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Unit 2: Volunteerism Findings based on 2004 Census

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Quiz 1.What % of Canadians do you think volunteer? 2.Where do you think people volunteer the most (type i.e. Schools)? 3.What do you think most people do as volunteers? 4.Stereotype your typical volunteer: age, sex, education level, employment status, income, religious status. 5.How do you think volunteers in Nova Scotia rank in comparison to the rest of the country? 6.A) What are the top 3 reasons people cited for why they volunteer? B) What are youths reasons? 7.How do you think most people start volunteering? 8.What % of the Canadian population do you think volunteers informally (not through an organization, i.e. helping others)?

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Canadian Volunteers 11.8 million Canadians (45% of the population aged 15 and older) volunteered their time to charities and other nonprofit organizations.

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How much?? Volunteers contributed almost 2 billion volunteer hours to organizations This is the equivalent of 1 million full time jobs!

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Only a few Although the total amount of volunteering by Canadians is impressive, the majority of volunteer hours are contributed by a small percentage of the Canadian population.

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Where? What? Canadians volunteered most often with: sports and recreation (18%), social services (17%), education and research (11%), religious organizations (16%). The most common activities volunteers performed in 2004 were organizing, supervising or coordinating activities or events and fundraising

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Who volunteers? Volunteer rates were highest among -youth, -females, -those with university degrees, -those who were employed, -those with household incomes over $100,000, -those who attended religious services weekly.

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Volunteer trends The percentage of Canadians who volunteer generally decreases with age. The average number of hours volunteered generally rises with age. While the likelihood of volunteering increases steadily as household income rises, the average number of hours volunteered tends to decline as household income rises. Volunteering also increases, for the most part, with level of education. Employed individuals were more likely to volunteer than those who were unemployed. The likelihood of volunteering increases with the presence of children, particularly school aged children in the household. Those who attended religious services weekly were far more likely to volunteer their time than those who did not.

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Nova Scotia vs. Canada We fell in about 6 th place (out of 13) as to how many of us volunteer. However, we placed 3 rd for contributing the most volunteer hours.

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Why volunteer? The top three reasons for volunteering were: -to make a contribution to the community, -to use ones skills and experiences, -and being affected by the cause supported by the organization.

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Where to start Over half (55%) of volunteers reported that they did not approach the organization on their own initiative. Most (89%) reported that they were asked by someone to volunteer.

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Why volunteer? Almost all volunteers (92%) agreed that making a contribution to their community was an important reason for their volunteering. The other most frequently reported important reasons for volunteering were the opportunity to use ones skills and experience (77%), being personally affected by the cause supported by the organization (60%), exploring ones strengths (49%), to network with or meet people (47%), and because friends volunteered at that organization (43%). The least frequently reported reasons were to fulfill religious obligations or other beliefs (22%), or to improve job opportunities (22%).

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Why volunteer? Cont. Just over 7% of volunteers said that they were required to volunteer for the organization to which they contributed the most hours. It is worth noting that there is some debate as to whether such activities should be included within the concept of volunteering.

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Why did youth volunteer? to improve their job opportunities to explore their own strengths because their friends volunteer

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Private/informal volunteering 83% of the population, aged 15 and older, helped others directly, without going through a charitable or other nonprofit organization.

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Informal volunteering Canadians provided assistance directly to others in a variety of ways: 60% provided help in the home, such as cooking, cleaning, gardening, maintenance, painting, shovelling snow or car repairs; 50% provided health-related or personal care, such as emotional support, counseling, providing advice, visiting the elderly or unpaid babysitting; 46% helped by shopping, driving someone to the store or to other appointments; 28% helped with paperwork tasks such as writing letters, doing taxes, filling out forms, banking, paying bills or finding information ; and 16% provided unpaid teaching, coaching, tutoring, or assisting with reading.

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Halifax Community Services In small groups, brainstorm a list of volunteers associated with Citadel High School.