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 ...

[Continue reading Where Can Volunteering Take You?]

It’s National Volunteer Recognition Week (April 15 – 21, 2012) and our chance to let those special volunteers in our lives know that “We Appreciate You!”.  All across Canada, all week long, volunteers will be celebrated and thanked in a myriad of different ways.

This year, Volunteer Victoria has partnered with Wells Gray Tours and CHEK TV to celebrate our local volunteers through the “We Appreciate You!” contest. Until April 20th you can nominate someone in our community for the great work they are doing. The ...

[Continue reading National Volunteer Recognition Week “We Appreciate You!” Contest]

The following blog post was written by Graydon Leigh, a political science major at the University of Victoria. Graydon grew up in Port Coquitlam, BC and aspires to be a journalist. He is an avid hockey fan and is honoured to write about volunteerism in the Victoria community.

Before my interview with Gillian Lindquist, Program Coordinator for the Victoria Restorative Justice Society (VRJS), I knew little about the methodology behind restorative justice. Gillian told me that “the society provides meaningful and personal responses to crime and harmful behaviour”, but I think this short statement isn’t enough to explain the society’s ...

[Continue reading What Restorative Justice Means in Our Community]

The following is a guest blog post written and researched by one of Volunteer Victoria’s volunteer writers, Gwen Hill. Gwen is one of two Volunteer Victoria Media Copy Writers and she has been with us for just over a year. She says she “has been writing for pleasure and craft since she figured out how to hold a pen”.  Gwen maintains a blog on managing depression, which you can visit by clicking on this link.”  Enjoy!

It was first a lavish Victorian home. Then a military hospital. A college, a school board – And now, it’s Craigdarroch Castle.

From ...

[Continue reading Eyes on Craigdarroch Castle]

Over the years I’ve worked for Volunteer Victoria I’ve done many presentations on the topic of volunteering to adult groups. (My colleagues in the youth program make presentations to youth groups.) Lately, I find myself talking a lot – especially to people in career transition – about strategic volunteering.

While this may be a new term to some of you the concept isn’t that hard to grasp. Essentially it means that while volunteers are offering their time and talents for free to an agency that needs their help, they are in turn receiving something that is important to them. Since we know that people ...

[Continue reading Strategic Volunteering for Job-Seekers]

Do you volunteer as a family? Are you curious about how to involve your child in helping out, or giving back?

The post below originally appeared in the HandsOn Blog on March 15th 2011. It is a great intro to volunteering as a family, and they were generous in their permission for us to re-post for your reading pleasure!

If you are curious about where to start volunteering as a family in Victoria, read on to the bottom, or please share your experiences and insights through the comments!

[Continue reading Volunteering as a family (and how to start in Victoria)]

This article first appeared in Volunteer Victoria’s E-Link newsletter on August 26th, 2011. Sign up for E-Link and keep current with news and information from Volunteer Victoria.

The Ministry of Social Development recently announced additional funding for the Community Volunteer Supplement Program (CVS). The CVS program encourages people on income or disability assistance to volunteer by providing up to a $100 monthly supplement to offset volunteer expenses such as travel or clothing.

Applicants who were waitlisted on August 8th will have until October 31st, 2011 to submit a request for a CVS application – and all eligible ...

[Continue reading Connecting Volunteers]

Over the past year we have identified an increasing level of community interest in family volunteering (adults and children together). This has come from families, employee groups, the media and others.

As one of VV’s roles is to identify emerging trends in volunteerism, we recently surveyed our 296 member agencies to learn more about family volunteering options.

We wanted to determine how many of our agencies currently engage families as volunteers, as well as identify agency capacity for engagement, perceived barriers, current practices / experience around family volunteering and interest in sharing learnings or learning more about family volunteering.

From the 78 agencies that responded to this ...

[Continue reading Results of our Family Volunteering Survey]

Volunteering with Benefits at the Marriott Inner Harbour

Volunteer Victoria had the great pleasure of supporting Volunteering with Benefits, the UnitedNOW signature event on April 15th, 2011. It was a super event, with over 500 volunteer hours raised in three short hours! Check out Ashley Kelbough’s photos of the event.

It was particularly awesome to see how much volunteering is valued by the 20-30 somethings who showed up. I have no doubt that each person there brings great talent, skills and passion to each of his or her endeavours – here’s to their volunteer ...

[Continue reading Did you know it’s the International Year of Youth?]

UnitedNow, a council of twenty-somethings volunteering with the United Way of Greater Victoria, works to raise awareness and develop understanding of key issues that impact individuals and families living throughout the Capital Regional District.

Their most recent endeavour, with the support of Volunteer Victoria, touches on volunteerism, getting connected and having fun – all in one evening! Volunteering with Benefits offers attendees the opportunity to bid on auction items with volunteer hours rather than dollars. Last year, 290 volunteer hours were raised, and the event was sold out!

This year, auction items ...

[Continue reading Volunteering with Benefits!]