Not in her five years of working for Volunteer Wellington has Katie Terris seen such a response
Not in her five years of working for Volunteer Wellington has Katie Terris seen such a response to requests for volunteers. In late 2009 Volunteer Wellington adapted their systems to cope with the influx of public interest. Their database used to hold a list of jobs people could apply for, now the database lists people looking for volunteering work. ?A lot of people were going stir crazy ? they don?t want to be at home, but out interacting with people. ?The social side of volunteering becomes important to people that have been made redundant,? says Volunteer Hutt manager Katie Terris. A noticeable change in 2009 was the high level of skilled people offering their services to Volunteer Wellington. ?We have had very good responses to adverts for specific things; we have had a lot more response than previous years,? she says. Volunteer Wellington suggests different types of roles for people, including helping refugees, English language tutoring, visiting elderly people, counselling/support, and environmental work. Mrs Terris even has eight volunteers interviewing people who are looking to volunteer, and with 360 registered charities in the region the options are ?just endless?. ?Although people rarely get jobs through the charities ? they make connections, and keeping active and meeting people is key to getting a job,? she says. Ollie Goulden is one volunteering success story. At 21, he finds volunteering an interesting and ?formative? activity during his post-adolescent years. A former student of Tawa College, where he shone at science, biology and physics, he decided to study IT at Whitireia Polytechnic. ?I didn?t see myself doing that as a career,? he says. The next year was spent ?floating ? hanging out with friends, that sort of thing?. And then, looking for more community life involvement, he decided to volunteer. A position as an interviewer at Volunteer Porirua suited his desire to interact and build people skills. ?I?ve learnt how to go beyond any assumptions I may have. And I realize how different people are from diverse cultures ? this has been a great eye-opener,? says Mr Goulden. With this new-found confidence and motivation, and to further test himself, Ollie took on a second volunteering role last year at a local kindergarten in Tawa. Now he is taking up Early Childhood studies back at Whitireia. ?I?ve come full circle and I?m happy with my direction now,? he says. For more information visit www.volunteerwellington.org.nz
