Volunteerism

Studying towards a certificate in management of volunteer services is difficult and easy at the same time. Peter has been studying community relations in the summer of 1999. Selected issues in volunteering in the summer of 1998.Fund raising in the summer of 1996. And started this program of studies with a planning workshop in the summer of 1995. He has also completed the introduction to managing volunteers course taught by Ginette Johnstone in 1995.

Volunteering is a best solution, for societies problems.

Peter has volunteered in three areas: health both comunity and hospital, performing arts, and the environmental movement. His goals with this profession used to be focused on volunteering in the environmental movement, which are related to reading biology and geography, anti-nuclear research, alternative technology and peace studies. He volunteered with the Ottawa Peace and Environment Resource Centre, and then some other movement groups like the Physicians for Global Survival, Earth Day, the Museum of Nature, COAT and the Green party. He is apparently good at fund raising, door to door during elections for the Green Party.
 
 

Peter also volunteers in mental health issues with A Post Psychiatric Leisure Experience(A.P.P.L.E.), Psychiatric Survivors of Ottawa(PSO), The National Network for Mental Health and the Canadian Schizophrenia Society. With these causes he has had to read a lot of books about mental illnesses. He has been a musician(The Mechanic City Psychos) for both A Post Psychiatric Leisure Experience, Psychiatric Survivors of Ottawa and also the self help group associated with the Canadian Schizophrenia Society. Peter has also been able to serve on the board of directors of A Post Psychiatric Leisure Experience. Presently he is a volunteer member of the board of the Psychiaric Survivors of Ottawa, who are funded by the community branch of the Ontario Ministry of Health.
 
 

Working and volunteering in arts has been a way of life for Peter for many years. He started in as a stage crew member in public school and continued through the eighties to produce art by, volunteering in community punk rock show security. Continuing later in life to volunteer in theatre at Centrepoint Volunteer Theatre Company, the Great Canadian Theatre Company and the Orpheus Musical Theatre Company he has also worked professionaly at the National Arts Centre. Like wise he has performed as well as doing stage crew work. While some bands are professionals many of us never earn money so are volunteers. He plays bass and sings and has recently been helping his girl friend with her songs. Involvment in festivals is new for him but he worked as a stage hand at the Phase 2 stage of the CKCU Ottawa Folk Festival in 1999.
 
 

Peter has also volunteered with FreeNet and that's how you get to see all this wonderful web site. By using the Internet as much as possible and learning to use it well, he has come to learn new programming languages and to better and more frequently communicate in English. He has volunteered as a ride marshal for the annual Harvest Ride Fund Raiser for two years and did a good job in 1999. He has also tried his hand at writing on-line help screens. He has run for the board of FreeNet in an on-line campaign but lost. He has also volunteered a few times in other Fund Raising events for FreeNet. He has sent Bill Gates thank you e-mail for Microsoft's donations to the Freenet annual on-line auction.

If your interested you can read about some Internet ideas and experiences both as a Freenet volunteer and with these other causes by linking to the web page in the table at the bottom of this web page called Internet Volunteer.

Volunteering is a best solution. Although you might not realise it until the work is done and your new reality has time to distill in your thoughts.

If your interested in the course outlines from this program of study Peter is participating in, please contact Algonquin College.

Algonquin College, School of Continuing Education
1385 Woodroffe Avenue, Room C150
Nepean, Ontario, K2G 1V8
Phone # (613) 727-9797

Projects, completed so far along with a mix of group learning and discussion oriented classes are below.

Peter has written three projects(two mini and one major) for the Introduction to Management of Volunteer Services Course in the Fall of 1995.

Please read one.

Mini-project number one.
Explorations of the ethnocultural minority volunteer. This paper received a grade of A-.

Mini-project number two.
The need to keep financial records for the volunteer organisation. This paper received a perfect mark A+!

Major research paper
Personality theories and the politics of volunteering. This was Peter's major paper and is longer than the other two, about four pages in total. It received a grade of A.

 

This major paper is not on the web yet.

 

From the the selected issues workshop there are two papers, completed in June of 1998.

Legal Issues and the Arts Volunteer.

This covers my experiences in theatre stage craft and also concert security with Youth Culture Promotions(YCP). The issues are drugs, drinking, violence and safety. Remember work safely. This paper received a grade of B+.

Volunteering, My Career, and Unions.

This paper suggests that the organisations I volunteer for have good relations with unions and other professional bodies and looks at some details of the volunteer experiences I have had from a management perspective. This paper received a grade of B+.

Green Party Celebrates Fifteen years and 1999 Ontario Election.

This was a a mock press release for the Green Party of Ontario but never actually used. This release received a grade of B+.

This Page Last Updated August 28,  2000.