Volunteer Airdrie has released it's Annual Report for 2016 which shows the 100 per cent volunteer run, non-profit organization has changed it's focus.  

Dave Maffitt, Board Chair for Volunteer Airdrie says last year, the board went above and beyond the call of duty, investing 2,100 hours of their personal time to implement a new Strategic Plan.

"We called upon the folks at Community Development within the Alberta Culture and Tourism Department, they have an office in Cochrane and I had heard that they provided Strategic Planning consultation services free of charge so we took advantage of that. The facilitator took us through a process of assessing what we needed to change and who our customers really were, so that process took about a year."

Maffitt says Volunteer Airdrie realized through that process that they were doing a number of things that weren't in demand anymore from their target customers which, at that time, were the non-profit organizations in Airdrie. 

"A lot of what we were doing was somewhat redundant and we realized there were some things that need to be retired and new activities undertaken. What we've done is to re-focus on the residents of Airdrie rather than the non-profit organizations. Our focus now is on residents and what do they need to help them get involved with our community."

The Annual Report also shows that in August, Volunteer Airdrie made a significant break through when it received approval from the City of Calgary's Social Programs and Services department to launch the LEAD Youth Leadership Development Program in the city, making Airdrie the first municipality outside of Calgary to have been trained and licensed to use the LEAD program. 

Maffitt believes the LEAD program is something that Volunteer Airdrie can use to build their future growth upon.

"It ties in well with what we're trying to do in promoting volunteerism.  Focusing on the youth is a key objective and it's tying in with the City of Airdrie's youth strategy.  We're very excited that it's going to form the cornerstone of our future growth and all of our activities going forward."

Other highlights of the 2016 Annual Report included:

  • Volunteer Airdrie visited 10 schools and spoke to over 600 students about the importance, and the benefits of volunteering
  • Revenue decreased 42 percent from 2015 to $18.603 in 2016
  • Sponsorship's, fundraising and donations increased 226 percent in 2016 to $16,203 
  • Volunteer Airdrie was an active participant in the City of Airdrie's Steering Committee for it's first Youth Needs Assessment Survey and Research Report 

Maffitt says he thinks Volunteer Airdrie is well positioned for the future. 

"Absolutely. I think we've got an excellent story and that's something we were missing previously.  I think we've seen huge response to our LEAD program.  It's clear to me that we're making good progress, people are seeing what we're doing, they're impressed and we've got some good momentum.  I'm very, very happy with what we've done so far and looking forward to the next year or two."

 

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