Community comes out to support Volunteer Nanaimo during a time of need

Volunteer Nanaimo hosts various services  and events aimed at youth, youth at risk, and seniors. (Lauryn Mackenzie/ CHLY 101.7fm)

Community members, members of government, and local organizations came together Wednesday April 29 to show support for Volunteer Nanaimo.

As the local volunteer-led organization is at risk of closing their doors, Volunteer Nanaimo held its first Red Heart Breakfast Fundraiser at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre.

Volunteer Nanaimo hosts various services  and events aimed at youth, youth at risk, and seniors. The organization also runs a Christmas Angles program, computer support programs, and a community tax service for people with low-incomes.

As they are in their 49th year and everyday costs continue to rise, the volunteer group doesn't know if they'll be open for their 50th.

A part of the breakfast where speeches from community members who have taken part in some of Volunteer Nanaimo’s various programs.

One of those speakers was Dustin King, a community driven entrepreneur and fitness manager at a local gym. He got his start with the organization over a decade ago as a youth volunteer coordinator for YouthNetwork.

YouthNetwork is a program for people aged 11 to 29 to get involved in their community and volunteer. Youth get the chance to work together, gain employment skills, and participate in free training and learning events.

Along with volunteering at various events run by community members, the youth give back to the community through the annual Coats for Christmas event. They take in donations of new or gently used jackets and hand them out around the Christmas season to those in need at Maffeo Sutton Park.

“I mean, I know everybody in this room knows all the different services they provide, but the YouthNetwork is such a huge aspect of that as well,” King said. “Just recently, I wasn't able to make it to one of my mom's events, and so my mom reached out to Volunteer Nanaimo, and they were able to provide seven youth volunteers on very short notice for outdoor church community events. So it's absolutely awesome to have Volunteer Nanaimo in our community. I can't really imagine having no Volunteer Nanaimo.”

Linda Smith is a participant in the Silver Adventures Cafe at Volunteer Nanaimo. The Silver Adventures Cafe offers a space for seniors to meet, try new things, and have fun in a group setting over a cup of coffee or tea. The event offers games, crafts, live music, guest speakers and cultural events all for no cost to the seniors.

“An important programme to meet others, to share, have fun, laugh and to have wonderful conversations. And that we do. We have a lot of wonderful conversations. All the activities include tea, coffee and sweets,” Smith said. “What a grand way of spending two hours, 1pm to 3pm Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are some seniors who are not as fortunate and do not have the funds for coffee and goodies.”

Smith said the program is so important for seniors. Being social is good for their health and well being.

“If it wasn't for such a fantastic social group, some seniors would feel lonely, depressed, lost and feel emptiness in the world,” Smith said. “They would feel shut down, a lot of people just don't get out. To be healthy and have a sense of well being, sharing with others is so vitally important. We all want to be healthy and happy.”

The last to speak was Rita Innamorati, executive director at Volunteer Nanaimo. She received a standing ovation from the crowd when she spoke.

Innamorati has been with Volunteer Nanaimo after leaving her job in banking following a brain injury in the early 2000s.

Even during the hard parts when she first started at the organization as a volunteer, she said the team at Volunteer Nanaimo was always there to lend a helping hand.

“In 2008 my daughter decided she was going to get married and she was living in Ottawa at the time, but I wanted to do the wedding. I didn't have much of anything, and big surprise, who stepped up for me, but Volunteer Nanaimo,” Innamorati said. “[They] rented a hall for me. The entire team from Volunteer Nanaimo came, they decorated, they cooked, they served, they cleaned, they did it all. I sold my car so that I would have the money to pay for the wedding, and they were there for me.”

Innamorati took over the role as executive director in 2020, a role she does on a volunteer bias. She’s seen funding start to diminish, and has stepped up to ensure programs can continue running.

“Silver Adventures, an amazing programme we started a few years ago, I got the New Horizons grant for that programme. We haven't gotten any funding since. So we were fundraising for that, we raised enough money to run the programme, but not enough money to pay someone to run the programme,” Innamorati said. “So I run that programme. We didn't get our funding for the youth programme, so we couldn't pay anyone to run the youth programme. So sort of run off the end of my desk.” 

CHLY spoke to Innamorati before the morning breakfast event. 

She said while they don't have any paid employees, their biggest cost is rent.

“This is our 49th year in operation, and I would hate to see us have to close before 50 on my watch. We've been very lucky with the current property that we're in. We've been there since 2015,” Innamorati said. “They were very generous over the years. But of course, like everything else, costs go up. We're still paying well below market for our space. So we are going to be able to stay there for sure another year.”

She said for all nonprofits, less money means more need, and everyone is vying for the same dollars.

“When you're writing grants, grants have become more and more specific,” Innamorati said. “Very specified as to what you can spend money on, and that kind of thing is what really restricts growth, except in those pockets.”

She explained that while they may receive funding for something like their youth program, that funding can only be used for that program and not another program like the Silver Adventures Cafe.

As costs continue to rise and funding decreases, Innamorati said they may have to look at how they can run some of their programs. She said the only way they would need to have to make changes is if they lose their current space.

Innamorati said if they do have to leave their current place, Volunteer Nanaimo would survive. But how they run their programs would look a lot different and more work would be placed on the volunteers who would need to find new, low cost places to run the programs.

“Even the youth were concerned when they saw the information going out, and it's like, ‘does this mean we can't have an art club anymore? Does this mean we can't do this?’” she said. “It will never mean that, because this is a tremendous community, and people will step up. There's a lot of empty space in this town that we can utilize for the different events and I think we'd go on.”

She said right now, along with donations from the community, Volunteers Nanaimo is in need of more participants, because more participants means better opportunities for grant funding.

As well she said if it’s with Volunteer Nanaimo or not, she recommends people get out and volunteer if they have the time to do so.

“It's really, really important. Volunteering is super, super important, not just with us, with anything, whether it's volunteering at your children's school, whether it's volunteering,” she said. “No matter where you are volunteering, great things make you feel good. Doesn't cost anything. It's great entertainment.” 

More information on Volunteer Nanaimo and their programming can be found on their website at volunteernanaimo.ca.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.