The Government of Canada Encourages New Canadians to Volunteer

As many of you probably know, the Government of Canada has brought out a new study guide for immigrants called Discover Canada. This initiative has been the subject of quite a bit of press coverage and commentary - mostly focused on the fact that Discover Canada is much more detailed than earlier documents of its sort.

Little noticed is the fact that, in the section on citizenship responsibilities, the document mentions volunteering very prominently.

The exact words are:

"Helping others in the community - Millions of volunteers freely donate their time to help others without pay - helping people in need, assisting at your child's school, volunteering at a food bank or other charity, or encouraging newcomers to integrate. Volunteering is an excellent way to gain useful skills and develop friends and contacts."

We hope this recognition of volunteering signals an interest on the part of the Canadian Government to take seriously the need to integrate New Canadians into Canada's volunteering community.

Volunteer Canada's Public Policy Manager attended the launch of Discover Canada. Immigration and Citizenship Canada officials in attendance told him that they consider volunteering an important indicator of newly arrived immigrants' degree of integration. Those officials are now interested in finding ways to work collaboratively with Volunteer Canada in the future.

Source: December 2009 Volunteer Canada newsletter.