Volunteers Reap Many Benefits
From networking to upgrading job skills, today’s volunteers are also helping themselves.
By: Jessica Hume Special to the Star, Published on Tue Jan 11 2011
Every year, Rani Manogaran is surprised by the number of gifts she receives at Christmas. The same goes for her birthday.
These presents are often delivered in person, brought to her at work by women who feel a deep sense of gratitude for whatever it is Manogaran has done that has invariably made their lives a little easier.
It could be helping them learn to cook, helping them learn English, taking care of their children while they take a class, or giving them tips on how to dress warmly for the cold Canadian winter.
She provides all of these services and more through her job with Growing Together, a city program that offers many forms of assistance to people who have recently immigrated to Toronto.
The difficulty of adjusting to life here is something Manogaran, 53, knows well.
She left Sri Lanka in 1986 and arrived in Toronto with her husband, a small baby and much uncertainty about what their new life would be like.
Her English wasn’t great — still isn’t — and the challenges of finding employment, connecting with the community and making Toronto home were severe. At the time, she wished she had more help.
“When my mother came to Canada, she had me — I was a baby — then she had three more children,” says Manogaran’s daughter, Myuri, who speaks perfect English and is translating for her mother.
“In 1993, my brother died suddenly. It was very difficult for her to cope with that and there weren’t many people around to offer any assistance.
“When she first started going to Growing Together, she went for the help. My dad had to get two jobs and we didn’t have a lot of money, so they gave us food vouchers.
“But she also starting volunteering there, helping other women who were new immigrants, and it was really important for her,” Myuri says. “It helped take her mind off the grieving stage and the loss of her son.”
Her years of volunteering at Growing Together evolved into a job with the program and, in 2006, Manogaran was awarded the Toronto Community Service Volunteer Award.
“My mother’s wanting to help people is based on her past experiences, the suffering she had to go through,” Myuri explains. “She says when she helps other women, mothers like her, it is like she relives her experience, but in a positive way.”
Manogaran’s touching story is the kind you might expect Deborah Gardner to hear often in her role as executive director of Volunteer Toronto, an organization that connects volunteers with volunteer opportunities. But she says it’s rare.
“This altruistic idea of volunteering for the sake of volunteering, that’s just not the case anymore,” she says. “I mean, sure, that still happens. But gone are the days of the ladies who lunch. What we’re seeing is a trend of people using volunteering as a way to expand their skill base, to ensure their professional development continues, to network.”
People considering a career change can also use volunteering as a way of gauging how well-suited they are to the work. Students use volunteering to build their resumés and gain the experience required to get jobs. People new to the workforce use volunteering to develop skills relevant to the work they hope to do in the future. New Canadians take advantage of volunteering to help transition to life here and to meet people.
“People are very busy and most of us don’t have a lot of discretionary time, so more and more, people are seeing volunteering for how they can benefit from it,” Gardner says, adding that, often, it’s the people with the most time — those between jobs — who stand to benefit the most from volunteering.
“We know that people need structure, and we also know we often identify ourselves by the work that we do, so in that sense, volunteering can be the antidote to diminished self-esteem,” she says. “But it also gets you connected. You develop a network with other volunteers so there are shared core values.”
Manogaran encourages the immigrants she meets to upgrade their skills to maximize their job potential in Canada.
“My mother was a midwife back home,” Myuri explains. “But when she first came, she had a four-month-old and she was never able to upgrade her skills, and she says she regrets that.
“So, now, whenever she comes across a new immigrant who had a good job back home, she always encourages them to upgrade their skills. The goal is that it helps them live a happy life in Canada.”
From networking to upgrading job skills, today’s volunteers are also helping themselves.
By: Jessica Hume Special to the Star, Published on Tue Jan 11 2011
Every year, Rani Manogaran is surprised by the number of gifts she receives at Christmas. The same goes for her birthday.
These presents are often delivered in person, brought to her at work by women who feel a deep sense of gratitude for whatever it is Manogaran has done that has invariably made their lives a little easier.
It could be helping them learn to cook, helping them learn English, taking care of their children while they take a class, or giving them tips on how to dress warmly for the cold Canadian winter.
She provides all of these services and more through her job with Growing Together, a city program that offers many forms of assistance to people who have recently immigrated to Toronto.
The difficulty of adjusting to life here is something Manogaran, 53, knows well.
She left Sri Lanka in 1986 and arrived in Toronto with her husband, a small baby and much uncertainty about what their new life would be like.
Her English wasn’t great — still isn’t — and the challenges of finding employment, connecting with the community and making Toronto home were severe. At the time, she wished she had more help.
“When my mother came to Canada, she had me — I was a baby — then she had three more children,” says Manogaran’s daughter, Myuri, who speaks perfect English and is translating for her mother.
“In 1993, my brother died suddenly. It was very difficult for her to cope with that and there weren’t many people around to offer any assistance.
“When she first started going to Growing Together, she went for the help. My dad had to get two jobs and we didn’t have a lot of money, so they gave us food vouchers.
“But she also starting volunteering there, helping other women who were new immigrants, and it was really important for her,” Myuri says. “It helped take her mind off the grieving stage and the loss of her son.”
Her years of volunteering at Growing Together evolved into a job with the program and, in 2006, Manogaran was awarded the Toronto Community Service Volunteer Award.
“My mother’s wanting to help people is based on her past experiences, the suffering she had to go through,” Myuri explains. “She says when she helps other women, mothers like her, it is like she relives her experience, but in a positive way.”
Manogaran’s touching story is the kind you might expect Deborah Gardner to hear often in her role as executive director of Volunteer Toronto, an organization that connects volunteers with volunteer opportunities. But she says it’s rare.
“This altruistic idea of volunteering for the sake of volunteering, that’s just not the case anymore,” she says. “I mean, sure, that still happens. But gone are the days of the ladies who lunch. What we’re seeing is a trend of people using volunteering as a way to expand their skill base, to ensure their professional development continues, to network.”
People considering a career change can also use volunteering as a way of gauging how well-suited they are to the work. Students use volunteering to build their resumés and gain the experience required to get jobs. People new to the workforce use volunteering to develop skills relevant to the work they hope to do in the future. New Canadians take advantage of volunteering to help transition to life here and to meet people.
“People are very busy and most of us don’t have a lot of discretionary time, so more and more, people are seeing volunteering for how they can benefit from it,” Gardner says, adding that, often, it’s the people with the most time — those between jobs — who stand to benefit the most from volunteering.
“We know that people need structure, and we also know we often identify ourselves by the work that we do, so in that sense, volunteering can be the antidote to diminished self-esteem,” she says. “But it also gets you connected. You develop a network with other volunteers so there are shared core values.”
Manogaran encourages the immigrants she meets to upgrade their skills to maximize their job potential in Canada.
“My mother was a midwife back home,” Myuri explains. “But when she first came, she had a four-month-old and she was never able to upgrade her skills, and she says she regrets that.
“So, now, whenever she comes across a new immigrant who had a good job back home, she always encourages them to upgrade their skills. The goal is that it helps them live a happy life in Canada.”