Volunteer Work
Work without pay? Yes! Volunteering may be one of the most valuable experiences of your life. It's a double win: your community or cause benefits from your work and you benefit from your experiences. How? Read on…
The Basics:
Why volunteer?
- Volunteering is a great way to get work experience! You learn new skills by trying new jobs.
- You might find something you'd like to do for a living, or discover what you would not want to do.
- Better yet, you can meet people who can give you guidance and possibly help you to find a paid job later on.
- Some volunteer opportunities involve travel across Canada or to other countries.
- Employers will be impressed that you took the initiative to learn new things.
- You can learn how a charitable organization works.
- Best of all, you will be taking action to promote what you think is important and probably be helping someone else along the way.
- Be the change that you seek!
Who needs volunteers?
- Hospitals
- Charities
- Clubs
- Overseas development organizations
- Music and arts festivals
- Sporting leagues and events
- Children's camps
- Libraries
- Environmental organizations
- Crisis lines and peer counselling organizations
- Human rights organizations
- Religious organizations
- Political campaigns
- Government agencies (local, provincial, federal)
What are some of the things a volunteer can do?
- Coach a team.
- Read to children.
- Raise money for charity (fight diseases, reduce poverty, help the sick and injured, etc.).
- Care for the elderly.
- Feed the hungry.
- Provide counselling and support.
- Run errands and do deliveries.
- Gather and analyze data.
- Raise awareness of important issues.
- Do clean-up and repairs in the community.
- Build houses or playground equipment.
- Care for animals.
- Stage concerts, plays and other cultural events.
- Protect the environment.
- Plant trees.
- Help-out with a political campaign.
Where can you find volunteer opportunities?
- Visit your community's volunteer bureau, community information centre, or town hall.
- Call a service club.
- Visit a hospital.
- Ask family, friends and neighbours what they recommend.
- Join an organization whose activities you support.
- Consult the web sites of major volunteer organizations - some can be found through the links listed below.
Helpful Web Sites:
- Find volunteer opportunities at a volunteer centre in your area by visiting the Volunteer Canada Web site.
- Browse the links at the Canadian Volunteer Directory on the Canadian Universities.net Web site to find volunteer opportunities from across Canada.