To provide for the ethnocultural minority volunteer enhances our organisations and communities. It also allows for the participation and resulting achievements of the newer Canadians, the immigrants. As managers of voluntary services set out to awaken the spirit of their volunteers, we should not overlook our newer Canadians. Studies suggest that we will be gaining a lot by involving the full range of the community. Also the effect is to make hiring practices equitable. Legally we are obligated by our democratic ideals to recruit from different cultures. Our own empowerment in the broader societal currents will happen with this recruitment objective.
So how do we go about getting those from other cultures to come to our organisations? People find Canada a good place to come to from around the world to live. So why would they not also flock to volunteering? Perhaps the society that is their origin has a different name for volunteering. For instance in Russia a volunteer is known as a dobrovolec. And in Estonia a volunteer is called a vabathtlikuna. In general the word is different, and in fact, the context of volunteerism in the homeland may be quite different. The reasons for volunteering are different too. So to fit an ethnocultural minority volunteer into our organisation may require language skills and language training. Further than just language skills, the feedback process will become more important if we can open this process to learn how our ethnocultural minority volunteer sees the role they are playing with us. The interview is just the tool to achieve this. So with some consideration to differences and a commitment to change for the sake of recruitment it can be done.
Paying attention to trends in area of service may lead to foreign contacts, thus adding knowledge about cultural differences. My experiences with Youth Culture Promotions a youth movement club had me reading a trade paper related to music. From an article I contacted a group setting up a drop-in in Central Europe. By this time I too was volunteering at a drop-in. When the government representative, from the health ministry, suggested involving more minorities, I was able to report that our executive was, in fact, a mix of people. Unfortunately, it was not possible to involve the Vietnamese community, as much as, we all may have wanted in the membership of the drop-in considering that we were located in Chinatown. But some progress was made at fair hiring practices within the drop-in administration structure. This was a matter of paying attention to injustice and showing empathy towards others.
As each manager's skills differ depending on the type of service, we must be flexible and resourceful. We must ask that managers be able to know their own skills and cultural biases, if we are to succeed at managing the ethnocultural minority volunteer. Giving to them what they need and thus strengthening the community
Copyright By Peter Timusk
