Category: Other/Special Feature

Volunteers are essential to shaping communities

Posted On By Raine Liliefeldt, YWCA Canada

I have been a proud volunteer since my teenage years as a high school student at St. Joseph’s Morrow Park in Toronto. Our teachers instilled in us the need to give back and the value of love and service. Ever since, that is how I have looked at volunteerism. Outside of work, I have taken on a range of volunteer roles from food preparation, distribution and serving on committees and the board of my church to marshalling at BLM marches to coordinating volunteers for the Kensington Market Jazz Festival. But it is in my work life at the YWCA that […]

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Category: Special Feature

Volunteering is empathy in action… What’s next?

Posted On By Megan Conway

As I reflect on National Volunteer Week, I am mindful of the tremendous work that volunteers and those that engage and support them are leading across the country.  This year’s theme, Volunteering is Empathy in Action, has been a wonderful opportunity to hear how Canadians are moving their empathy to action in connected, heart-centred and engaging ways. As the CEO of Volunteer Canada, I want to say how proud I am to see how volunteering has been championed and celebrated this past week. As we continue to move forward there are two important messages I want to share: I’m so […]

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Category: Special Feature

Putting empathy into action – 5 ways to begin your journey

Posted On By Megan Conway

“In order to empathize with someone’s experience you must be willing to believe them as they see it and not how you imagine their experience to be.” – Brené Brown We are living in incredibly complex, conflictual, and challenging times.  I often find myself reflecting on the deep uncertainty and change of today’s world. From climate crises to the war in Ukraine, all happening against the backdrop of a global pandemic and the ongoing journey for Reconciliation and racial justice, the only certainty now is change.  Amidst the acceleration of change and disruption, Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast show up and make […]

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