Hello Volunteers,

Sharing this post from my colleague through Volunteer Toronto and the Toronto Association of Volunteer Administrators, Ambrose Fan. – Holly

I’m currently looking for participants for my new research study at U of T. We’d like to speak with people who volunteer to meet strong needs. For example, people who:

– Volunteer as an employment-related activity for Ontario Works.
– Volunteer to gain ‘Canadian experience’ because they are refugees or newcomers to Canada.
– Volunteer to support recovery from an illness (including mental illness.)
– Volunteer because they have low or no income, and the experience could help them find a paid job.
– Volunteer because they have a disability that makes participating in the community a challenge.
– Volunteer as a way to access services at an organization (For example, the organization gives you a transit subsidy to volunteer, and that helps you get there to access services.)

Participants will be asked to take part in a 1 hour phone interview, and will receive a $30 honorarium for their time.

Full details are available at this link

A little background about me and this project: I am a volunteer management professional, my most recent position was Manager of Volunteer Services at Shelter Movers (please see page 5)<https://issuu.com/volunteerto/docs/vt_annualreport2019-issuu_pages>. I began my career in the non-profit sector as a volunteer, doing front line work at a food bank. Over time, I became very interested in volunteerism, particularly the experience of volunteers with strong needs, versus/in addition to generally understood “altruistic” motivations for volunteering.

This study is funded by a grant for community-led research projects from the University of Toronto, Scarborough. My advisor is Dr. Bettina von Lieres<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/ccds/person/bettina-von-lieres>, Assistant Professor at The Centre for Critical Development Studies. I met Bettina when I was a panel discussion guest speaker in one of her classes. The purpose of this study is to develop scoping questions for a larger, future research study.

Thank you! – Ambrose