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GET CONNECTED:
Find your local I will volunteer - beyond IYV Whether it was an hour, a day, or a week, it had never been easier to volunteer. It was a volunteer's market! International Year of Volunteers 2001 (IYV 2001) brought volunteers, their essential role in healthy communities and their need for a well-managed support structure, into the spotlight. In addition to volunteer centres, BC's 20,000+ charities and Not for Profits recognized, participated in or showcased volunteers and their contributions. IYV 2001 was just the beginning! So ~ how do we in BC harness the energy, enthusiasm and commitment to volunteering gathered during IYV and maintain this momentum in the years ahead? Volunteer centres have been playing this pivotal role in BC communities, connecting people through volunteer action.
Connecting people though volunteering is a powerful tool for bringing people together and meeting many of the challenges that face our communities. We need not look much further back than September 11th, 2001 to realize what a force of hope and strength we can be when we connect and mobilize. Despite the growing demand on time and increasingly limited resources, volunteer centres have become networkers, partners, managers, administrators, media experts and marketers for all we do. Encouraging a "volunteer culture" in our communities and throughout the province is one of our key roles. Volunteer BC is actively working on behalf of volunteer centres and those committed to volunteerism in BC to foster this "volunteer culture" by educating and promoting through the media, in concert with partners such as business, government, youth, seniors and media. Volunteer BC has supported this idea by enabling and incorporating high operational standards of excellence, through the various projects undertaken in the past years. Whether it is in our small communities or at the provincial level, every small or large step we take to promote the benefits of the volunteer experience and demonstrate the impact it has on community is a tangible and important way to educate the public and gain support for the value added services we provide to communities across BC.
The key to a vibrant voluntary sector in BC is based on active participation of British Columbians from all sectors of society. Encouraging involvement and providing an effective support system for those wanting to participate, as an organization or as an individual, will be an important focus for our province. The work that lies ahead for us in 2003 needs to carry the message so eloquently stated in the 2003 campaign from Volunteer Canada, "I
Will Volunteer 2003" |
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