Volunteer Peterborough Launched to Provide Matchmaking Service For Volunteers and Organizations In Peterborough Region

An online portal matchmaking service for volunteers and organizations in Volunteer Peterborough was launched during an announcement at a Volunteer Expo at Trent University on Wednesday morning.

Tuffin was inducted into the Pathway of Fame in last during its 25th annversary under the Cultural/Community Betterment category.Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Volunteer Peterborough has been in production for a year to create partnerships to create the portal and matchmaking service. There are 50 organizations already available with another 50 coming next week with 175 volunteers signed up according to founder Lois Tuffin.

“We could encourage more of the best of Peterborough,” she said. “We could give people and make it easy for them to fall into volunteering and then fall in love with volunteering. That would be a way for us to move our community better.”

The online portal works like a dating or employment site that matches skills and times with groups’ needs with the volunteers. As of Oct. 10, these services will be available in person after an arrangement with the Peterborough Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce.

“Volunteers drive the success of large events,” explained Tuffin. “They also step up in times of crisis. Most of all, volunteers welcome new members into the community and deep in social relationships between people who have lived here their entire lives and those human connections have enriched so many lives. 

Tuffin continues to explain that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for volunteers increased which helped spark the conception of Volunteer Peterborough.

People stopped volunteering and organizers shifted so they moved volunteer managers to other roles because they didn't have anything to do,” she explained. “Some of those roles haven't been filled so agencies no longer have as much capacity to manage their volunteers so we're just trying to help them so that they can rebuild that membership and get those teams back up and running.”

The portal has volunteers for both in-person and virtual positions.

More information can be found by emailing info@volunteerpeterborough.ca or calling 705-930-2613.

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