This week (April 27-May 3) is National Volunteer Week. Across Canada, volunteer organizations are highlighting all the good things volunteers do in our communities. Volunteers build community – we see this through data from Statistics Canada, and through the work done in South Dundas and abroad. If your child plays a sport, there are volunteers involved. Enjoy that new pavilion at the park? Volunteers were involved. Were meals delivered to the home of a senior? Yes, volunteers were there too. Volunteers are the backbone of any community.
There is a problem however – there are fewer volunteers doing more of the work. Increasingly, organizations large and small are seeking volunteers because fewer are stepping up. The ones who do step up, often burn out because they are doing more. Membership in service groups is generally older, and few new younger members are joining. Sports organizations have fewer and fewer willing to coach or help with the administration work required to operate. Schools are finding it more and more difficult to get help for all the things that school boards do not pay for or do. Often it is the same people volunteering in multiple places, or volunteers who have served a long period of time. Those volunteers feel the need to step up because in their absence – whatever the work is would not be done.
Recently, a local youth sports organization put out a call for coaches as one-third of all the teams had no coach. It took nearly a week to find the coaches needed. While that is one local example, it is part of a larger trend. Many families have no issue with paying the ever-growing fees for sports, recreation, and the arts – but that is where their involvement stops. A great number of those organizations exist as not-for-profit entities meaning there are no paid workers or organizers.
With fewer volunteers in a lot of groups, and those volunteers who remain doing more work – there is volunteer fatigue or burnout. It is literally when a volunteer feels they have no more to give, or where volunteering is impacting other points in that person’s life that something has to give. No one who gives of their time freely as a volunteer should have to feel they need to do so out of obligation.
Another issue with there being fewer volunteers in groups is the lack of new ideas. Many groups struggle with declining revenue or participation because the volunteers there do things the same way – because that is the way they have always been done. Additional resources and fresh perspectives can help an organization improve, survive, and thrive.
Not all is negative. More youth are volunteering than ever before according to StatsCan data. The 15-19 year old age youth are involved, and many at hours beyond the 40 hours needed in Ontario for students to graduate secondary school. Volunteer numbers drop as people reach their 20s and only pick up again as they enter their late 50s. And that is the trend that needs to improve. We need more in that age group to be involved. Good things happen when volunteers get together. Consider that this is National Volunteers Week and see how you can make a difference – large or small – wherever you live.
Discover more from Morrisburg Leader
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.