CANAVUA Welcomes its 1000th Volunteer!

As of April 2020, CANAVUA has recruited more than 1000 volunteers!

On April 30^th, 2020, less than a week after its 10^th birthday, CANAVUA welcomed its 1000^th volunteer! Our volunteers have had an amazing impact.

CANAVUA's mandate is to mobilize volunteers in Alberta's francophone community. Did you know that Alberta has more than 100 francophone non-profit organizations, all of which depend on volunteers? CANAVUA recruits, trains and dispatches volunteers to more than 30 events in the French-speaking community every year. Our volunteers can be seen lending a helping hand at some of the most prominent events in and around Edmonton every year, in both the French- and English-speaking communities. To name but a few...

• The Flying Canoe, a celebration of French-Canadian and indigenous culture that takes place every January
• The Big Heads, a mobile artistic exposition celebrating multiculturalism in the francophone community
• The Family Day celebration hosted by the Institut Guy-Lacombe de la Famille
• The "Rendez-vous fou" summer camp for French-speaking children in Alix, AB
• Africanival, an African cultural festival in June
• The Tour de l'Alberta cycling race in Beaumont
• The Heritage Festival in Hawrelak Park every August long weekend
• FRANCOFUSION, a francophone music festival in September
• The "RaJe" youth gathering in October (in the Rocky Mountains)
• A holiday gift-wrap booth in Bonnie Doon Mall benefiting Radio-Cité

The English-speaking community has taken notice of CANAVUA's impact. English-speaking organizations contact us with requests for volunteers every month. Most non-profit organizations hold casino fundraisers. CANAVUA provides volunteers for other organizations' fundraisers on request.

Our volunteers are also the key ingredient in our own programs, services and activities.

For example, our Health Navigator volunteers accompanied French-speaking patients to more than 30 medical appointments in 2019 and provided them (and English-speaking doctors) with French-English interpretation.

During the same period, our food bank volunteers distributed more than 1000 hampers, weighing over 20,000 kg!

CANAVUA's 1000+ volunteers have had a massive impact on the community and the lives of others.

Let's not forget the volunteer drivers at our driver training school, who accompanied more than 150 students to the registry office so they could write their Class 7 (learner's licence) exam. Our volunteers played a key part in ensuring their success.

Over the past year, we've registered more than 150 new volunteers. We attribute the rapid growth of our team to the importance that Canadians and newcomers alike place on giving their time. Members of the francophone community are highly motivated to serve others through volunteering.

Recently, we created a profile on VolunteerConnector and posted information about our volunteering programs. Within a week, we had received more than 20 new volunteer applications from Anglophones, Francophones and Francophiles. People are eager to serve, especially in light of ongoing challenges - and increased need - relating to COVID-19.

CANAVUA's VolunteerConnector profile has proven to be a smashing success.

If you'd like to volunteer with us, we'd love to meet you! We also invite you to sign up as a volunteer at www.canavua.org/inscription (the form is bilingual).