Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

Trends

We will end this section by telling you a bit about the wide world of volunteering. In Canada, volunteers are an important and dynamic force. The National Survey of Giving and Participating found that in the year 2000, 27% of Canadians volunteered (or 6.5 million volunteers). Collectively, these volunteers contributed one billion hours, or the equivalent of 549,000 jobs.

The National Survey of Giving and Participating also revealed that the number of volunteers in Canada is in decline. There was a decline of one million volunteers between 1997 and 2000. The reason most often cited is a lack of time. This suggests that many people are not unwilling to volunteer; their busy lives just preclude it. Most volunteer hours came from a small group of highly committed volunteers. In fact, 34% of all volunteer hours came from 5% of volunteers. Most volunteers donated their time because they wanted to help a cause they believe in. (Source: The National Survey of Giving and Participating - www.nsgvp.org).

For more information on Canadian volunteer trends, you can also visit the website of "Volunteer Canada" at www.volunteer.ca and the newly formed "Imagine Canada" at www.imaginecanada.ca.

Many of the changes being experienced nationally are reflected back here in the Ontario literacy community. Changes experienced by many community literacy agencies in this province include:

• Increased volunteer burn-out and time pressure
• More difficulty in attracting volunteers
• Different reasons for volunteering than previously (i.e. work experience, skill development, placements for school or program, etc.)
• Increased liability and risk management issues
• More volunteers who are only able to commit to specific, short-term tasks in the organization
• Increased competition for volunteers among various community agencies
• Increased use of technology

For more information on Ontario’s literacy volunteers, please visit CLO’s Literacy Volunteers Value Added website at: www.nald.ca/literacyvolunteers/. For provincial information on volunteers in general, please visit the website of the Ontario Network of the Canada Volunteerism Initiative at: www.pavro.on.ca/ocvi/.

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Questions for Reflection

1. In your opinion, what special value do volunteers bring to your literacy agency?
2. Ask five volunteers what special value they think they bring to literacy. Are the volunteers' and your responses similar?
3. In what way do the national volunteer trends reflect what is happening at your agency?

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