As the United Nations International Year of the Volunteer draws to a close, Volunteer Toronto has launched a new smartphone application to help tell the stories of those who donate their time to worthy causes.
A total of 29 volunteers and those who have benefited from their work are sharing their experiences through digital storytelling. Smartphone users can watch the video stories at designated locations throughout the city.Jessica Reynolds of Volunteer Toronto hopes that, by putting a human face on voluntarism, it will increase the number of volunteers in various fields."Digital storytelling puts the voice of the storyteller above everything else," she said. "There's data on the impact of volunteers, but nothing that tells their stories and shows the people who do this great work."By linking volunteering with the tales - and faces - of those who reap its benefits, Volunteer Toronto is looking to tap into a whole new group of potential volunteers."We know it's difficult for people to really connect with stats, so for a certain percentage of Ontarians, volunteering doesn't really mean much," she said. "This will hopefully show them just what it means."The volunteers' stories vary greatly, from a cancer survivor who is giving back by volunteering with the Ovarian Cancer Society to a retired man who found a new life through voluntarism to a 17-year-old student who has found a way to help change the world for the better.There are a lot of organizations involved from Evergreen to the Annex Cat Rescue to the Aphasia Institute, and the stories all have something different to say about volunteering," Reynolds said.Joe Lambert of the Centre for Digital Storytelling said the Volunteer Toronto project will include some brand new technology, such as the use of bar codes that can be scanned using smartphones to access the clips."We know from experience that there's a lot of interest in street-level media distribution, so we're able to try out some new things we've been trying to experiment with," he said.He concurred with Reynolds in noting that digital storytelling can stir up far more interest than simply looking at statistics or reading a pamphlet extolling the virtues of voluntarism."This is something richer than a brochure," he said. "This tells you what the meaning of being involved with one of these organizations was for the people who were involved."For more information on the Volunteer Toronto digital storytelling project, visit www.volunteertoronto.ca