our social safety net. Your $50-100 a month makes a massive difference in a nonprofit or charity!

CBC Article - Kids in Crisis

This is our last post for 2021. It has been a wild ride. We laughed, we cried, and we continued to stare at each other in tiny boxes on the computer. We hope this time of year brings you all some rest and time with people you adore. We are looking forward to connecting again in 2022 and seeing what next year brings. Stay tuned for our look forward...we have big dreams!

If you are looking for a break from the people you adore or you have maxed out on rest, check out this awesome resource from our friends at PIN Network. 

We are thrilled to join our colleagues across Canada in welcoming Dr. Megan Conway as she begins her tenure as President and CEO of Volunteer Canada. Megan comes with an extensive background in the public and charitable sector which all started as a volunteer. She shares cool art on her twitter (https://mobile.twitter.com/bedothink) and she loves the snow. We look forward to welcoming her to the Rocky Mountains where we can go snow biking through the extensive trail system and enjoy all the public art sights whist chatting about equity, anti-racism and volunteerism! 

There are over 4000 organizations on VolunteerConnector so every day there are new opportunities posted to inspire and engage people in their communities. There is a shoe for every foot- you can be remote, in person, one time or frequent, options galore for causes! Thanks to all these organizations for creating innovative ways for people to engage. Here are a couple interesting ones that have caught our eye over the past couple weeks: 

This one from John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights - reasearch ... Love that it is open to anyone across Canada and that volunteers will learn/utilize qualitative and quantitative research skills! 

This one at the Alex - hairdresser ... Love that it’s an opportunity for someone to share their skill set to lift people’s self esteem. 

This one at the Brockville Public Library - library friend ... Love that you can feel the energy from the “why volunteer” section- super fun group of people indeed! 

The awesome people in Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan are promoting volunteerism in their community in a cool way! Check out these eye-catching street side motivators that encourage people to get connected in their community. Volunteers are essential to creating thriving communities and we love working with innovative communities like Lloydminster to engage their citizens in meaningful community work! 

I have been volunteering for 38 years.  Yes, that’s sad to say, but I’ve been volunteering since I was 4. My Dad was a captain in the Salvation Army, so I grew up volunteering. When I was 4 I would help people with many different mental illnesses and disabilities put bath beads into containers at the warehouse my Dad ran. That was it. I was hooked! I loved that there was an adult that not only loved giving me attention, but also would listen to me and take my advice! I was bossy from an early age, so I was in heaven.  It was so fun explaining how to carefully put those bath beads into place! 

At 5 I would volunteer at the Children’s Village, helping the foster children. My life was always centred around service. My parents tried to teach me that it is better to give than to receive. A lesson that I can easily lose sight of.

As a teenager I would volunteer for the 30 Hour Famine. Which I was never able to complete without caving and eating a chocolate bar or soup.

Then as an adult my first volunteer position was in the classroom. Once again I was thrilled!  Now I was able to not only give instructions, but also be worshiped as an all knowing educator. This made me laugh almost as hard as those eager little grade 3’s did.  It seemed like half of the  boys proposed to me. Sadly, I had to break their sweet little hearts. I especially loved how they would sweeten the pot by promising me that I could either date their fathers or wait until they grew up to be rich hockey players.  

I continued to volunteer in elementary classrooms until this day.  It even inspired me to get my own teaching degree. Although teaching was not the career for me, I still have a huge sense of accomplishment every time I look at that degree.  

I find the value of volunteering is the appreciation and the sense of having achieved something. Don’t we all want to leave this world better than we found it? Volunteering gives us the opportunity to help do that by aiding people in our community. I find that I get a high from random acts of kindness. It makes me feel better about myself and helps me feel like a better person. It can also help me escape the tunnel of self involvement or despair that I can easily fall into without realizing it. This year has been especially tough for all of us.  Volunteering has helped me to remember that it could be much, much worse. It helps remind me to count my blessings, not my troubles.

Thank you,

Kari PB

Welcome to the segment we like to call 'cool volunteerism that made national news' (open to alternative suggestions). Here are three stories about humans taking action to fill a need in their community in different ways. We all possess the capacity to change our communities and there are tons of options with how to go about it. You can donate your skill set to an organization that already exists, you can join with other like minded people to form an organization or you can be a human who does the organizing and partner with additional people!

A woman in Kenora, Ontario who stepped up where the provincial government did not to make sure ALL students in Ontario had access to menstrual products. (CBC News Article)

A group made up of art, culture and heritage professionals created the British Columbia Heritage Response Network support cultural institutions in planning for disaster response and collections salvage. They showed up in a big way in Lytton, British Columbia. (Globe & Mail News Article)

A young person in Calgary using her amazing skills in knitting to make sure 105 people in the city have warmer heads this winter. (CBC News Article)

So thank you Tania Cameron, Allysa Narang and the team at British Columbia Heritage Response Network for the good you are doing in your community! 

The Volunteer Centre of St. Lawrence-Rideau has been serving Leeds & Grenville by providing leadership and community capacity for 40 years. Over the past 20 months, under the leadership of the very cool Mary Lynn Villeneuve they have mobilized even more of their community to support each other in meeting vital needs. Their financial literacy and employment program is renowned across the province. 

We are very excited that the Volunteer Centre of St. Lawrence-Rideau has come on board the VolunteerConnector, our first regional partner in Ontario!! We can't wait to visit and cruise the 1000 Islands and learn more about all the great things that are happening in the communities within Leeds & Grenville. 

Not sure what about the leaves changing makes us think about community but it seems like our mailboxes have been exploding in the past couple weeks with families, youth and children looking to volunteer in their community. It has been really great to connect with people wanting to engage in community as a multigenerational unit. Not all opportunities or organizations are set up to support this type of experience and that is ok! If you have been looking on volunteerconnector.org and nothing has caught your attention here are some other thoughts for you.

Think of an issue or something not sitting right with you about your community ... do something about it. Maybe you think your community needs another garbage bin and it should be a beautiful? Maybe there is a great view for somewhere but there is no bench? We know food security is an issue in every community so maybe sourcing a community fridge or pantry is where you could put some time and energy.

Look again on volunteerconnector.org, perhaps an opportunity does sound interesting but they do not explicitly say it for children, youth or families. Get in touch with the organization, they might not have considered how the role could be filled with family or someone under 20 years old. 

Raise some funds for something your family cares about. There are plenty of organizations doing work and would be happy to receive some extra funds. Especially when the covid has made those annual fundraisers more difficult to hold. 

Use google to look up some of the lists out of there for acts of kindness, do one, five, thirty, whatever you have time for. Giving is not just a cheque to a recognizable organization. It is how you show up and make sure everyone in your community feels seen. Buy coffee for the person behind you in line, make muffins for the new neighbours, chalk inspirational phrases on the sidewalk, handout flowers at the grocery store ... there are about 56,300,000 more google results so we feel confident there is something there.