The Work of a Volunteer

“It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference”
-Tom Brokaw

The work of a volunteer is never done. This term my Beyond Border classmates and I are volunteering in the Kitchener community to help make a local impact on some much-deserved projects. I currently volunteer with Mosaic Family and Counselling Services and will continue to volunteer there for my local placement in their Pathways to Education Program.

Pathways to Education’s mission is to ensure that young people from at-risk and/or economically disadvantaged communities achieve their full potential by getting to school, graduating and moving on to post-secondary programs. At Pathways, I mentor high school aged youth by getting them involved in and participating in new challenges and most of all I spend time with them and listen to what is happening in their lives and try to impart a tiny little piece of the very small bit of wisdom I do have.

I was struck to come by a Manulife Financial Survey question that asked why volunteers volunteered. It read:

"I volunteer because…

I get free training in a new field
Its an excuse to travel
I want to meet new people
I like to give back to society
None of the above"

It is an honest question, a striking question that made me ask myself: Why do I volunteer? I’ve never considered volunteering as free training or an excuse to travel. I do enjoy meeting new people and have done that through Pathways but does this make it partially selfish. Can there really be that selfless good deed? It struck me that there are people who probably only volunteer for that resume experience and unfortunately I know people who do just that as a resume buffer and coming to the realization that you are never going to be able to change this is a reality that volunteers and managers must face. But I volunteer because every week, new challenges arise at my placement that make me critically think and work towards creating a better good. I had to come to the realization that the refining of some behaviour or the work to help teenagers solve problems in their lives are not one week cures, it takes time just like Tom Brokaw describes in his quotation.

Sometimes people look down at volunteers because they don’t understand the work that they do but the truth is volunteers work harder then most people can ever think. Volunteers are making a difference in this world and devote a lot of time and energy into work that is never easy. The next time you have time on your hands, consider a volunteer placement- the experience will be worthwhile. I guarantee it!

To learn more about Pathways to Education:
http://www.mosaiconline.ca/wps/portal/cfcc/Pathways
http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca/home.html

Pathways to Education Promotional Video:



Pathways to Education on Canada AM:
Copyrighted material, so I cannot embed a copy of the interview on this blog without the permission of the copyright holder, instead I have posted a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4st1NDyA0A