National shortage of volunteers is hitting non-profits in Waterloo region

A national shortage of volunteers is affecting how and what programs and services organizations, charities and not-for-profits deliver and those impacts are being felt in Waterloo region.

According to numbers recently shared by Volunteer Canada, as of November 2022 up to 65 per cent of organizations in the country are struggling due to a volunteer shortage, with up to 35 per cent of them having to reduce or cancel services as a result.  

The executive director of Volunteer Waterloo Region, worries the region will soon feel the impact of those service cancellations, something already happening in larger centres like Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa.

"We're not that behind from being a big centre in Waterloo region, so I think we're going to feel it in the next little while," Jane Henning said.

Volunteer Waterloo Region is a hub that helps connect people with volunteer opportunities, serving over 160 organizations, charities and not-for-profits in the region.  

"It's harder to recruit volunteers," she said, noting that she's also noticed a 20 per cent decrease in website traffic.

Hennig said retaining volunteers is also a challenge. Some organizations have not reinstated programs, in anticipation they won't have the volunteers to run them, she said.

The pandemic has changed how people volunteer, said Hennig, and many people don't want to commit long term or don't feel safe to return full-time because of COVID-19.

She adds burnout in the not-for-profit industry is also playing a role in the shortage.

"There is a lot of burnout and fatigue from volunteers, but also with staff staff in the sector because they are having to pick up on the work that volunteers would have done in the past," Hennig said.

"I think this is going to affect so many of the services in the community."

Local not-for-profits try to adapt

Hennig said staff at Volunteer Waterloo Region are working with the organizations they serve to come up with ways to adapt to the volunteer shortage.

Over at Carizon Family and Community Services, volunteer coordinator Katie McArthur said their volunteer roster has dwindled from 173 people pre-COVID, to just 85 as of November 2022.

A big chunk of those volunteers help run Carizon's tutoring and homework support programs. Staff are now brainstorming ideas to recruit and retain volunteers, but also to get more students to join.

"It makes it difficult because if we don't have the students coming in, the volunteers aren't going to stay and vice versa," McArthur said.

She said they are looking at introducing smaller work groups, where a couple of volunteers would not only focus on supporting five students at a time, but also facilitate it.

"It might help generate a little more interest too and keeping the volunteers in charge," she said. "It gives them more of a leadership role."

Julie Phillips, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Waterloo Region said her organization is in a very similar situation to its B.C. branch in Surrey, where they've had to pause youth intake due to a lack of volunteers.

Pre-COVID, the Waterloo region group served over 1,300 children and youth with more than 550 volunteers on hand. Now, they have 375 volunteers serving 600 children and youth, with another 200 on a wait list.

"There's a gap. We have far too many children on a wait list than we do mentors," she said.

"Right now the child enrolment is closed so we can catch up with someone that backlog and get get some of these kids off the wait list."

She said they are expanding programs like Big Bunch, which provides children and youth with mentoring supports in a  group-based setting, to hopefully get more children off the wait list.

Both Phillips and McArthur said they are "incredibly grateful" for the volunteers they currently have, but acknowledge the way and time people want to volunteer has changed.

Some have moved outside the region and would like to continue virtually, others said the pandemic drained how much they could volunteer and for others, it gave them an opportunity to donate more time.

Hennig said she's hopeful things will improve because there will always be people who want to give back to the community.

"We're always going to have volunteers. People want to give back to the community and be engaged," she said.