Today’s blog post is contributed by Angela Vincent, a volunteer at the Victoria General Hospital. Angie’s story is a great example of how someone can discover their passion while volunteering! Read on…

Hello everyone! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Angie. I am a mother of two beautiful children: Keegan who is seven & Kenzie who is three! I would like to share a small story with you. It’s about my volunteer experience and where it has taken me – I think I should begin with how it all started.

Previously I worked in the retail industry for over eleven ...

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Clare O’Kelly, President of the Administrators of Volunteer Resources British Columbia (AVRBC), wrote this positive and passionate article to all AVRBC members – individuals who coordinate volunteers at BC nonprofit and public organizations – a couple of weeks ago. I believe it’s a must-read for all of us who work with volunteers, so with her permission we’ve reposted it here. For more information about the South Island chapter of AVRBC, please visit the AVRBC website or contact me at Volunteer Victoria.

I’ve always found September to be an ...

[Continue reading Reconnecting with Passion]

The following guest blog post was written by Kelly Sprackett, Coordinator of Volunteer Services at Broadmead Care Society, in praise of one of their long-time volunteers.  Thank you Kelly, for recognizing and sharing Pat’s impact on your organization!

Pat Robertson - one of Broadmead Care Society's valued volunteers.

We are proud to say that Pat Robertson has been a volunteer with Broadmead Care Society (and before that, our predecessor Tillicum and Veterans Care Society) since 1975. 

Pat continues to lead the sing along for elderly residents of The Lodge at Broadmead ...

[Continue reading Pat Robertson – Valued Volunteer with Broadmead Care Society]

Today I’d like to introduce guest blogger Sara Walsh, Deputy Emergency Coordinator at the Victoria Emergency Management Agency (VEMA). We are pleased to highlight that Volunteer Victoria and VEMA have had a partnership for many years around emergency preparedness. Sara goes into detail below about how you can help:

Thank you so much to Volunteer Victoria for allowing me to blog about the great work happening in the area of emergency preparedness.

Late last year, the Victoria Emergency Management Agency with the support of Volunteer Victoria launched an innovative new project to help plan for the use of “convergent volunteers” during a large scale emergency or disaster.

Harnessing ...

[Continue reading How Coordinators of Volunteers Can Help in Times of Disaster]

In June I wrote on this blog about the AVRBC meeting that we had on “Creating Enticing Volunteer Position Descriptions”. I shared with you what Kelly Sprackett, a local coordinator of volunteers and one of the three panelists at the meeting, had to say on the issue. 

Now I’d like to share with you what Nancy Martens, Coordinator of Volunteer Resources at the Queen Alexandra Foundation for Children’s Health and Christine Foster, Manager of Volunteer Resources at Saanich Peninsula Hospital had to share as well. We’re so fortunate to have such an amazing number of skilled people here in ...

[Continue reading More on Creating Enticing Volunteer Position Descriptions]

I’d like to announce that Tina Lowery of the BC Cancer Agency has stepped in to share the Regional Representative position with me for our local Administrators of Volunteer Resources British Columbia (AVRBC) chapter.  Tina replaces Nancy Martens (more on Nancy below) in this shared position as of this summer, just in time to start off our new meeting year in September.  Tina is the Coordinator of Volunteer Services at the Vancouver Island Cancer Centre and, in her words, “works with and in support of the most amazing, talented and dedicated volunteers.”

If you haven’t heard of AVRBC before, ...

[Continue reading New Regional Rep for AVRBC]

For many years, Volunteer Victoria has had a strong partnership with the Administrators of Volunteer Resources British Columbia (AVRBC), BC’s professional group for people involved in the administration of volunteers.  Every month between September and June on the third Thursday of the month, local coordinators of volunteers gather in Victoria at AVRBC meetings to learn about topics in volunteer management. 

AVRBC South Island’s most recent meeting, held on June 16th, featured a panel of presenters speaking on the topic of Creating Enticing Volunteer Positions.  Panelists Kelly Sprackett, Nancy Martens, and Christine Foster led an informative and interactive presentation.  ...

[Continue reading Creating Enticing Volunteer Positions]

Since 2000, Volunteer Victoria has been offering an Overview of Volunteer Management course once a year for those involved (or wanting to be) in the administration of volunteers.  In the course, participants learn all the basics they need to know about managing volunteers and we’ve graduated over 250 individuals from this course over the past eleven years. 

We’re currently planning for our 2011 offering, and this year we have something else exciting to announce other than just the new course dates for 2011.  Our course has been accepted for credit towards the first course – “Working with Volunteers” – in Red River College’s Volunteer Management ...

[Continue reading Training for Coordinators of Volunteers]

Sandra Richardson (Victoria Foundation) presented Val Green (Volunteer Victoria) with a plaque recognizing our accomplishments over the past 35 years and thanking Volunteer Victoria for ‘giving heart to our community for 35 years’.      

Each year our Youth Program Coordinator and Access Program Coordinator present Agency Awards to dedicated leaders ...

[Continue reading AGM Awards]

Today I’d like to welcome Yasmin Rampuri from the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria who has written the following guest blog post for us about her experiences taking our recent Overview of Volunteer Management certificate course.  Congratulations to all 23 of our 2009 course graduates! 

Over four Saturdays in October and November I had the great pleasure of attending Volunteer Victoria’s excellent Overview of Volunteer Management Course.  The course was facilitated by two engaging and very experienced leaders in the Volunteer Management field, Diane Kirby and Theresa Vogel.  Each of them led two of the Saturdays, and brought their different styles to ...

[Continue reading Overview of Volunteer Management Course: A Participant’s Experience]