Local community groups learn about sustainable volunteerism

Toni Lucas, Pincher Creek Voice

Chris Jarvis and Angela Parker
of Realized Worth
C.Davis photo

The Southwest Alberta Sustainable Community Initiative (SASCI) in Pincher Creek brought together interested community groups for a conference on volunteerism recently, called Employee Engagement in Social Sustainability Projects:  Building Engagement from Within.  Waterton Parks, Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village, SASCI members, Parent Link, and Group Group Youth, were a few of the organizations represented around the table.  Many of those gathered are involved with a variety of organizations.


They came to be involved with this workshop designed by Chris Jarvis and Angela Parker of Realized Worth, a company that helps corporations tap into their resources and encourages partnerships with not-for-profits.  The flip side of that coin are those not-for-profits create opportunity for volunteers to become involved, both on an individual and a corporate level.

This energetic duo helped those gathered to identify some of the challenges facing our area, both as organizations looking for volunteers, and as individuals that may want to volunteer and contribute to the community.  They showed they pathway that the average volunteer takes when participating in any volunteer position in any community.  Jarvis and Parker likened it to traveling.  The three stages that the volunteer goes through were identified as the tourist, the traveler, and the guide. A volunteer will start off knowing that they have some interest, skill or ability, and that they want to give back.  This is the "tourist" stage.  They may not know much about how they can help, or even about the organization that they would like to work with.  Some may not even be interested in volunteering, but will have come along to support for someone else.

The next stage, the "traveler", tends to have more knowledge about where they are volunteering, and why.  They know their own personal interests, and can see how those interests can be used or showcased where they are involved.  They see how it serves the community that they live in, and want to engage in an area that they see themselves fitting in with.

The final stage is that of the "guide".  A guide is a person that has become passionate and educated about where they volunteer and want to help those around them become more educated and involved.

The challenge is to take an individual, identify where they are in that journey, and help them move through to being a valued, and valuable contributor to the organizations that they are involved with. This is true for volunteers and employees within corporations.

Jarvis and Parker helped those gathered understand that by engaging the people that are involved in a well rounded, volunteer focused model some of the long term benefits would be improved community perception, better communication and morale, and higher overall productivity.