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Volunteering
We have a wide variety of opportunities for volunteers, and because we are hoping to expand from our traditional volunteer positions to look at new areas where we could use volunteers, we hope there will be something that will be of interest to you.
 Volunteers are
- students
- homemakers
- business people
- seniors
Volunteers
- meet new people
- gain valuable experience
- develop potential job skills and contacts
- and most of all have fun!
Volunteers Offer
- positive support & encouragement
- new skills and talents
- community links
- smiles, laughs, fun!
Current Volunteering Opportunities in the Victoria Area
We have a wide variety of opportunities for volunteers, and because we are hoping to expand from our traditional volunteer positions to look at new areas where we could use volunteers, we hope there will be something that will be of interest to you.
Program Opportunities
The G.R.O.W. program, is a wellness and leisure program for people with severe mental illness, based on the idea of recovery. It has various activities, everything from qi gong, cycling, yoga, art, a restoration project, floor hockey and much more. G.R.O.W. is a very hands on program, and a great place to work with people with a mental illness and be involved in evidence based psycho-social rehabilitation.
Please contact Sabine Vanderispaillie for information at 250-389-1211 ext 126.
Many of our other programs really need volunteers to do arts, crafts, music, outings and one-to-one goal setting. The following programs are looking for volunteers for all of these activities and more.
The Friendship Centre is a program for seniors with mental illness and operates from our Skinner Street location on Wednesdays from 1-7pm and Saturdays from 9-5pm. The focus is on socialization and psycho-social rehabilitation. The clients participate in a wide variety of activities including arts, crafts, music and outings. Please contact Katie Bloy for information at 250-389-1211 ext 127.
The Bridge Centre is a program for adults with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and cognitive impairment combined. This runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9-3pm. The focus is on socialization and psycho-social rehabilitation. The clients participate in a wide variety of activities including arts, crafts, music and outings. Please contact Darlene Arsenault on 250-389-1211 ext 233
The Alzheimers Day Program is a program for adults with Dementia and runs from our Hamsterley Road site. The focus is to provide activities that will help to slow the progress of the illness, offer a stimulatin environment, and provide respite for care-givers. Please contact Heather Reid at 250-658-5414 for more information.
Other Volunteer Opportunities: Please call Pam Edwards at 250-389-1211 ext 231 and leave a call back number if you are interested in any of the following options.
Volunteer Coordinator
We need volunteers in areas of our agency other than working directly with clients. For example, we need a ‘volunteer’, volunteer coordinator, who could develop a volunteer recruitment campaign and meet with prospective volunteers. Ideally we need a whole group of people to help get our volunteer base established; volunteers are central to bringing new ideas and energy into the agency.
Individual Projects
We also have opportunities for volunteers to create their own ideas for projects, which could be something for a specific program ( an example might be a music group for a program, or a specific activity the volunteer has skills with), or a project that might help the agency, such as a fundraising project.
Facebook and Web Page
We would love to have volunteers to help with our web site; in particular we would be interested in volunteers who can help us to collect up to date information and resources for our web site. If you enjoy working with computers, this would be a great opportunity to be part of developing our capacity in this area.
Library
We also need help with our library which used to be really well used. Now it is out of date, and most things are on VHS. Our goal is to update our collection to DVD. We recently received a bequest for money that can be used to purchase new materials, but we don’t have time to research what is available.
All ideas welcome
There are so many things that are not able to do due to cutbacks, and sometimes, rather than just slot volunteers into traditional roles, we would love to look into new ideas and visoning as there may be things a volunteer can do that we have not even thought of yet. We do know that we need volunteers to make CMHA a vibrant mental health community…all ideas are welcome.
If you wish to discuss any opportunities other than the Program Options, please call Pam Edwards at 250-389-1211 ext 231, and leave a call back number. If you are interested in the Program Options, please call the coordinator directly,
We look forward to you joining our team
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