My perspective - Planning for the future

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Published on Thursday, October 15, 2015

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Imagine your community without volunteers– you can’t, it’s impossible. Rural communities exist because of volunteers, it’s only because of them that we have things like festivals and facilities.  It’s volunteer work that makes our communities the places in which we want to live.

But as anyone who has been involved with organizations or projects knows, it’s getting harder to find people. Times are changing and we as communities need to recognize this, and be proactive about fostering and growing our volunteer base. This must be done in order to not lose our valuable community resources.

In any community, there are the “usual suspects”, the list of volunteers who can be counted on to organize an event or help build and maintain facilities. According to Statistics Canada, in 2010, 10 per cent of Canada’s volunteers accounted for 53 per cent of all volunteer hours. The problem is that in many communities, this group is aging and not enough people are stepping up to fill their spots.

Times have changed and it’s had a dramatic effect on volunteerism. Increased family commitments, two income families and single parenting have all combined to make it harder for Canadians to find time for volunteer work. Today, many would-be volunteers just don’t have time to give.

Additionally, better connectivity and accessibility have meant that people, especially those in rural areas, no longer rely on service groups as their only social outings.

That’s not to say that people don’t want to give. In fact, according to Statistics Canada, volunteerism has been growing and close to 50 per cent of Canadians contributed time, energy or skills to groups and organizations in 2010. 

The problem is that while most Canadians are giving their time, it isn’t evenly distributed among all types of organizations. The study found most Canadians gave their time to sports and recreations organizations (120 hours), religion (117 hours) and social services (116 hours). People tended to give less time to education and research associations and health-related organizations.

Looking within our communities, it seems that people are most ready to volunteer for the causes that most directly impact them.  Individuals volunteer within the sports and hobby groups in which they, or their children, are involved.  For example, it might not be too hard to find volunteers for the local kids skating club, but it’s harder to find someone to sit on the board of the rink. It seems as though the more general the organization’s mandate, the more it’s struggling for volunteers.

The Stats Can survey results give some insight into what motivates people to volunteer. For many Canadians, they take part in volunteer work because people they know are doing it. For example, 43 per cent of respondents said that they did their volunteer work as part of a group project with friends, neighbours or co-workers. Another 25 per cent said they had joined members of their immediate family in their volunteer work. These proportions have remained constant over time, meaning that engaging groups and families is a good way to get individuals out volunteering.

There is hope for the future as well. The study found that younger Canadians were the most likely age group to volunteer. While they devoted less time to their volunteer work than older Canadians, they are getting involved and laying the foundation for their future involvement. As most schools focus on including volunteer work as both credit and extra-curricular activities, we can hope that these young people will continue to give back to their communities as they age.

The trends are troubling, but also offer hope.  They show that while our key volunteers are aging, there are younger volunteers willing to give their time. The key is that  organizations need to be proactive about recognizing the needs of their group and working to find volunteers to fit those needs.