A new organization makes it easy to connect the dots with roles for YOU
By Lois Tuffin
Just a year ago, if you wanted to volunteer in Peterborough, you had to become a detective. First, you would investigate various groups to see what they did, then — one by one — if they had roles that fit your skills and schedule.
If you struck out, you would have to start over again. To solve this mystery, you may have questioned your family and friends to see where they offered the time and why. Perhaps it helped. In many cases, it still left you searching.
Meanwhile, more than half of local charities were desperate for volunteers. Yet, due to staff reductions during COVID restrictions, they had less capacity to find and recruit them.
In the midst of this dilemma, a new organization was born to bridge the gap.
Today, Peterborough-area residents can go to one website for clear, searchable listings or come to a volunteer fair in the YMCA gymnasium on May 8 from noon to 4 p.m. Both options take the work out of finding a rewarding, convenient way to donate your time and talent.
How does it work?
Volunteer Peterborough.ca works like a dating site. Each side of the match — volunteers and recruiting organizations — define what they have to offer and what they need respectively. Then a filter takes away any roles that don’t fit.
By refining the search, this process takes the guesswork away for volunteers by:
- Offering organizations they may not have identified as matches
- Narrowing the field to jobs that work for them
- Providing the details and contact information to proceed.
This makes it easier for students to find places that will provide much-needed community hours so they can graduate. It also helps new Canadians build up a resume with local references.
For recent retirees, you can choose to use the skills that made you excel in your career or try something completely different! Best of all, you get to pick what you want from a menu of 101 organizations (and growing).
So far, more than 850 individuals have signed up and many of them have found satisfying roles that support non-profits who need and value them.
Even better, volunteers get to reap the benefits of:
- A stronger sense of belonging
- Better physical and mental health
- More robust job prospects
- Enhanced quality of life
- More opportunities to socialization
- Closer knit social fabric
- More confidence and friends
- New skills,
- Better cognition due to problem solving
- More laughter and fun
If those don’t inspire you, what will? There’s one more: the knowledge that you help a non-profit organization offer better services at a lower cost. That benefits your friends and neighbours who they need support.
Now, you get to sign up
Registering — as a person or an organization — takes mere minutes. In both cases, you’ll know the answers to the questions we ask, so it’s quite easy.
For individuals, begin under the ‘For Volunteers’ tab where you ‘join’ us.
After you fill in a series of boxes to help us understand how you want to help, you log in and add your personal photo and a banner image to reflect your personality.
Now, it’s time to shop around.
You can discover ways to get involved in three ways: events, opportunities or organizations. The first one shows you what single-day events are coming up that may fit your calendar. This can help families or friends who want to do something together. Further, it’s a great place for high school students to latch onto events that will provide their community hours toward their diplomas.
For those seeking a regular gig, the list of opportunities range from weekly shifts at Peterborough Regional Health Centre to commitments to boards of directors. You’ll often find single events there as well.
To find your match, filter the choices with the dropdown menus for your skills and type of cause benefited. That will weed out the list to narrow your search. For example, the Peterborough Humane Society and YMCA rely on volunteers to care for their on-site plants. You never know how close an apt volunteer role may be to your home or office.
Finally, under Search Organizations, you can use the ‘causes’ filter when going through the list of agencies as well. When you find one that interests you, go to the bottom of the page to see what roles it has open. Simple, right?
Sign up your organization
Perhaps you belong to a group that needs some additional helpers. We use the term ‘organizations’ since it applies to charities, teams and any non-profit operating in this area. To start, you need to register so we can prevent any scammers from using our site.
Simply fill in the boxes and add a horizontal logo (1200 by 630 pixels, ideally). You can also add photos to show what your group does. This really is your chance to shine, so tell people about your mission, a brief history and how you engage volunteers in your work.
Approval takes a day or two, then your profile will go live on the site. Once that happens, you can log in to add events and opportunities. For each listing, we ask you to be as specific as possible.
During our focus groups, volunteers tell us that they want to know EXACTLY what to expect when they take on a role. Some of them have been burned by miscommunication or misaligned expectations. Clarity right from the start helps them settle in and stay.
In particular, they want to know about the time commitment: how many hours per shift, shifts per month and if they can take time off when needed. Robust details about skills, outcomes and rewards also help them see themselves working with you.
Don’t be shy about how their enthusiasm and skill will change the lives of your clients, staff and the public. Volunteers thrive when they feel a sense of purpose; please feed that drive and they will stick with you.
If you’re not tech-savvy, you can reach Program Manager Genevieve Ramage at the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce. Call her at 705-874-0073 or email her at volunteer@volunteerpeterborough.ca.
In all, Volunteer Peterborough exists to help every willing volunteer and organization, so come aboard. We look forward to working with you.
Lois Tuffin leads the Steering Committee for Volunteer Peterborough. She has a long history of volunteering in the area.