National Volunteer Week 2023
It’s National Volunteer Week, and we’re celebrating with Volunteer Canada.
The National Volunteer Week theme for 2023 is “Volunteering Weaves Us Together”. It demonstrates the important role volunteers play in our communities, and the interconnectedness of our actions, as we work together to strengthen Waterloo Region.
We could not do what we do across our community without our volunteers who support Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF).
At WRCF, our dedicated volunteers bring skills, expertise and insights to help us support people and organizations across Waterloo Region on a daily basis. Together, we are truly building sustainable, equitable and thriving communities.
Charlie Davis, a member of WRCF’s Children and Youth Committee, was kind enough to share their thoughts on volunteering with WRCF.
Why do you volunteer with WRCF?
“I think it’s incredibly important for people to contribute to their communities, either by sharing their skills or through connecting with other people. As an academic and scholar, I have been trained in understanding the theoretical orientations underlying community programs and interventions, as well as training in evaluating the effectiveness of them. However, understanding programs from a theoretical level and a community level are vastly different, and living/real-world experiences (mine or my community members) are what ground academic knowledge.”
How do you benefit from your volunteer participation?
“I benefit in two primary ways: 1) I gain an avenue to contribute to my communities in a way that highlights my skill sets, allowing me to feel more connected and like I contribute to my local community. 2) I have an opportunity to be reminded of the importance of ensuring that all academic pursuits should have real-world applications. Often times scholars are stuck in their ivory towers and their research becomes more disconnected with their communities and I make great efforts to resist that trend.”
Click here to view our current list of volunteers.