It’s common now to hear how the sense of purpose and self-worth volunteering gives people can help those with mental health issues. Volunteer South (VS) staff are asking, why wait?
VS Supported Volunteering Coordinator | Kairuruku Tūao Awhina, Peter Claman, is a new staff member hired to help reimagine a mental health-based programme funded by the Southern DHB and MSD, which for the past decade has been aimed at people who have been receiving help from a counsellor or psychologist.
It’s got him wondering, “Shouldn’t we be getting there earlier, helping people get out into community before they start suffering?”.
With ideas like this in mind, VS Community Connector Dunedin & Coastal Otago, Hagino Baker, says staff changes at Volunteer South have given the organisation a natural point to look at what it does.
“How do we get in the community and involve people in volunteering? We don’t want this to be another case of adults just meeting agenda action points. To me, as ŌYV signatories we are supporters of what young people want to do, too. We need to be more aligned with how young people want our organisation to be.
“How do we bridge the gap between what they want to do and the volunteering opportunities out there? Adolescents often feel they are not members of society in some ways, so, how can we get into them into that space of owning the volunteering direction, with a sense of purpose, doing what they want to do. VS wants to use this kind of conversation to help reorient what we want to do and were we want to go.”
Hagino says VS is also aware some organisations are hesitant to get under 17-year-olds in to work as volunteers because they are not sure of the rules and regulations around that. VS staff are educating themselves in this area to make volunteering easier for organisations to undertake.