Toronto, Monday, December 5, 2011
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
It is a pleasure for me to join you here today on International Volunteer Day, and to visit this impressive venue—itself a reflection of the power of volunteerism.
I have often remarked on the generosity of Canadians and the strength of this country’s volunteer sector, and the Toronto International Film Festival is a great example of the kind of dynamic, progressive change we can make in our communities when we come together for the greater good. This festival—one of the most important of its kind in the world—has put Toronto on the international cultural calendar, bringing great benefits to this city and to Canada.
Less widely known—but of critical significance —is the role volunteers play in the success of this event. Last year, more than 2 000 volunteers gave more than 54 000 hours to the Festival’s many initiatives, and organizations such as Volunteer Toronto are the instruments that connect the people of this city with event organizers. As a result, thousands of Torontonians are benefitting from profound and formative volunteer experiences.
The spirit of volunteerism that you have helped ignite in this city has supported and enabled many successful events. I can sense this energy in this room tonight, and I know that volunteers have played a key role in transforming this community for the better.
It reminds me of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic triumph where athletic excellence was buttressed, indeed propelled, by volunteer excellence.
I would like to go even further and suggest to you that the volunteer work being done—in and of itself—is in fact transforming this community and our country, one person at a time, through the wonderful reciprocity of giving.
To explain this reciprocity of giving, allow me to quote Jean Vanier, who has done so much to raise our consciousness of the nature of caring and its importance to our society.
“Society is made up of individuals,” he wrote, and “as we open up to others and allow ourselves to be concerned with their condition, then the society in which we live must also change and become more open. We will begin to work together for the common good.”
What I find striking about this idea is the emphasis it places on each of us as individuals. We must open up to others, and allow ourselves to care, before we can hope for positive change in our communities.
This emphasis on each one of us points to an important aspect of the reciprocity of giving—namely, that giving changes us. Implicit in the idea of volunteerism, as we know it, is the notion of giving our time and energy to another person or charity, and certainly this “giving to” is at the core of volunteering. But in the act of giving, fundamental needs of the giver can also be nourished, and the giver also becomes the recipient.
One of our most basic human needs is to be connected to others, to be part of something larger than oneself, and the act of giving often has the reciprocal effect of connecting the giver to a cause, a community, a movement…and thereby nourishing that basic need.
There is a great hunger in the world today, a thirst for community and for solving problems—and a tremendous capacity to do so. Canadians have never been more highly educated, more well equipped and ready to make a difference. I have observed this in my travels across Canada during the past year, and on international visits such as those I recently made to Southeast Asia.
Indeed, there are countless examples of Canadians who are volunteering their time and talents to worthy causes. Here in Toronto, volunteers with Pathways to Education in Regent Park have made a real difference in the lives of young people and their families through education. Volunteers are also at work in the Arctic, where supporters of Habitat for Humanity in Iqaluit are building affordable housing in their spare time. And I have met with Canadian volunteers in Vietnam, who are pairing education with volunteerism in a global setting.
And yet, despite our successes, it would be disingenuous to deny that the incredible reserves of energy, talent and goodwill of many Canadians—and indeed, of many people around the world—are often frustrated or underused. There may be numerous reasons for this, but one of the most significant is that many people today feel overwhelmed by globalization and by the growing complexity of our world.
A new United Nations report speaks to this very matter.
As we know, today is International Volunteer Day, but it also marks a significant moment in the global volunteerism movement. In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers, the United Nations is today releasing the first-ever State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, which makes the case for volunteerism as essential to the sustainable and equitable progress of communities and nations worldwide.
One of the key insights of this report relates to the concept of human development, which at its core is about expanding the choices available to people so that they may lead lives that they value. But, as the authors of the report point out:
“Globalization is rapidly transforming cultural and social norms, bringing benefits to some but exclusion and marginalization to others. Many people feel a loss of control over their lives.”
This statement reminds me of the findings of another recent report, this one by the Vancouver Foundation, a non-profit which directs crucial funding to charities and causes across British Columbia. In a survey intended to gauge the most pressing social issues in the province today, members of the Foundation were surprised to learn that the sense of isolation people felt living in central Vancouver was identified as the number one concern.
Not homelessness, poverty or the cost of living, but isolation, and the sense of being disconnected from one’s neighbours and fellow citizens.
And surely, Vancouver is not the only city where this sense of isolation exists.
Taken together, I think these findings point us toward a significant challenge, and an equally important opportunity. As the new UN report points out, “Volunteerism is one way for people to engage in the life of their communities and societies. In doing so, they acquire a sense of belonging and inclusion and they are able to influence the direction of their lives.”
This is where the capacity and desire to do good meets the basic human need for empowerment, and where the reciprocal nature of giving reveals itself.
Earlier this fall, as I marked the one-year anniversary of my installation as governor general, I gave an address to the Canadian Club of Vancouver, in which I outlined ten challenges facing philanthropy and volunteerism today. The first, and perhaps most fundamental of these challenges, is to identify the needs of the community.
As we have seen, one of the great needs being felt in our increasingly urbanized communities today is for community itself, and for the many benefits we derive from a sense of belonging and purpose. I have no doubt that the thousands of volunteers who give so much to various causes in Toronto comprise a wonderful community of creative, energetic and like-minded people. And I am sure that they are enriched by their volunteer experiences in surprising ways, and that these experiences deepen their sense of attachment, pride and ownership of this city.
The same goes for all who give their time and talent to improve lives and provide opportunity elsewhere in Toronto, across Canada and around the world. Working together, we can transform our communities, and ourselves, for the better.
As the late writer and activist June Callwood—a great Torontonian—once said:
“Great consideration for one another—that’s what’s going to save the world.”
There is nothing abstract about her statement. Through caring—for each other and for the communities in which we live—we regain a sense of ourselves as citizens, as the makers of our destiny.
People often ask me why I believe volunteerism is so important to our society, and I say, Just look at the results. From the beginning, giving has been central to our survival in this land. The early settlers of Canada fully understood the extent of their dependence upon one another. Samuel de Champlain—our first governor general in all but name—said that the settlement at Port Royal would not have survived its first winter in 1605 were it not for the generous help of the local First Nations. In time, wave upon wave of immigrants would arrive, working together and relying upon one another in the hopes of a better life for their children. And we became a nation of barn raisers, neighbour helping neighbour. Let me give you an example.
There is a tendency today to think that our days of mutual interdependence are past, and that we no longer really need each other. I think that is an illusion. After all, Champlain also understood the importance of fostering a sense of community in Port Royal, establishing the Order of Good Cheer purely as a means of encouraging goodwill and society in those early days. He understood intuitively the basic human need to be connected to a community with a larger sense of purpose.
Our circumstances today may have changed somewhat, but I do not think we need each other any less than we did 400 years ago.
I have been very fortunate throughout my life to have been touched by acts of caring and generosity that have allowed me to grow and develop as an individual. And I am equally aware that I have a duty to give back, to answer the call to service by endeavouring to help others. That is why I am so pleased to be here today to thank and encourage you in your important work.
I want to thank the many volunteers who have given so much of their time, talent and energy to this community. And I want to thank the supporters and organizers of Volunteer Toronto for all of your efforts.
By promoting volunteerism and connecting people with the opportunity to give of themselves, you are acting as a catalyst for an even greater change in our society.
The change is needed, and it is possible.
Thank you.
