Volunteering Canterbury: Time to shine
Celebrating highlights
The theme for National Volunteer 2022 is ‘Time to Shine – He wa¯ whakawhiti.’ It’s a time to recognise and celebrate volunteers, a time to shine – whakawhiti. It’s also Matariki, a new year and fresh start; a time to dream – moemoea¯ and make plans for the future. And a time to reflect/whaiwhakaaro on all those who give mahi aroha/volunteer for their communities. For Volunteering Canterbury, as we celebrate some of our community’s volunteer stars, we also reflect on the year that’s been, and there are definitely highlights to celebrate there.
The pandemic meant some volunteers had to sit tight for several weeks as we all worked our way through the ‘traffic light’ system. However, other opportunities arose as a result. Volunteering Canterbury met weekly with teams from CDHB, MSD, EMS and organisations with large volunteer teams who were now unable to fulfil their usual roles due to restrictions. Working together in this way, 500 volunteers were deployed to Covid-specific roles, at RAT distribution sites, Covid community hubs where home care packs were put together for distribution, and what CDHB described as ‘superstar’ drivers assisting with delivery of stock such as RATs around Canterbury.
The Keeping Whanau Connected programme – where volunteers printed out messages and photos from family and delivered to patients in hospital –was appreciated by patients when visiting was restricted.
Our team is growing
With a steadily growing population in and around Rolleston in particular, we were delighted to receive support from Selwyn District Council enabling us to have someone on the ground in that region.
Lizzie Daly joined us with a desire to ‘work in her own backyard’ to support volunteering, with a wealth of personal experience in that area and as a volunteer herself. Starting with Volunteering Canterbury as we prepared for Student Volunteer Week in April, Lizzie immediately had a focus – and one of the great results from that is regular ‘Cuddle Hearts’ sessions at Rolleston College, where the group which initially got together during SVW continues to lend a hand to the NICU Cuddle Hearts project.
We are looking forward to watching the work in this region grow!
Breaking barriers & overcoming challenges
Providing training and support for organisations which rely on volunteer engagement to produce mighty results in their communities is a key task for Volunteering Canterbury. Leadership from governance teams, usually volunteers, is imperative for the mission and vision of community groups to come to fruition in their day-today work, and an emphasis on the provision of governance training has been well received. This day-to-day work of a Volunteer Centre sits alongside the support for volunteer recruitment, and an upgrade of Volunteering Canterbury’s online services has proved that even when things appear to be working well, there is always room for improvement! More than 230 active volunteer roles are listed on any one day – opportunities for you to make a difference!
Check them out here, at www.volcan.org.nz
Access to a computer challenging? No worries, we love visitors! So call us on 03 366-2442, and make a time to come and see one of the team in our central city office, or to find out Lizzie’s schedule in Selwyn.