NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, volunteerism

Objective(s): To better understand the volunteering experience and the needs and wishes of Canadian volunteers and potential volunteers.

Project Description: The primary focus of the research is to better understand the volunteering experience and the needs and wishes of Canadian volunteers and potential volunteers. The researchers will begin by exploring what volunteers and potential volunteer are looking for; what their experiences have been; and what they believe they can offer. Hearing directly from volunteers themselves, the researchers will gain a sense of their level of satisfaction, their observations about current opportunities, and their insights about the wants, needs and wishes of the four pre-identified demographic cohorts (youth, families, boomers, and corporate volunteers). The secondary focus will be to assess the readiness of organizations to meaningfully involve today’s volunteers and to gain a better understanding of the following dimensions that influence the environment in which they are operating. For example, how is the world of volunteering affected by the economy, the transient nature of workers, the changing demographics, and by mandatory community service programs in high schools? How does the emphasis on risk, liability, and accountability change the way organizations deal with volunteers? How has the evolution of the corporate citizenship movement changed the relationships between business and voluntary programs? The Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development (CVSRD) research methodology involves a telephone survey to gain insight and access to non-volunteers’ perspectives, this random sample survey will reach approximately 1000 households and will be representative based on standard population and geographical distribution across the country including Québec. As this will be a random sample, the researcher anticipates a similar breakdown of volunteers to non-volunteers as was represented in the most recent Canadian Survey of Giving Volunteering and Participating (55% non-volunteers / 45% current volunteers). The survey will capture character data (name, age, region) as well as current activity (volunteer / non-volunteer), levels of satisfaction with opportunities and engagement, and interests and aspirations for volunteer involvement. The methodology also involves focus group discussions. These focus group discussions will take the form of round table discussions which will take place in 5 communities’ with particular care to ensure a cross section of rural and metropolitan populations. In the NWT, Yellowknife will be the location of these discussions. Participants will be current volunteers who fall into one of the pre-determined demographic cohorts. A final report will be posted on the researcher’s website at the end of October. www.cvsrd.org The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from 8-Jul-2010 to 11-Jul-2010.