Overview
Volunteering and community involvement provides learners with invaluable opportunities to network, build self-confidence, and explore workplaces in their fields of interest—all while making meaningful connections and giving back to the community. These experiences benefit not only those they help but also empower students to discover potential career paths and foster personal growth along the way! What starts as a simple act of kindness can blossom into a full-fledged career path.
This collection of resources from myBlueprint.ca is a good entry point to support educators in teaching the benefits of volunteerism and service-learning and provides several practical and ready-made activities that can be used as a stand-alone lesson, or to reinforce the myBlueprint portfolio development process.
myBlueprint Volunteering Guide
Objectives
- To support learners to identify volunteer opportunities that align with their interests and potential career pathways
- To support learners to network and have career-connected conversations and experiences and reflect on their growth
- To support learners to track and document volunteer hours to contribute to the Career Life Plan, resume, and portfolios
Instructions
Encourage students to get involved in their community and document their learning journey. Whether through school activities or as a class project, there are plenty of opportunities. Teachers can access the ready-made myBlueprint Lesson Plan, Checklist, and Exemplar Portfolio to highlight the benefits of volunteering. Several resources are provided within the lesson plan that teachers can use directly, to discuss volunteering with students and to assist them to create a Volunteering portfolio that showcases their volunteer activities and community involvement in their myBlueprint Education Planner accounts. Have them document and track skills gained, explore related occupations, and postsecondary programs and collect letters of recommendation.
Key Highlights
- A collection of resources including Research articles, Why Be a Volunteer? video link, and other links such as Volunteer Canada, Health & Safety for Volunteers
to support learners in volunteering - Has direct links to other myBlueprint resources including Goals Setting Activity + Slideshow, Goal Setting Poster and Building a Resume Activity + Slideshow, Building a Cover Letter
- Available in French