Students get excited about volunteering! Photo by Ainsley Kendrick.
This week Volunteer Toronto helped kick off Change the World, an Ontario-wide campaign to get young people volunteering with an event called VolunTeen. Did you know that every high school student in Ontario is required to complete at least 40 hours of community service in order to graduate? Unfortunately, many students wait until the last minute and are stuck with completing tasks they might have no interest in. Change the World aims to jump start the process by encouraging young people to volunteer for at least 3 hours between April 6th and May 19th. Several events happening during Change the World, such as the Spring into Parkdale Sidewalk Sale and the Toronto Yonge Street 10K, will provide a great welcome for young people volunteering for the first time. To promote Change the World, Volunteer Toronto organized VolunTeen, a special event held at Monsignor Percy Johnson High School on Wednesday April 9. VolunTeen was created to help grade 9 students make the connection between their own personalities and skills and existing volunteer opportunities. The day started with a lively presentation hosted by two Percy Johnson students and featured speeches by Minister Michael Coteau, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and Minister Michael Chan, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Other speakers included Change the World Youth Ambassador Shloka Saini and Pan-ParaPan Am Games volunteer Andreas Campos. The energetic crowd enjoyed a mascot dance battle and a friendly soccer game between the Ministers and Percy Johnson teachers and students.
Students match personality types with volunteer activities. Photo by Ainsley Kendrick.
The next part of the day is where I come in. After the presentation, students took part in a special workshop. As one of the workshop facilitators, it was my job to teach the grade 9 students a little bit about their own personalities. We learned about four different personality types: Direct and Active, Interested and Lively, Steady and Cooperative, and Concerned and Correct and matched them to real life volunteer opportunities. For example, a people-oriented extrovert might choose to participate on a youth council while a task-oriented introvert may prefer tutoring a younger student. Armed with a better idea of their own personalities and skills, as well as the variety of opportunities available, the students each took a few minutes to create their own plan to complete their 40 hours.
Photo of me facilitating the workshop. Photo by Ainsley Kendrick.
VolunTeen ended with a volunteer fair populated by local organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the Pan-ParaPan Am games. Students had the opportunity to speak with representatives from the groups and learn more about how to get involved. Last year, Change the World inspired 38,000 high school youth to volunteer over 170,000 hours during the four week long campaign. We are all hopeful that this year’s campaign—now six weeks long—will get even more young people involved! Don’t forget to check out Change the World’s brand new video! If you are an Ontario high school student, check out the Change the World website and TorontoYouthVolunteer.org to find some great ways to earn your hours. Or, if you are out of high school and just looking for an opportunity to donate your time, go to www.volunteertoronto.ca.
