5 Reasons Why I Volunteer
Did you know that April 18-24 is National Volunteer Week in Canada?
It is a chance for everyone involved in volunteering themselves or creating volunteer opportunities for others to reflect on what this means for them. I hope that people recognize the gravity of sacrificing your time and energy that would have otherwise been spent tending to your own needs or being with loved ones or pursuing your own education or employment. Click here to learn more about National Volunteer Week from Volunteer Canada and resources related to this year’s theme of “the value of one, the power of many”.
I think the most important reason to volunteer is because we need more people, more energy, more ideas to be putting their hearts and minds together to change systems and improve the overall situations of our community members. No one should go to bed hungry, no one should be a victim of violence. Here are some of my reasons:
Justice - my number 1 reason for volunteering so much is because I see a lot of inequity at system levels all around me from systemic racism to poverty to violence to family separation. These injustices are too much for me to bear. When we look at things from an equity lens, it makes the goal clear of making sure that people who have the most lived experience have the most power and influence in the systems and services that affect and impact them and their families. We, especially men, have to acknowledge our privilege in many situations and we have to keep working everyday to unlearn harmful behaviours. For me justice can’t be only about outrage and pain - we have to let love for our community and our happiness be our motivators too.
Extra Energy - I have always been a high energy person, anyone who has met me would likely agree. I need to be doing many things at a time to be able to apply all the energy I have every day to many tasks. When I feel motivated, or even when I feel really happy or really sad, I usually will try to find an activity to help take care of this. When all of my needs are (mostly) met I then will take my extra energy and share it with the organizations and groups in my community who I care about and who are doing a good job addressing the challenges I see.
Extra Time - I don’t really have extra time, or at least it doesn’t feel like it lol. Some days I feel like I have a time turner (anyone familiar with Harry Potter series knows what I mean) because at times, even in the pandemic, I feel like I am in many places at one time. It helps to have people on my teams that support me in getting all of my tasks done.
Connection to Community - When I am volunteering I am often connecting with people who believe in the same things I do. Often, these people do not have the same life experiences or skills and so I enjoy finding ways to utilize everyone unique talents and abilities in strategic ways to help us achieve our goals. I learn from people who have lived through some intense life experiences and I am so grateful that they share their skills and perspectives.
Constant Learning aka Village University - I learn every day. I learn from watching community members apply their intellect and skill to achieve positive outcomes against all odds. I call this Village University because it is primarily Indigenous led volunteer groups that are leading the way in terms of responding to the needs of the most vulnerable members of our community with the most innovative challenges with the least amount of resources. Always so impressive. The helpers and leaders here often act as unpaid professors and the volunteers who spend significant amounts of time helping deserve some kind of degree or diploma or recognition for their learning and achievements!
I am so grateful to everyone who creates the many opportunities I have benefited from. I also wanted to give a shout out to a few of the organizations I have been able to volunteer with and some of the recent successes:
Fearless R2W: we do child welfare education and advocacy and I love supporting families towards reunification and those aging out of the CFS system. As someone who is a product of the child welfare system, I am so excited with the work we are doing to connect with families locally and then find opportunities provincially nationally and internationally to learn! I am excited about the work we are doing with Nagijeung Abinoojik supporting North End families to prevent involvement with CFS and our recent work supporting open streets and active transportation infrastructure in the inner city.
North End Community Renewal Corporation: I have been involved for a long time with these folks but it might be because I love their vision of social end economic renewal in the North End. I am excited about the work they do in their core areas and even have a couple exciting projects in the works people are gonna love! The Palace Theatre is one of them!! Another one is our soon to be launched Community Safety Host initiative that will train and employ local folks and community members as security guards from an Indigenous values, community based, harm reduction, culturally safe and trauma informed perspective.
United Way of Winnipeg & Kids Help Phone: These are larger organizations but I have been happy to sit on their Indigenous Advisory Councils to help advise on ways to improve their internal culture and service delivery. I have high expectations of these organizations to achieve their plans in meaningful partnership with Indigenous people and organizations. UWW recently launched 211 Manitoba, a 24 hour, 7 days a week phone number and online resource that can help you navigate systems. You may also be interested in checking out our most recent strategic plan from the Council for Indigenous Relations to get an idea of what wenare up to as well. KHP just launched Brighter Days an Indigenous wellness initiative for educators in many educational or community environments, learn more about it here. You can also read the FINDING HOPE Indigenous Youth Action Plan by clicking here to learn even more about what we plan on doing in the future.
& Many More: I am working with groups in health, research and systems change, too many to list here but I am excited and happy to volunteer with all of them.
If you have ever volunteered your time in your community…KINANASKOMITIN (thank you)! I hope you know that your community is better off because you shared your talents and attention to fill a need around you.
