This blog post is written by Julia-Anne Cameron, Volunteer Victoria’s Youth Volunteer Connections Program Coordinator

As the Youth Volunteer Connections Program (YVCP) Coordinator one of the highlights of my job is creating connections between young people ages 15-29 and our Member Agencies. The YVCP team strives to find volunteers who can support agencies and also learn, grow, and network as individuals in the process. It boils down to the old saying, there are two sides on a street –YVCP aims to support them both.

A prime example of this is a recent and exciting partnership between Volunteer Victoria’s YVCP and the University of Victoria’s Residence Life and Education Division. Robin Copestake, Coordinator of Residence Education, approached us in the beginning of the year with “Project Serve Day”. According to Robin, Project Serve Day is “a way to introduce students to Community Service Learning: an educational practice of volunteering framed by critical reflection on community, impact and citizenship.” For agencies, the opportunity to have eager volunteers show up for an afternoon of helping behind the scenes is obviously hugely beneficial to their staff, clients, and the greater community. This ripple effect is what students were asked to reflect upon during a facilitated reflection process at the end of Project Serve Day.

On March 16th, 2013 the pilot for Project Serve Day took place. On an incredibly wet and grey Saturday morning, my colleague Julena and I arrived at the University to find a room full of over 75 enthusiastic and energetic residence students  excited to begin connecting in their new community by volunteering at one of participating Member Agencies. The response rate from agencies to participate in Project Serve Day was incredibly high; the agencies were chosen on a first come first serve basis as well as the ability to offer a variety of opportunities for the students. UVic Alumni Association, Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health, Aberdeen Hospital (VIHA), Saanich Pulling Together, Woodwyn Farms, Fairfield Gonzales Community Association, and Creatively United for the Planet hosted a number of students to complete a variety of tasks including: data entry, equipment organizing, removing invasive plan species, garbage clean-up, binding ivy, and much more.

The residence volunteers were absolutely amazing. At every site we visited, Julena and I followed the sound of laughter and story telling to find the volunteers. Despite the miserable weather that began the day, the volunteers found the rays of sunshine and made it a positive learning experience.

Brit Walton, a participating student at Fairfield Gonzales Community Association stated that “a lot of us aren’t from this region, so learning what goes on in our community, and finding out resources we have in our city is great.” When asked how they were finding the strong, cold winds, fellow residence volunteer Liam McDonald genuinely added that, “it builds character!”

At the Aberdeen Hospital site, Jas Randhawa explained she felt “extremely excited to work with these residence volunteers to help the hospital organize their wheelchairs and other equipment…A lot of work takes place behind the scenes and sometimes the nitty gritty goes unnoticed. This is our way of showing our appreciation for their hard work and making sure that we can help them in any way.”

This pilot event was a huge success for both the Residence Life and Education Division and Volunteer Victoria. We are already planning the next event, which is scheduled to be taking place this September, and hopefully every September after that!

CBC Radio did an interview the day prior to Project Serve Day. Listen to it here!

**If you are an agency interested in participating keep your eye out for an agency request email in the summer. If you have questions, please direct them to Julia-Anne Cameron, Youth Program Coordinator at Volunteer Victoria 250.386.2269 Julia-Anne@volunteervictoria.bc.ca