Volunteer Integration

Since 1993 Recreation Services and the Ministry for Children and Families have partnered together to provide the Volunteer Integration Program. Goals of the program include maintaining and developing a standardized volunteer program, creating public awareness and support for integration, promoting and ensuring recreation and leisure opportunities are accessible to persons with special needs, promoting volunteerism and recruiting and training volunteers.

The major focus of the Volunteer Integration Program is to provide volunteer assistance and support to persons with special needs to enable them to pursue recreation and leisure activities. Volunteers are matched with a person with special needs and together they participate in activities such as swimming, working out, going to a movie or attending an adaptive recreation program.

For more information contact the Parkinson Recreation Centre at (250) 469-8800.

If you have an organization requiring volunteers, plan to attend the 2nd Annual Volunteer Fest on September 17th and 18th at Kelowna Memorial Arena.

The first annual Volunteer Fest was held October 2nd and 3rd 1998, attracting over 2200 people who came to learn about the various opportunities available with the 58 groups and organizations represented. Over 8,500 people volunteer in the Kelowna area, providing 628,692 hours of service annually. The average volunteer works 74 hours in a year, a little more than one hour each week.