B.C. non-profits struggle to find volunteers as demand increases

As I do, there’s some blankets there. Volunteering your time, skills and kindness is becoming increasingly difficult in our fast-paced world. We came up with Blanket BC as a as a passion project as a father son team. But whenever there’s an opportunity to collect or distribute, I do so. It’s all volunteer based and time is of the essence. Blanket BC Society is a small grassroots non-profit. Handing out blankets to shelters and people who are unhoused volunteers can be hard to come by, and they aren’t alone. We’re facing this kind of double edged crisis where more people are reliant on those services and yet fewer people are volunteering their time to support the delivery of those services and community. According to a recent Canada Helps Giving report, a significant amount of Canadians rely on charities for basic needs. Almost half of charities report an increase in demand and most rely on volunteers to operate. Those kinds of tensions really need to be elevated and we need to think about what’s the kind of country we actually want to be building and contributing to. The tensions have inspired some organizations to get creative. Modernizing our approach to volunteer recruitment is getting out in the communities and making sure that we’re present for everybody and making sure the volunteer has incentives. They also want to get something more out of the programs, such as using a skill that they want to practice. We have mentoring with math, for example, where. A lot of people who a lot of students, for example from the SFU, will go just to practice. Teaching math. And for this volunteer, it all adds up to happy moments. It’s one of the most rewarding things that you can do, just giving without sort of like expecting anything in return. But I think the world could always do a little more kindness. Edzy U Laverne, CBC News, Vancouver.