Organizations across region see steep drop in volunteers post pandemic

Numbers from Statistics Canada show that 65 per cent of organizations across Canada are facing a volunteer shortage.

In the Region of Waterloo, the number of volunteer applications being generated for organizations across the community by Volunteer Waterloo Region has declined by 20 per cent post pandemic.

Organizations saw a surge of volunteers at the start of the pandemic, but those numbers slowly declined.

After the pandemic, there was a steep drop off of volunteers young and old, partially due to a fear of exposure to COVID-19 and other viruses.

Jane Hennig, Executive Director of Volunteer Waterloo Region, told CityNews 570 that younger volunteers are now looking at different ways to engage.

“They're looking more for a project or a short term opportunity that doesn't commit them for a long period of time because they just don't know what they're going to be experiencing in the coming months or years.” Hennig explained.

Hennig added that community organizations are trying to restart programs, and short term commitments may be counter to what they have a need for.

The Statistics Canada research also showed that 17 per cent of organizations in the country have cancelled programs because they were not able to find enough volunteers.

Hennig stated that the worst case scenario is already happening.

“You have to sit there and go, were those programs outdated? Maybe they were. Let's hope they aren't essential programs.” Hennig reflected. “But we can't afford for programs across the board to be cancelled.”

Hennig added that despite the decline in volunteers, she has hope and a huge amount of trust for the community, given her 20 years of experience running the Volunteer Waterloo Region.