Two very successful national events involving Volunteering NZ (VNZ), other national volunteer recognition activities, many local events and wide spread media coverage all made Volunteer Awareness Week 2010 a great success. The Week, this year celebrated from 20th to 26th June, carried the theme "Volunteering Across The Generations".

A key objective of the Awareness Week was to encourage more people to volunteer – “raising people not money”. The theme highlighted the opportunities for volunteering across all generations, how different forms of volunteering appeal to particular generational groups and various examples of intergenerational volunteering, including family volunteering.

Mission Possible, the Youth Volunteering Workshop hosted by VNZ, met all expectations and has resulted in new challenges for the representatives of the organisations who attended. The contribution made by the young people was tremendous. A group of young people were involved in organising the day and facilitated the workshop. Eighteen other young people, chosen from almost 40 who Signed Up keen to take part, came from several parts of New Zealand to participate. All the young people were incredible, in their own right, and not just because they are young. They were joined by 10 senior representatives of a range of organisations who would wish to see young people volunteering in their organisations. For a sneak view check out our  Photo Gallery.

The young people challenged the "big" people, as they called those who came from the organisations, but in very positive ways. One very clear message they brought and demonstrated was the young people can take on a wide ranging variety of challenging roles. Giving them just 'suitable' unchallenging roles will likely turn them off. All ten organisation people went away with challenges/tasks for making change. They will be asked for feedback on how they are progressing. In the next VNZ Update we plan to bring you the perspective of a young journalism student who joined us to write a story about the event.

The other national event was the special event to mark the release of Managers Matter, Who Manages Volunteers, hosted by Victoria University and with VNZ Chairperson, Gillian Peacock, as MC for the evening. The Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Tariana Turia, talked of volunteers as being the lifeblood of the not-for-profit sector; the fuel that keeps our economy running. She said another way of thinking about the community and voluntary sector is that it is like the air all around us - basically invisible, but absolutely essential to keeping our world afloat. Within this environment of invisibility a report like "Managers Matter" was really important. More information about the report is available from our Research webpage.

Media coverage of the week included newspaper stories, radio interviews and television stories and items including one on Good Morning, TV One which featured VNZ Chairperson, Gillian Peacock and two volunteers. Here is a link to that item.