Civic Impact

This past Monday, 600 high school students from across four schools in the Rexdale area, converged at OISE (the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) for a day-long volunteer event.

 

VolunTeen 2013: Igniting the Power of Youth to Change the World--organized by Volunteer Toronto in partnership with OISE, For Youth Initiative, Civic Action and the Catholic District School Board--was designed to help students complete their 40 hours of community service in the most productive way. 

 

Unlike traditional volunteer fairs, VolunTeen didn’t just get students to mingle with potential host organizations. Instead, students were asked to focus on themselves first -- to think about their own skill-sets, interests and passions. 

 

"The day was all about increasing the students' knowledge of volunteer opportunities," says Camara Chambers, director of membership services with Volunteer Toronto. "But also about increasing their knowledge of how they can contribute to society using their specific skills."

 

Throughout the morning students participated in workshops that helped them identify their personality types and taught them how to harness leadership characteristics.

 

"We know that people actually like volunteering if they’re volunteering with something they feel passionate about and love doing.  And so we’re keen to give young people the opportunity to think about themselves and how they want to contribute and what they actually feel passionate about. Particularly in terms of how their personalities relate to volunteering," says Chambers. 

 

Following the workshops, students broke up into small groups to work with participating organizations, which included the Canadian Cancer Society, Relay for Life, and the ROM, to do some quick on-site volunteering. The hope was that by the time they got to the volunteer fair that capped the day’s events, the students would be energized and have an idea of the kind of work they might want to do.

 

"The morning was all about themselves and what they could give back and the afternoon was all about getting them to experience volunteering in action. And then very last part was meeting even more organizations," says Chambers. 

 

Since 1999, all high school students in Ontario have been required to complete 40 hours of community service as a condition of graduation. And Volunteer Toronto has long had a mandate of making sure that task, far from arduous or stressful, actually becomes a positive growth opportunity for Toronto's students.

 

"We want to make sure that when they’re doing their 40 hours, they’re doing it in a way that really exciting for them and makes them feel great about it," says Chambers. "We hope to get them to volunteer for the rest of their lives."

 

This is the first year of the VolunTeen event, but Chambers is optimistic that there will be more to come. 

 

"Hopefully if the feedback was good and the young people loved it, we’ll do it again next year. From what I could tell, the students seemed to really enjoy it. The atmosphere was buzzing."