Volunteer shortage, decline in financial support continue to impact local organizations
Posted Sep 28, 2023 01:23:37 PM.
Charities, community groups, and organizations continue to struggle with a shortage of volunteers and dwindling financial support.
Jane Hennig is executive director of the Volunteer Action Centre and appeared on The Mike Farwell Show on CityNews 570 this week.
She said volunteer applications are down around 20 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels.
“Pre-COVID, we had about 48 per cent of the adult population in Waterloo Region who were volunteering,” said Hennig. “That’s about 250,000+ people who were giving on average over 100 hours a year. That’s like 25-million hours.”
She estimated that around 5-million hours of volunteer contributions have been lost in the community; all the while, the demand for services has continued to increase and financial support has dropped.
“All of that is sort of culminating into something that can be really challenging for the community in terms of programs either being put on hiatus or shut down completely, [and] organizations closing, ” said Hennig.
Earlier this month, we learned Oneroof was being forced to close its youth drop in-centre and Ray of Hope reduced the hours and meal services at its community centre.
Older adults have generally been considered one of the leading demographics for volunteerism but they were also deemed one of the most high-risk groups when COVID-19 first hit, and may still be hesitant to return to settings they used to feel comfortable in.
“Seniors were never the highest number of volunteers, but they gave the highest number of hours,” explained Hennig. “When a senior did volunteer, they would volunteer 165 hours a year, compared to 100 hours a year with the younger population.”
Hennig said the volunteering pattern ‘was broken by COVID’ and community organizations are now trying to figure out how to restart it.
On the other side of the coin, Hennig said the lessons learned from COVID may help get new people interested in volunteering.
“One of the things that happened during COVID was that we as a community, as a nation, as a world — were isolated. And we’ve seen the damage that isolation can do to humans. So we need to figure out how to re-engage, how to reconnect, how to get that sense of belonging and community connectedness back; and volunteering has always been a way to do that in a safe environment.”
