VOLUNTEER WEEK
Volunteer Centre of Southeastern New Brunswick
2024
The event was “LIVE” on our Facebook page. Click here to watch.
Happy National Volunteer Week 2024!
This week is the time to acknowledge and recognize all volunteers! Our community volunteers are always there volunteering with programs and projects usually helping someone in need! Thank you for your tireless effort and commitment as it is greatly appreciated! And like our National Theme this year ‘Every Moment Matters’ and you do make a difference!
Thank you to all of you!
Debbi LeBlanc, Volunteer Coordinator | Volunteer Centre SENB
2023
The event was “LIVE” on our Facebook page. Click here to watch.
National Volunteer Week 2023
April 16 – 22, 2023
#NVW2023 #WeavingUsTogether
Let’s celebrate our individual and collective actions in creating a strong, interconnected and vibrant community! Volunteering weaves us together, strengthening the fabric of our community by sharing our time, talent and energy to support one another.
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Through volunteering we experience our interconnectedness, making our lives more meaningful. Getting involved in various ways, we find friendship, develop trust, and link our relationships. Threading these connections, we come to belong as we contribute towards the same goals.
Like each individual thread makes weaving stronger, every volunteer’s experience, perspective, and abilities add to our collective resilience. Woven together from coast to coast to coast, volunteering reinforces our ability to grow, thrive, and create change within our community, province, and country.
Knowing our volunteer contributions are valued and meaningful creates a greater sense of purpose and dedication. From helping build a home, cleaning up a park, or coaching a sports team to cooking for an ill friend, checking in on a neighbour, or helping a stranger cross the street, each action we take impacts our community’s overall wellness, now and for future generations.
During National Volunteer Week 2023, we celebrate our collective impact: through our kindness, generosity and commitment to volunteering, we weave our lives together.
Happy National Volunteer Week to all the amazing volunteers! I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for what you do for your communities! It is only people like you that keep us known as one of the ‘Most Caring Communities’ in Canada! Keep up the great volunteer effort it is so appreciated by all of us!!!
Debbi LeBlanc, Volunteer Coordinator
National Volunteer Week Breakfast: 2023April 18th
INFORMATION
2022
Let’s celebrate Canada’s volunteers!
The National Volunteer Week theme for 2022, Volunteering Is Empathy In Action, affirms the strong connection between volunteerism and empathy. This profoundly human connection is at the heart of healthier individuals and stronger communities.
During National Volunteer Week 2022, we celebrate the contributions of Canada’s millions of volunteers: their actions, their understanding, and their genuine concern for the world around them.
Volunteering, putting empathy into action, can build communities where people feel happier, healthier, and more welcome – creating a stronger, more connected Canada.
We invite you to view all the exciting ways you can volunteer in our community
New Brunswick needs empathy in action now more than ever
Megan Conway and Annette Vautour
The last two years have generated a wave of empathy in action – a surge of public interest in volunteerism and grassroots activities. Canadians continuously stepped up to support each other in a variety of creative ways. From celebrating frontline workers, helping neighbours, and not hesitating to act in emergencies, we expressed our empathy through volunteering. During National Volunteer Week (April 24-30), we celebrate and encourage the contributions of New Brunswick’s hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours – their actions, understanding, and genuine concern for the world around them.Now, as the country imagines its social recovery from the pandemic, the profound human connection created through empathy is at the heart of healing, creating more resilient individuals and stronger communities. Empathy improves our lives, the lives of our children, and the lives of those we support. Canada needs empathy in action, now more than ever. Now, as the country imagines its social recovery from the pandemic, the profound human connection created through empathy is at the heart of healing, creating more resilient individuals and stronger communities. Empathy improves our lives, the lives of our children, and the lives of those we support. Canada needs empathy in action, now more than ever.
Empathy is the vital emotion that helps people relate to others. While we can never walk directly in someone else’s shoes, we can try to understand, relate, and walk alongside each other. By volunteering, we help develop empathy by building our awareness around different experiences. It connects people from diverse backgrounds and life experiences in formal and informal settings, creating opportunities to address challenges together. It helps us understand the world around us, and often ourselves, with greater depth. Building this capacity to work collectively and contribute to a vibrant, inclusive society is how we will build back better.
Prior to the pandemic, four in five Canadians engaged in some form of volunteerism – as mentors, coaches, organizers, supporters, community builders, fundraisers, board members, caregivers, and good neighbours. During the pandemic, recruiting formal volunteers amongst so much uncertainty has been a challenge. As well, the increase in requests for virtual volunteer opportunities without the corresponding capacity for non-profits to provide them has placed significant operational strain on the voluntary sector. While essential services volunteering is still the top choice for people wanting to help in their community, trends like the rising cost of fuel are further impacting volunteers’ ability to contribute in-person.
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At the same time, we are all facing volunteer fatigue – resilient and tireless, we are also a bit worn out. While we continue to draw strength and connection through our empathy in action, caring for the mental health of staff and volunteers is essential. We must guard against physical and emotional exhaustion to avoid a decrease in the ability to empathize. Non-profits need to prepare – virtual volunteering is here to stay and returning to in-person volunteering with confidence must include the safety concerns of both volunteers and clients.
This is why rebuilding volunteer infrastructure is essential to COVID-19 recovery. New Brunswick’s non-profit sector contributes 10.8 per cent to the province’s GDP, constituting $3.7 billion in economic impact and New Brunswick volunteers contribute a total of 31 million volunteer hours annually. The development of a National Voluntary Action Strategy will strengthen and innovate volunteering infrastructure across Canada and will help to future-proof it in more inclusive and robust ways. This includes collaboration with all levels of governments.
We also need to make volunteering accessible to everyone and address barriers limiting justice, equity, and inclusion for volunteers from diverse backgrounds. Honest reflection on empathy means addressing the real and hidden barriers to volunteering that limit full participation and risks exclusion in our social institutions and communities. We are committed to working with all equity-seeking groups to broaden opportunities and perspectives on ways of engaging in volunteerism.
And to every volunteer, community organization, volunteer centre and workplace that engages and supports volunteers, we offer a heartfelt thank you this National Volunteer Week. As our social recovery takes shape, we encourage you to continue putting your empathy into action.
Dr. Megan Conway is President and CEO of Volunteer Canada – www.volunteer.ca
Annette Vautour is Executive Director of Volunteer Centre of Southeastern New Brunswick Inc.
www.volunteergreatermoncton.com / a.vautour@volunteergreatermoncton.com / 506-869-6825
Congratulations to
REESE MANN,
recipient of the YOUTH VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2022
Volunteers are Empathy in Action
Volunteer Recognition Event!
A special event was held to thank our tri-community heroes who stepped up to help others during the pandemic.
Date: Tuesday, June 7th, 2022
Time: 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Bringing Greetings:
Mayor Yvan Lapierre – Dieppe
Mayor Dawn Arnold – Moncton
Mayor Andrew LeBlanc – Riverview
Guest Speakers: Representatives from Community Food Bank, Public Health and Urban Rural Rides
Due to the Pandemic we are not having a Public Event [by invitation only]; however would invite you to join us
LIVE STREAM IN HONOURING COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS
Volunteer Centre Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Volunteer-Center-Moncton-Volunteer-Centre-of-Southeastern-New-Brunswick-180888638919688/
Event Sponsors : IRVING : Major Sponsor / RBC : Sponsor
2021
Congratulations to
HANNAH LEVYSSOHN,
recipient of the YOUTH VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021
National Volunteer Week 2021
April 18-24, 2021
The National Volunteer Week theme for 2021, The Value of One, The Power of Many, reflects on the awe-inspiring acts of kindness by millions of individuals AND the magic that happens when we work together towards a common purpose. This past year, we have seen people supporting family, friends, neighbours, and strangers, people standing up to systemic racism, and people sharing insights on how to create a more just and equitable society. We recognize the value of the caring and compassion that each one has shown another, and we recognize the power of people, organizations, and sectors working together.
The power of people working together can bring about monumental changes. We have seen people work together on legislative changes related to impaired driving, same sex marriage, and assisted dying.
The theme is a nod to our past, a reflection of our present, and a wink to our future. The Value of One, the Power of Many was the theme for National Volunteer Week in 2001, The International Year of Volunteers. It beautifully reflects the individual and collective efforts, we have seen during the pandemic, and it sets the tone for re-imagining the next 20 years as the value of one act and the power of many enables us to thrive together.
HONORABLE GINETTE PETITPAS TAYLOR
Geoffrey Reeser, RBC
Wayne McDonald – JDI
Aubray Kirkpatrick and Anette Vautour
Dawn Arnold
Yvon Lapierre
Ann Seamans
Recorded messages of the many ways Volunteers are Giving Back in our Community
Alain Levesque
Angela Rolfe
Victor Bastarache
Dale Hughes
Jim Merzetti
Derek Quann
Emma Etheridge
Garth Holder
Joanne Polley
Isabelle deschenes
Volunteer Week Draws – Winners!
Drawing held on 2021-04-19
Drawing held on 2021-04-20
Drawing held on 2021-04-21
Drawing held on 2021-04-22
Drawing held on 2021-04-23
2020
VOLUNTEER WEEK Greater Moncton Non-Profit Organizations
Nationally this is the week that we thank and pay tribute to all of Canada’s 12.7 million volunteers! Our local community non-profits will be looking at ways to honour those individuals that volunteer with so many of our programs and services. We may not be able to have face to to face ‘Recognition/Celebration’ events due to the Pandemic; however, still want to ‘pay tribute’ to our volunteers. Volunteer Canada has worked with several non-profit’s across the Country and has created a blog describing the many ways you can ‘virtually thank’ community volunteers. Volunteer Canada website – www.volunteer.ca
The COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan by the WHO identifies community volunteers as key stakeholders for risk communication and community engagement. This indicates the valuable and the great effort the WHO believes volunteers is doing during COVID-19. Yet, recognition is still not enough, especially when it comes to volunteers’ own well-being and access to health care.
This year’s IVD campaign, that starts today and culminates on IVD 2020, December 5th, will thank volunteers worldwide and also shed light on the difficulties and needs of volunteers during the pandemic. Showing the impact of volunteers in their communities during this crisis, we will reach to all corners of the globe with the message of Together We Can Through Volunteering.
As UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed reminded us in opening the GTM2020 in July, “the efforts of 1 billion volunteers is an important foundation at a pivotal moment for development to enable us to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic”.
In the coming weeks we will be developing a designated web page for the campaign. Please follow our social media channels @UNVolunteers and use the hashtags #TogetherWeCan and #IVD2020 to be part of the conversation. The blue heart emoji will be associated with the IVD2020 and contribute to building the campaign image that conveys a positive feeling, solidarity, and compassion toward volunteers.
Launch of International Volunteer Day theme 2020
15 October 2020
Together We Can Through Volunteering
International Volunteers Day (IVD), is an international observance that was mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1985.
The Day is an opportunity for us all to promote volunteerism, encourage governments to support volunteer efforts and recognize volunteer contributions to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at local, national and international levels.
UNV coordinates a campaign to promote IVD every year, building on the impact volunteers have in communities, nationally and globally, for peace and development.
Let’s make IVD this year a worldwide moment to thank volunteers and celebrate their efforts despite all the challenges at hand.
Over the last months, as the COVID 19 pandemic has ravaged across the world, volunteers have been at the forefront of medical, community and societal responses.