Will volunteering in Canada disappear?

 

From across Canada we are hearing from many volunteer agencies that they must cut back on their services to the larger community because there are insufficient volunteers. We hear from many  “ Meals on Wheels” that they cannot respond to the requests for meal delivery because there are no volunteers. 

 

The life and strength of any society or community is supported by the volunteers. For example, if you live in a neighborhood where people look out for each other (that is pure volunteering) you are so glad when a neighbor observes that there are strange people at your house and you are on winter holidays in Arizona. 

 

You call your aged (and independent) elderly mother. She does not answer the phone. You have no hesitation to call her neighbor ana ask to check up on her. Even if we take such goodness for granted, this is volunteering.

 

Now try to imagine if you lived in a society where no one would help or volunteer for anything. What would it be like if everyone walked by the elderly grandmother who dropped her bag of groceries and was unable to pick them up? Would you ever want to live in a community where everyone charged a fee for every service?

 

We must imagine a society where there is no volunteering. When you imagine ourselves, eighty-six years old with serious mobility issues, and there would be no one who would check to make sure we were okay or no one to deliver Meals on Wheels because we could no longer cook and manage for ourselves. What a horror to imagine such a situation?

 

Now, we can see how important all forms of volunteering is. Up to now we have taken it for granted that many of our fellow citizens would help others; people they know and people they do not know. Now our volunteering agencies are experiencing a scarcity of willing hands.

 

One of the strong sources of volunteers has been church communities. A great number of the volunteers in our Canadian society are also active members of their Church community. As Canadians are less and less an active part of a church community, there is a decrease in the number of volunteers in the society.

 

Also, the strength and power of a society is located in the ‘social capital’ (what people will do for the well-being of the society). This is where people will care about their fellow citizens, help the newcomers and share their musical talent with the residents of nursing homes. The true wealth of any country is located in care and commitment that citizens bring to one another. 

 

It is time that all Canadians need to reflect on what is happening in our society. There is a crisis in volunteering and helping others.  Why would any Canadian not share their time and talent with others? Even if they are involved in an active working life, could they not share some of their energy with the fellow citizen in need?

 

Take a good look where the society is going. Will we all end up lonely and ignored in a nursing home for the last five years of our lives?