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Community Connections: Promoting volunteerism

The Sooke Region Volunteer Centre celebrates and seeks new volunteers
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The Sooke Region Volunteer Centre is located at the Sooke Child

Community Connections is a new venue for sharing information about all things ‘volunteer’.  The Sooke Region Volunteer Centre’s (SRVC) mission is to promote and support volunteerism in the Sooke region (Beecher Bay to Port Renfrew).  Through this monthly article we will explain what we mean when we say ‘volunteer’, what volunteers are doing, who’s doing what with volunteers, who needs volunteers and more.

The Sooke Region Volunteer Centre’s “Recruit, Retain and Retrain” project is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program. We are aware that many not-for-profit organizations in our region are run by seniors.  We are firm believers that seniors make a huge difference in the region and we want to do everything in the centre’s power to support them! Our projects under this grant will be inspired by seniors in our community and will meet several objectives such as promoting volunteerism among seniors and other generations; engaging seniors in the community through the mentoring of others; and supporting the social participation and inclusion of seniors.

The successful Grantsmithing and Marketing workshops kicked off our programming schedule.  We are looking for additional feedback on what training would help non-profit organizations and volunteers be more successful in their works. Perhaps there is training we could facilitate to support new people to become confident volunteers? Please complete our short survey at http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/valeriya-edemskaya/srvc-planning-for-2015/ or contact us with your ideas.

SRVC wishes to celebrate and acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our senior volunteers.  In this case ‘senior’ refers to active volunteers 65+ years and older, as well as volunteers with 20 years or more of active community engagement.

We are hosting a Senior Volunteer Appreciation Mock-tail Party on Saturday, June 13, 2015 from 1 – 3 p.m. in the Sooke Community Hall.

“When we first started calling key senior volunteers we received feedback that we were stereo typing seniors by having a ‘tea’.  They felt that something more fun and upbeat would show better appreciation. Suggestions of scotch and martinis were made,” said Marlene Barry, SRVC Coordinator.

“While we weren’t likely to be able to get a liquor license under our grant, we took the jesting feedback into consideration and came up with the Mock-tail Party.”

There will be food, entertainment and short presentations, as well as networking opportunities.

Registration is required by June 5 so that we have enough food and drinks! We want to celebrate and appreciate everything seniors do for the Sooke region and this is our small way of saying thank you!

As part of the grant, we will be making a community investment into Wii Fit stations which will also be incorporated into some of our events. If you have an idea about how we can maximize the use of the Wii Fit machines or if you want to use them for your community event, please contact us.

To register and for more information on our programming, please contact us at sookeregionvolunteers@gmail.com or call 250-642-6364 Ext. 235

We meet monthly and have office hours Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Sooke Child, Youth and Family centre, 6672 Wadams Way.

Submitted by

Marlene Barry