CANADA WHO CARES?
The Graff-Reed Conversations
Experts Issue a Way-of-life Wake-up Call for Canada’s Communities
Two of Canada’s leading experts on volunteering and community participation – Linda L. Graff and Paul B. Reed – have constructed a unique analysis about the future of Canada’s communities. They issue a challenge to community leaders across Canada: act now if your vision of Canada includes volunteering, civic generosity or community involvement.
The Graff-Reed call to action comes after observing patterns of contributory behaviour in Canada and interpreting trends of declining volunteerism and civic participation. Their engaging analysis has been produced as a series of informal audio conversations, available in free downloadable format from the project website: www.CanadaWhoCares.ca
and also on CD.
Linda L. Graff, noted author and voluntary sector specialist, and Paul B. Reed, Carleton University Professor and Senior Social Scientist, Statistics Canada, want community leaders across the country to know that Canada’s quality of civic life is eroding. Their conversations point to troubling trends in voluntary participation in Canada, but Graff and Reed caution that this can’t be downplayed as “just a volunteer problem”. It extends, Reed says, into every corner of Canadian life.
“What bodes well is that we now have a wealth of data and can act based on what we know. This doesn’t have to be bleak. It’s a wake-up call that we hope inspires action.”
That action, Graff and Reed hope, will help to avoid problems that could extend well beyond a
potential future loss of volunteers. It is possible, they caution, that we are actually seeing a
decline in what motivates Canadians to engage, to participate, to volunteer, and to give.
“Imagine for a moment that everyone disengaged, that volunteers stopped showing up and neighbours didn’t go out of their way for each other anymore,” Graff explains. “The impact of that would be widespread and troubling. We need to understand how extensively we depend on volunteers and civic involvement in this country. There’s not a single Canadian who isn’t touched by volunteering in some meaningful way throughout the course of their lives.”
Graff’s deep concern is rooted in more than a quarter-century of study and observation about the state of volunteerism in Canada. Her fears are now empirically grounded in recent Canadian data based on a number of statistical measures that, taken collectively, reveal the bigger picture behind contributory behaviour. Together with Dr. Reed, she has analyzed the latest data and found indicators of a shrinking volunteer pool, less social participation and an overall erosion of Canada’s capacity for community and human service. With the coming wave of baby boomers entering later life, Graff and Reed are urging communities across the country to take this issue
seriously.
“This is about a fundamental shift in something that has been a part of our Canadian way of life. Our civility, our community mindedness are absolutely distinguishing characteristics of this country and of Canadians.”
The data show a small core of Canadians carries the lion’s share of voluntary contributions, and that this largely older core is shrinking. Leadership volunteers, in particular, are getting rarer.
“We shouldn’t be in this position to begin with, but we’ve neglected our voluntary sector and taken for granted that volunteers will always be there. While many countries around the world are investing huge amounts to develop and support volunteerism, we’re watching it fizzle away here in Canada and little is being done. That has to change.”
www.CanadaWhoCares.ca
