October 16, 2011: International News From the Field

Get Volunteering, www.getvolunteering.ca, is the national registry of volunteer opportunities for Canada.  It is run by Volunteer Canada with support by Manulife Financial.  They also have a presence on Facebook, where they are currently offering a 12-part "Get Volunteering Conversation Series" with the intention of "providing a place for users to discuss, promote and participate in volunteerism."

A cluster of people of various backgrounds are invited to open the Conversation with early postings (Susan Ellis was invited this week) and then anyone may add their comments.  The current topic, "Benefits of Volunteering," is the fourth in the series; it launched on October 12th and will run through the 17th, when a new topic will be posted.

All the previous Conversations are archived and can still be viewed.  Previous topics have been

• "Volunteers in Politics"
• "Can Canada Become a Destination for Voluntourism?"
• "Is Volunteering in Our DNA?"

4317 people already "like" this feature (and the number went up by 5 more while this news item was being written!). 

One idea is to let volunteers themselves know about this Facebook forum and encourage them to post about themselves.  This resonates with the site’s stated goal:  Get Volunteering is a site where you can learn about many exciting ways to give back, get inspired, and get in touch with the volunteer in you.