“Volunteering with the WCC just brings me one step closer to the world I want to see!”
~ Mya Moniz, WCC facilitator
One hundred percent of Writers Collective of Canada (WCC) arts-health programming is delivered by trained volunteer facilitators. Together with them, WCC and its partners provided more than 6,200 community writing experiences in 2025, to nearly twice as many attendees than in the previous year.
Each WCC facilitator actively contributes to our fundamental purpose of igniting connection, reducing isolation, and empowering others through the invigorating experience of creating and being witnessed. In every WCC workshop, people—often strangers—come together and experience an hour or two of respite. They explore authentic voice, share stories, and connect as only humans can.
This work has never been more necessary. The World Health Organization (WHO) and other health leaders continue to warn of the epidemic of loneliness and isolation—a crisis that is intensified by dangerous uses of AI and “social” media algorithms that are motivated to foster division and replace human connection.
Despite these cautions, we remain hopeful because of our volunteers.
Volunteers doubled our impact in 2025
“I volunteer with many organizations, but my time with WCC has been particularly satisfying.”
~ Rana Khan, WCC facilitator
We see everyday the magic of what WCC volunteer facilitators enable. We are heartened, too, by the growing interest from volunteers in expanding our mission.
We trained 26% more volunteer facilitators in 2025 than in any year previous. Forty-eight new volunteers came on board, including through our largest single training to date, and our first training in Vancouver. One hundred previously trained facilitators also re-activated in 2025 to help us launch new workshops around the country.
Through volunteers, we have expanded our program at more than 25 public library branches, powerful allies in reaching traditionally underserved communities and underheard voices. Our volunteers also “take us with them”, proactively introducing WCC workshops into new communities of interest, workplaces, and geographies.
Thanks to volunteers, our impact doubled last year while our human and financial resources remained lean.
Defying trends and taking action
“My hours with WCC are consistently among the best of my week.”
~ David Lightfoot, WCC facilitator
WCC’s volunteerism is a success story amidst a nationwide crisis in the voluntary sector. Statistics Canada reports a troubling trend of volunteerism on the decline. Don McRae, Board Member at Volunteer Canada, offers two reasons for this:
- “Our traditional model of volunteering was hit by a major shock with the pandemic, one that stressed and, in some cases, broke our ways of helping each other.”
- “We’re losing the groups that bring people together at the local level … churches, service clubs, auxiliaries and other groups that provide the structure for volunteering at the local, regional and national levels.”
The work of WCC volunteer facilitators provides an antidote to both challenges. WCC community writing workshops build bonds between people, both online and in real life neighbourhoods. Our program also supports the community organizations and groups that serve diverse populations—it is a proven social prescription with a low barrier to implement and sustain.
WCC volunteers are defying the trends in other important ways, as well.
While Statistics Canada reports that “Women, young adults aged 25 to 34, and people with an education level below high school diploma had the largest declines in the rate of formal volunteering”, WCC facilitators reflect the communities we serve. They are women, young adults, and people from a range of backgrounds who reflect the many diverse, often underheard populations that we serve.
And, while informal volunteering fell 13% between 2018 and 2023, “due to fewer volunteers involved in improving the community”, WCC facilitators are actively community building and leading. They often tell us that WCC facilitation is a meaningful way to enrich and strengthen the sense of connection in the communities they are part of.
Another unique attribute of our volunteer cohort is that many of them seek greater involvement with us over time. Most of our staff, Board of Directors, and Advisory Council are trained WCC facilitators. The WCC experience inspires many of our volunteers to deepen their connection and impact with us.
What keeps WCC volunteers motivated
“My experience as a WCC volunteer facilitator since 2019 has been beautiful and humbling. … I am more patient, loving, kind, and less judgmental because of it.”
~ Georgina dos Santos, WCC facilitator
Clearly, WCC has an exceptional group of volunteers; they are truly the heart of our organization. Understanding their needs and motivations is critically important to our success, and it shapes the way we recruit, train, and support them.
So what is the secret? Why are WCC volunteer facilitators contradicting the national downward trend in volunteerism? Why, despite the challenges of life and community building today, do more and more volunteers choose to spend their time with us?
Gifts given and received
To be fulfilling, volunteering must be both a gift given and received. The most common feedback we receive from our facilitators is that the experience gives much more than it takes. In independent multiyear evaluations, WCC facilitators most commonly cite these benefits of the experience:
- Improved facilitation skills
- Improved mood
- Greater sense of purpose
- Improved technical skills
- More open-mindedness
- New leadership skills, including communication, compassion, creativity, and increased emotional intelligence
Beyond these benefits, WCC facilitators know they have a real impact because they experience it firsthand in every WCC workshop. “WCC brought me from grief to purpose,” is how facilitator Irene Reilly puts it. Facilitators witness the healing power of being deeply listened to and fully heard. They watch new connections form between strangers. They experience stories shared, many for the first time. In short, at WCC, we experience what it means to be human. As WCC facilitator Helen Kennedy expresses it: “My WCC workshops are inspiring and I leave each week with renewed belief in the power of the written word and my faith in humanity restored.”
WCC facilitators also have influence. They are empowered to initiate community partnerships, to inform and educate us about the communities they serve, to recruit new volunteers, and to become champions and advocates for their communities. Many of them report that the learning and growth they receive from the WCC training also transforms their personal and professional lives. They tell us that it makes them better friends, better parents, better neighbours, better bosses, and better colleagues.
Intentional recruitment, training, and support
“I just got my [WCC facilitator training] certificate in the mail today … this is the one certificate I feel the most proud of in my life—even more than my Bachelor’s Degree—because I know it makes an impact and it matches my core values and passion.”
~ Heather Warren, WCC facilitator
WCC’s CEO Shelley Lepp is certified in Management of Volunteer Programming, in addition to her academic focus in Adult Education & Community Development. This perspective centres the volunteer experience and underpins much of our decision making. The majority of our organizational capacity is oriented around training, activating, and supporting volunteer facilitators.
Volunteers tell us that the training we provide is second to none. It includes:
- An initial 15+ hour training program
- Monthly facilitator enrichment and learning opportunities
- Ongoing feedback loop and workshop check-ins
- Reactivation process for lapsed volunteers looking to return to service
- Rich online resources designed for facilitators
We are intentional in our recruitment of volunteers to ensure that those who train will have opportunities to begin facilitating as soon as possible, within communities that they have personal connection to. Once activated, our volunteers are supported by thorough onboarding, co-facilitation and mentorship, a formal incident-reporting process, and flexibility in terms of their engagement (location, days and times of workshops).
Every facilitator is provided with the tools and materials they need to facilitate, and they are empowered to make the experience their own by bringing their unique personalities and inspirational prompts to every workshop.
The circle of WCC volunteerism
At WCC, we conceive of the relationship between the organization and its volunteers as a circle. Volunteers are at the centre—the heart—and all other disciplines and activities surround and support their service.
As our volunteers deliver our program in their communities, they bring their learnings, observations, and ideas back to us and to each other. We are all always learning together, always practicing our core values of listening and responding in community.
Please consider supporting our incredible volunteers through a donation today. WCC workshops are free to attend, but they are not free to deliver. Our facilitators deserve public and private support to continue the critical work of building community and connection.
If you wish to become a WCC volunteer facilitator or a program partner, please reach out.