Volunteer Lethbridge is trying to put helping hands to work at a faster pace. The group serves roughly 100 non-profits, vetting potential volunteers for those organizations.
According to executive director Amanda Jensen, it’s a process that can take three to four hours per person.
“If one is interested in volunteering at a couple of places, instead of filling out application forms at each location and going through the process at each, it’s done here at Volunteer Lethbridge and they’re free to serve in far more capacities in the community,” Jensen said.
One of those non-profits is the Interfaith Food Bank.
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Volunteer coordinator Bill Selles says Volunteer Lethbridge has vetted roughly half of the food bank’s new volunteers in the past six weeks, helping to fill an important role.
“Any organization that’s non-profit has to rely on volunteer service and our place is run by our volunteers,” Selles said. “If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”
“It really is working,” Jensen said.
“The idea of simplifying the volunteering process, civic engagement, we’re achieving what we want.”
The program has been in place for more than a year and is now getting attention from higher levels.
Volunteer Alberta officials are interested in the idea of a centralized screening model and have been checking in on the Lethbridge program’s progress.
“Volunteer Lethbridge kind of out of the blue came up with a model that works really well on a municipal level to do some of that centralized work and to also create a platform where organizers can learn a little bit more about the volunteers,” said Graeme Dearden, manager of learning resources at Volunteer Alberta.
“This could be a way of spreading this method outside of Lethbridge,” said Jensen.
And by doing so, helping more people serve their communities sooner.
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