Student Volunteer Bureau (SVB): Connecting Students to the Community through Volunteerism

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The student volunteer bureau (SVB) first opened its doors in 1983. Since then, the SVB continues to provide opportunities for students to connect with the community via volunteering. The SVB only serves MUN students at the St. John’s campus and is run exclusively by students. In keeping with their unique role within the MUN ecosystem, the SVB has had several successful programs throughout the semester. To shine the light on their current activities and upcoming events, we spoke with Elea Stephenson, a 4th-year student currently completing her political science major. Ms. Stephenson is a Volunteer Assistant and helps with the SVB’s flagship initiative, ‘Volunteer Incentive Program’ (VIP).

Speaking on what the SVB does at MUN, Elea Stephenson said “The SVB is a group at Memorial that helps students find volunteer opportunities at the university and around the community. At the SVB, we are proud to run the Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP) that helps highlight the volunteering that students are doing at MUN and around the community”. 

The VIP program helps students develop key skills through volunteering activities, professional development and targeted training opportunities. The repertoire of volunteer opportunities are vast, and varied in their offerings. According to Elea Stephenson, “SVB has engaged more people that have got involved with the VIP program as well as had many people that have gotten information about where they can volunteer. The SVB also had the privilege of hosting a Shave for the Brave back in April 2019, where we raised over $1000”. 

Photo Credits: Elea Stephenson

Though the semester is slowly winding down, the SVB will be hosting a series of skillshare sessions. According to Ms. Stephenson, “these sessions will run for the last two weeks of classes with the exact sessions being released this week. These are great opportunities for anyone that might need a professional development session for the VIP program! “

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Photo Credits: Elea Stephenson

“In the winter we will also be hosting another Get Involved and Volunteer Expo (GIVE) on January 14th from 11am-3pm in the Bruneau Centre! This is a great opportunity to learn more about different clubs at the university as well as organizations in the community who are currently seeking volunteers!” she added.

In addition to helping students find volunteer opportunities, the SVB is offering students an opportunity to become a ‘Volunteer Assistant’. The application process for this position is ongoing (for the Winter Semester) with an application deadline of November 15th. More information is available on our SVB website!. Ms. Stephenson also highlighted that “coming up in the Winter semester, we will also be hosting the annual Volunteer Incentive Program Awards Ceremony, as well the Volunteer Day Awards event taking place in April, in collaboration with the City of St. John’s! All of our events can also be seen on our website.”

Photo Credits: Elea Stephenson

Connect with the Student Volunteer Bureau:
www.mun.ca/volunteer
Facebook: @SVBMUN
Twitter: @svbmun
Instagram: @svbmun

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