By Josh Hall

new logo, website

Fresh look, high hopes for Volunteer Central

Dec 22, 2020 | 9:30 AM

A fresh brand and website are hoped to help spur on a successful 2021 for Red Deer-based Volunteer Central.

The non-profit organization has roughly 4,000 volunteers in its database and helps advertise events and opportunities for about 70 local agencies.

Executive Director Pam Snowdon acknowledges that the organization is still looking for more financial sustainability heading into next year. In 2020, they received funding from The City of Red Deer and the provincial Ministry of Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women, but in recent years has relied on municipal taxpayer dollars to stay afloat.

“We really wish and hope that the citizens will support us. A lot of people are writing cheques for causes, but when you support us, you’re supporting 70 others as well,” Snowdon says.

“Our issue as a volunteer centre is that we’re not really pulling at the heartstrings, we aren’t a sexy cause and we’re in the background while our agencies get centre stage, but we need that support too.”

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Working with The City of Red Deer for future funding is on the agenda for 2021, meantime FCSS funding it’s been denied for several years due to high demand won’t be available again until about 2023.

Their redesigned website at www.volunteercentral.ca now offers new features for prospective volunteers to see specifically how much time and when they’ll have to commit to a particular posting. Volunteers can also create profiles so that they can be matched to future opportunities by agencies seeking a helping hand.

“Many people, for example, know they have a few weeks during summer and they’d like to be of service,” she explains. “That is reflective of our society, especially with millennials; they want to use their skills in meaningful ways, but can’t make the traditional time commitment.”

Snowdon says though 2020 has been hard on everyone, the volunteer sector included, it will rebound in 2021.

Plans were in place to mark National Volunteer Week in April, but had to be replaced with online offerings.

“This sector, which employs 100,000 Albertans, went through a shock this year, but so many organizations showed their resilience by creating new opportunities and using technology to connect volunteers to their clients and programs,” she says.

“It’s been different, but some organizations have been super busy, including thrift stores, the food bank, the Christmas Bureau and Canadian Blood Services. All through the pandemic we’ve had calls, especially at the beginning when people were creating Facebook pages to organize food delivery for seniors.”

She believes the evident desire to volunteer, even during the pandemic, represents Red Deer’s, “really big community spirit.”

Volunteer Central’s new logo shows two “helping” hands holding one another in the shape of a heart, a more contemporary depiction of what it means to be a volunteer.