Category: Volunteering

  • Getting Your 40 Volunteer Hours

    Getting Your 40 Volunteer Hours

    As you know, all high school students need to have 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Use this information to discover where your 40 hours can best be used.

    Volunteer Centres work in local communities to strengthen volunteering and citizen engagement. With more than 200 in Canada, each volunteer centre’s name, size, structure and services reflect the unique characteristics of their community.

    To find a volunteer centre in your area, click here.

    Many volunteer centres are independent non-profit organizations, while others are part of a United Way, Social Planning Council, Community Information and Referral Centre or municipal services. Though diverse in many ways, they share the following common functions:

    – Promote volunteering

    – Build the capacity of organizations to engage volunteers

    – Facilitate connections between people with volunteer opportunities

    – Provide leadership on issues related to volunteering and citizen engagement

    If you want to volunteer, your local volunteer centre is there to connect you to opportunities in your community. It may have a database of volunteer opportunities or can connect you directly to opportunities within its member organizations.

  • Volunteer Centres: Helping You Get Your 40 Hours

    Volunteer Centres: Helping You Get Your 40 Hours

    As you know, all high school students need to have 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Use this information to discover where your 40 hours can best be used.

    Volunteer Centres work in local communities to strengthen volunteering and citizen engagement. With more than 200 in Canada, each volunteer centre’s name, size, structure and services reflect the unique characteristics of their community.

    To find a volunteer centre in your area, click here.

    Many volunteer centres are independent non-profit organizations, while others are part of a United Way, Social Planning Council, Community Information and Referral Centre or municipal services. Though diverse in many ways, they share the following common functions:

    – Promote volunteering

    – Build the capacity of organizations to engage volunteers

    – Facilitate connections between people with volunteer opportunities

    – Provide leadership on issues related to volunteering and citizen engagement

    If you want to volunteer, your local volunteer centre is there to connect you to opportunities in your community. It may have a database of volunteer opportunities or can connect you directly to opportunities within its member organizations.

  • Using a Volunteer Centre to Get Your 40 Hours

    Using a Volunteer Centre to Get Your 40 Hours

    As you know, all high school students need to have 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Use this information to discover where your 40 hours can best be used.

    Volunteer Centres work in local communities to strengthen volunteering and citizen engagement. With more than 200 in Canada, each volunteer centre’s name, size, structure and services reflect the unique characteristics of their community.

    To find a volunteer centre in your area, click here.

    Many volunteer centres are independent non-profit organizations, while others are part of a United Way, Social Planning Council, Community Information and Referral Centre or municipal services. Though diverse in many ways, they share the following common functions:

    – Promote volunteering

    – Build the capacity of organizations to engage volunteers

    – Facilitate connections between people with volunteer opportunities

    – Provide leadership on issues related to volunteering and citizen engagement

    If you want to volunteer, your local volunteer centre is there to connect you to opportunities in your community. It may have a database of volunteer opportunities or can connect you directly to opportunities within its member organizations.

  • Getting Your 40 Volunteer Hours with Volunteer Centres

    Getting Your 40 Volunteer Hours with Volunteer Centres

    As you know, all high school students need to have 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Use this information to discover where your 40 hours can best be used.

    Volunteer Centres work in local communities to strengthen volunteering and citizen engagement. With more than 200 in Canada, each volunteer centre’s name, size, structure and services reflect the unique characteristics of their community.

    To find a volunteer centre in your area, click here.

    Many volunteer centres are independent non-profit organizations, while others are part of a United Way, Social Planning Council, Community Information and Referral Centre or municipal services. Though diverse in many ways, they share the following common functions:

    – Promote volunteering

    – Build the capacity of organizations to engage volunteers

    – Facilitate connections between people with volunteer opportunities

    – Provide leadership on issues related to volunteering and citizen engagement

    If you want to volunteer, your local volunteer centre is there to connect you to opportunities in your community. It may have a database of volunteer opportunities or can connect you directly to opportunities within its member organizations.

  • Getting Your 40 Volunteer Hours with Volunteer Centres

    Getting Your 40 Volunteer Hours with Volunteer Centres

    As you know, all high school students need to have 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Use this information to discover where your 40 hours can best be used.

    Volunteer Centres work in local communities to strengthen volunteering and citizen engagement. With more than 200 in Canada, each volunteer centre’s name, size, structure and services reflect the unique characteristics of their community.

    To find a volunteer centre in your area, click here.

    Many volunteer centres are independent non-profit organizations, while others are part of a United Way, Social Planning Council, Community Information and Referral Centre or municipal services. Though diverse in many ways, they share the following common functions:

    – Promote volunteering

    – Build the capacity of organizations to engage volunteers

    – Facilitate connections between people with volunteer opportunities

    – Provide leadership on issues related to volunteering and citizen engagement

    If you want to volunteer, your local volunteer centre is there to connect you to opportunities in your community. It may have a database of volunteer opportunities or can connect you directly to opportunities within its member organizations.

  • Getting Your 40 Volunteer Hours

    Getting Your 40 Volunteer Hours

    As you know, all high school students need to have 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Use this information to discover where your 40 hours can best be used.

    Volunteer Centres work in local communities to strengthen volunteering and citizen engagement. With more than 200 in Canada, each volunteer centre’s name, size, structure and services reflect the unique characteristics of their community.

    To find a volunteer centre in your area, click here.

    Many volunteer centres are independent non-profit organizations, while others are part of a United Way, Social Planning Council, Community Information and Referral Centre or municipal services. Though diverse in many ways, they share the following common functions:

    – Promote volunteering

    – Build the capacity of organizations to engage volunteers

    – Facilitate connections between people with volunteer opportunities

    – Provide leadership on issues related to volunteering and citizen engagement

    If you want to volunteer, your local volunteer centre is there to connect you to opportunities in your community. It may have a database of volunteer opportunities or can connect you directly to opportunities within its member organizations.

  • Put on Your Volunteering Hat

    Put on Your Volunteering Hat

    Volunteering is an essential tool for personal and professional development. Volunteering opens up a new world for you in which you can try on new “hats”. Hats are meant to be understood as “roles”. In business, people are required to wear many different hats all at once. Often it is by wearing different hats that we are able to learn the most about ourselves and our personal interests and capabilities. You may also find that the skills you develop while volunteering help you to engage in better coping and adaptive behaviors in your day-to-day life.

    Whether you are in high school or in post-secondary education, volunteering can provide you with a means for learning more about a particular topic. This can range from learning about the day-to-day work in a hospital, learning about how a fitness centre runs from the inside or learning about a particular job in more depth. These practical details can often help you to sketch out a more realistic picture of your dream job or to give you the insider information that will help you to land a job in the future.

    Volunteering is a great way to develop yourself personally and professionally and I recommend doing more than just the bare minimum required in high school. If you have time, try experimenting with different volunteer placements or stay somewhere for a few years. There is a lot to be learned by volunteering your time and there are always benefits to volunteering that you can take advantage of. Without volunteering there would be no access to many areas of our social world that are of interest. Take advantage of your free access to the places that interest you and best of luck on your journey to self development and professional success!

  • Get Your 40 Hours with Volunteer Centres

    Get Your 40 Hours with Volunteer Centres

    As you know, all high school students need to have 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Use this information to discover where your 40 hours can best be used.

    Volunteer Centres work in local communities to strengthen volunteering and citizen engagement. With more than 200 in Canada, each volunteer centre’s name, size, structure and services reflect the unique characteristics of their community.

    To find a volunteer centre in your area, click here.

    Many volunteer centres are independent non-profit organizations, while others are part of a United Way, Social Planning Council, Community Information and Referral Centre or municipal services. Though diverse in many ways, they share the following common functions:

    – Promote volunteering

    – Build the capacity of organizations to engage volunteers

    – Facilitate connections between people with volunteer opportunities

    – Provide leadership on issues related to volunteering and citizen engagement

    If you want to volunteer, your local volunteer centre is there to connect you to opportunities in your community. It may have a database of volunteer opportunities or can connect you directly to opportunities within its member organizations.

  • Deciding Where to Volunteer

    Deciding Where to Volunteer

    Like many students, you will need to acquire 40 hours of volunteer work before you are able to graduate. So where do you begin?

    When choosing the best place for you, there are a few considerations that you should keep in mind. The first thing to consider is location. Whether you are getting a ride from your parents, driving yourself or taking the bus, you are going to want to select a location that is convenient and accessible for you. You will want to choose something that will not be a headache to get to every time you have a shift because this could affect your attendance at your volunteer placement and potentially lead to an unfavorable outcome. By selecting a location that is convenient, you are that much closer to a successful volunteer placement.

    The next aspect to consider about your vounteer placement is the type of work that you will be doing and how the volunteering will benefit you. To find out more about the nature of the position you will apply for, you can check the company website or call the contact number and speak with someone directly. It is helpful if there is a position description that you can refer to, however keep in mind that this is not always the case. A description of the position will help you to identify if it is a good fit for your interests and skills. Choosing something that fits with your personality can help you to stay motivated and feel that you are doing a good job at your volunteer placement. This is a very fulfilling and rewarding feeling.

    In choosing a position, you may want to be adventurous and try something that you are not good at in the hopes that you might learn something new about yourself or develop a new skill. If you are choosing to be adventurous, be sure that you are being realistic about how much of a challenge the activity will be for you. Remember that you are looking for personal growth as well as looking to make a meaningful contribution to the organization that you are going to be volunteering with. Choosing something that is difficult but realistic in terms of the skills required is the best way to have a rewarding experience.

    By choosing a volunteer placement that is in a convenient location for you and that either fits your skills nicely or will present you with a reasonable challenge, you are setting yourself up for personal and professional growth. You can also look forward to a positive reference from your volunteer placement, providing you with an overall rewarding experience.

  • Do Employers Look at Volunteer Experience?

    Do Employers Look at Volunteer Experience?

    When thinking about volunteering, we have a tendency to believe that volunteer experience simply doesn’t measure up to work experience because it is not paid. Sometimes we think that volunteering is “just for fun” or “just to help out”, but we don’t really consider volunteering to be good enough to be counted as real experience.

    These thoughts are false. Volunteering is, in many ways, much better than work experience because it demonstrates initiative on the part of the individual. It also demonstrates that one can do many of the basic requirements for any job, such as working as part of a team, working independently, and performing specific job tasks that may be relevant to another job in the future.

    Employers are also interested in finding people who have experience in a particular field. Currently, it is very common for people applying to medical school or looking to work in prestigious companies to put in time as an intern – without pay. This type of experience is looked upon quite favorably and is considered as far superior to having no experience.

    Personally, having worked a volunteer position as a brand ambassador for a fitness company, I was able to land more than five jobs that I would not have been considered for had I not volunteered. At the time I was unaware of the value of volunteering and was mostly disappointed that I was not receiving any pay for my efforts. I learned many valuable skills while volunteering in addition to having the after benefits of getting other related (paying) jobs.

    Stick with it! Volunteering is a great way to get a foot in the door and perhaps begin a job placement after volunteering.