Help me find the perfect volunteer job.
December 30, 2010 3:58 PM   Subscribe

Help me find the perfect organization to volunteer for. I am in Toronto and have certain goals in mind but am not sure where to direct my efforts.

One of my new year's resolutions is to get out of the house more and meet people with whom I could become friends or with whom I could develop relationships, both social and professional. I am considering volunteer work as an avenue to both doing something meaningful for my community and meeting this social goal.

I have done straight-up volunteer work in the past and found it met the 'meaningful' goal but did not meet the social goal. I have a background in journalism, so there would often be newsletter or website tasks, which were fine, but solitary. I currently work in education, so I have similarly enjoyed working with kids but again, that did not further my goal of meeting people who share my interests, are at my "level" in age, career, interests etc. And with whom I could develop friendships or network or whatever.

I'm thinking I may need to find an organization where I could do more organizational stuff and not so much front-line. Perhaps there is a large committee where I could be one of many organizers working toward organizing some big event. Or perhaps I am looking for something like Habitat for Humanity, although I am not sure I have the technical skills and I don't drive so that could be an issue.

I don't know. I do know that I am happy to work with kids or use my techie skills, but don't want to do so all by myself on a solitary task, no matter how noble the cause. I want to meet other people like me and work on something together. Ideas?
posted by JoannaC to Grab Bag (6 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Call up the United Way of Toronto and tell them you're looking for this particular type of opportunity. They fund many organizations and can probably point you in the right direction. Also, call up Habitat and let *them* decide whether you have the skills they need.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:45 PM on December 30, 2010


Oh, wow. Try volunteertoronto.ca.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:52 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Depending on what part of Toronto...my neighbourhood has The 519, which always needs volunteers. Many of the positions are social ones, and there are organizing committees and such things like you say you're looking for.

Here are some example positions they're looking for volunteers for. They take all new volunteers and do a training session every three months, and then meet to match you up with roles you're interested in.

If that's not so much your cup of tea, or if you're in an entirely different part of Toronto and getting over to Church Street sounds too far, there are community centres and neighbourhood organizations all over the city. Also, check with your local residents' association.
posted by criacow at 7:31 PM on December 30, 2010


I volunteered for some time with the North York Women's Centre, which was great. (Nywc.org)

I think you should follow ThatCanadianGirl's suggestion and check out that link. The website sorts the positions by group served, type of activity, location and all sorts of other categories.

Some of your questions are quite specific. I think that's good, it shows that you have an idea of what you want to get out of the experience.

I think your best bet would be to narrow it down to a list of 3-5 possibilities and then set up some short phone conversations with the volunteer recruiters. They should not be offended if you ask them all sorts of questions about the org, the work atmosphere and the other volunteers.

If they're working for a non-profit they are used to:

-promoting their org's mission so they will probably have all the info you want ready

-valuing volunteer efforts enough to take a few minutes to talk with a keen potential recruit
posted by cranberrymonger at 9:41 PM on December 30, 2010


Also you may want to pop back to this thread to give your specific location in Toronto and your travel radius so people can maybe name specific places. My apologies if you did do this, but I didn't see it...
posted by cranberrymonger at 9:43 PM on December 30, 2010


I didn't join it for these reasons, but joining my community association (they are sometimes called residents associations) has led to all of the desired outcomes you mention. New friends, job opportunities, fascinating people and projects I can help them out with, and I finally know a bunch of my neighbours.

I'll also echo that I could answer this question much better if I knew which part of Toronto you live in. Your options downtown are quite different than in North York, for instance.
posted by heatherann at 7:09 AM on January 2, 2011


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