How do volunteers make a difference at St Chris? Just some of the ways that volunteers make a difference -

• Over 800 active volunteers have contributed their time and skills to supporting over 12,505 individuals!
• Volunteers at St Chris speak over 23 different languages, which helps us extend our services to our diverse community
• There are over 250 active Meals-on-Wheels volunteers, who deliver meals to 100 seniors and people with disabilities each day!
• 35 Income Tax volunteers helped over 800 low-income individuals in completing their income tax returns, in many cases, these individuals were able to receive much needed income from overdue tax refunds
• The Health Action Theatre for Seniors (HATS) volunteers provided training to other seniors groups and staff from seniors organizations
• 13 dedicated volunteers make up the St Christopher House Board of Directors, playing a major role in overseeing the financial health of the organization
• 10 volunteer lawyers assisted 90 immigrants to receive their permanent resident cards
  Over 85 senior volunteers and members of our Elderly Person’s Centre continue to reach out and welcome newer community members
  

How do volunteers make a difference in Canada - more facts and stats!
 *All Facts and Stats are from the 2004 report “Understanding Canadian Volunteers: Using the National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating to Build Your Volunteer Program” by Norah McClintock, Canadian Centre of Philanthropy.  Stats are analyzed from the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, based on a representative sample of 14,724 Canadians aged 15 and over. www.givingandvolunteering.ca/pdf/reports/understanding_volunteers.pdf

• Over 40% of Canada's 78,000 registered charities have no paid staff and rely exclusively on volunteers to carry out their mission
• Canada's first Volunteer Centre was established in 1937 in Montreal to help match volunteers with agencies that needed their help.
• More than 6,5 million Canadians volunteered just over 1 billion hours of their time to charitable and voluntary organizations between October 1, 1999 and September 30, 2000 - the equivalent of 549,000 full-time jobs. If those organizations had to hire people to do the work undertaken by volunteers, a conservative estimate of the total payroll cost would be over $17 billion. (based on Canadian average hourly wage of $16.89, multiplied by 40 hours per week and 48 weeks per year).
• Volunteers are also more likely to be donors than non-volunteers - 91% of volunteers made charitable donations, compared to 73% of non-volunteers.
• Over one third (34%) of all volunteer hours were contributed by the 5% of volunteers who gave 596 hours or more of their time. Another 39% of all hours were contributed by the 20% of volunteers who gave between 188 and 595 hours during the year. These two groups represent only 25% of volunteers, and less than 7% of all Canadians, but account for nearly three quarters (73%) of all volunteer hours.
• Slightly more women than men volunteered (women made up 54% of all volunteers), although men volunteered more hours on average.
• Most volunteers (67%) were employed. Of these, more than three quarters (77%) held full-time jobs.
• Nearly one half (44%) of all volunteers were between the ages of 35 - 54 years old.
• Just over half (53%) of all volunteers held a postsecondary degree or diploma or a university degree.
• Thirty-four percent of volunteers were under the age of 35 in 2000. Thirty-five percent had a high school education or less. Half (51%) had household incomes of under $60,000.
• Nearly two thirds (62%) of unemployed volunteers believed that volunteering would increase their chances of finding a job. This jumped to 78% among unemployed youth.
• More than three quarters (81%) of volunteers who work are looking for an opportunity to use their skills and experiences in their volunteering.

For more facts and stats on volunteering, go to http://www.givingandvolunteering.ca/pdf/reports/understanding_volunteers.pdf