In this blog, Catherine reflects on her experience running the Community Connections volunteer program at the iHub, and what she learned in the process.
Written by Catherine Dume, Community Coordinator, Master of Political Theory
For the past six months, I have been working as the Innovation Hub’s Community Coordinator, organizing events and socials for the iHub team and the University of Toronto community.
My most exciting responsibility was leading the Community Connections volunteer program, where students organized and facilitated social events, and learned more about the iHub. The Community Connections Volunteer program gave volunteers time and space to develop new skills with confidence, and as their facilitator I got to help them achieve their goals.
Alongside the team of volunteers, I also had the chance to learn new things and strengthen my goal setting skills. During this volunteer program, I learned there is more to goal setting than setting myself up for success; it helps me deepen relationships with others and foster an inclusive space. While I expected that coaching would help me reflect on what I wanted to pursue, what I didn’t expect was that I would learn how to set and achieve goals by helping the volunteers achieve their own.
Volunteer Learning Journeys and Goal Setting
When I first started at the iHub, I was introduced to the Your Learning Journey (YLJ) program. YLJ is a coaching program that the iHub offers to its staff, work study students, and volunteers. The iHub strives to create space for people to learn, grow, and develop new skills for future success. I chose goal setting as a skill to develop to help support my career growth after graduation. At first, I was skeptical. I had participated in career coaching before and did not feel like I had learned anything new, even though my coaches were friendly and supportive. Instead, I ended up having a transformative experience at the iHub because I learned that I can take concrete steps towards my career by identifying the skills I want to learn. By strengthening my skills, I can take the next step forward.
Once I realized how valuable the YLJ is for personal development, I built it into the design of Community Connections so that the volunteers would receive the same benefits as I did through coaching sessions. Since volunteers came once a week to plan their events, I scheduled time over the first few weeks of the program to discuss their goals together. Volunteers were achieving their goals and practicing professional communication, help-seeking, and creative thinking. Once I had listened to all their goals, the next step was to figure out how I could help each team take steps toward achieving them over the next eight weeks.
Planning Goals for Success
After meeting with the last volunteer, I sat down with my notes, twirling my pen in hand. The question for me was: how could I help all 25 volunteers achieve their goals? While I am their coach, the YLJ program is designed to empower students to achieve their goals on their own. My role as mentor was to help them identify their goals and discuss with them how we might be able to achieve them while they were in the program.
To accomplish this, I had to put on my detailed planner hat and my creative thinking cap. Since the goals the volunteers had were skills-based, I thought about what kinds of opportunities would develop those skills. It was important to me that the process was fun, especially considering people were volunteering their time.
I created weekly activities using design thinking. Each week focused on building a particular skill. For example, many team members wanted to improve their creative thinking, so I had teams generate ideas in a creative brainstorming activity. Groups generated many ideas related to their event. One team came up with the idea for a Pictionary party and generated words for participants to draw. Another team worked on a trivia event and generated fun questions. This creative thinking activity ended up being a favourite part of Community Connections for many team members. Just a short five-minute ideation activity encouraged all of us to think outside of the box.
Using Skills in Every Aspect of Life
By the end of the Community Connections volunteer program, team members and I had learned a lot, and, more importantly, we developed lifelong skills that we could translate into other areas of our lives. For me, I learned to set effective goals for myself and the volunteers. I learned how to be a detailed planner and how to write more professional emails. These skills are helping me pursue my goal of publishing my master’s thesis in the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies.
Team members have also shared with me how they are using their new skills outside of the iHub. A few are graduating this year and beginning to search for jobs, so improving their professional communication has helped them network with professionals in their field. Other students shared with me how at first they were unsure of how to balance school and extracurriculars, but improving planning skills in the program helped them to complete assignments on time.
How I Will Continue to Develop my Skills
Developing weaknesses into strengths will always be challenging; it certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone. But if I could speak from my experience, it is certainly worth it!
Coaching 25 volunteers and setting goals together taught me several important lessons that I plan to take with me into the future. Firstly, identifying skills that I want to work on in advance will help me pursue opportunities to accomplish that goal. Next, finding opportunities to help others achieve their goals helps me reflect on how we can achieve them together, as a team. One thing I appreciate is how my role at iHub gave me the chance to test skills without being perfect. In the future, I will continue to reflect on my experiences and track my progress, so that I feel inspired to keep going.
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