Media release 13 June 2008
Volunteering a great way to contribute and benefit at the same time
Next week Tim Burns, Executive Director of Volunteering New Zealand is looking to add to the army of more than 1 million
people who volunteer in New Zealand
He says that Volunteer Awareness Week, which runs from Sunday 15 June through to Saturday 21 June is a perfect time to
connect people wanting to volunteer with the many opportunities available.
The catch line for the week is Go Further – Volunteer which reflects the benefits that individuals can gain by being
volunteers - gaining new skills, meeting new people and improving their networks and gaining satisfaction from having
contributed to their community.
According Statistics NZ, in the year ended March 2004 there were 1,011,600 volunteers, who contributed 270 million hours
of formal, unpaid work for non-profit organisations. The time given has been valued at almost $3.31 billion.
“Good numbers of people want to be volunteers and a key objective of Volunteer Awareness Week is to help connect them
with volunteering opportunities,” said Tim Burns.
“Such opportunities can be found online at www.volunteernow.org.nz .”
This is an increasingly popular site with the numbers visiting and registering for volunteer positions continuously
rising. Current Wellington listings include everything from Mac Computer Specialist to History Project
Interviewer/Writer to Prison Visitor.
During the week there will be volunteering events across New Zealand. They will include celebrations to thank current
volunteers for their contributions; projects showing volunteering in action, often involving special employee volunteer
teams, and events such as mini-expos which demonstrate volunteering opportunities.
“It has been particularly pleasing this year to have libraries around New Zealand involved. Like so many other services,
libraries achieve all they do because they have extensive volunteer networks,” said Mr Burns.
A selection of the Volunteer Awareness Week activities can be found on Volunteer New Zealand’s blog at
http://volunteeringnz.blogspot.com
ENDS
See attached facts and figures about volunteering in New Zealand