Volunteering on the Move (VOTM) was an inter-university research project on the evolution of volunteering practices, led by organizational communication researchers from four Canadian universities in collaboration with non-profit organizations. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada through its Insight Grants program, the group explored this topic between 2017 and 2022.
- Volunteering challenges
The project explores how marketization affects the organization and values of volunteering in non-profits, while also examining the evolution of volunteering practices. - Theoretical Framework
This research adopts the Constitutive Communication of Organizations (CCO) approach, which views communication as essential to the formation, maintenance, and transformation of communities. From this perspective, analyzing communication allows for a better understanding of collective realities and the analysis of organizational phenomena. - Case studies
The research methodology is based on multi-sited organizational ethnography and a collaborative research approach between researchers and representatives from the non-profits studied. - Research reports
8 research reports on volunteering and civic engagement in Quebec, covering studies from 2015 to 2022. - Volunteer Stories
Launched in 2018 to explore the reality of volunteers, our “Volunteer Stories” page has been enriched with new contributions following a post-pandemic contest that revealed the evolution of volunteering during these troubled times, particularly through the winning story by Mélanie Le Berre on rediscovering community. - Workshops
We organized workshops on volunteering issues in 2018 and 2019, in addition to hosting several online lunch conferences during the 2020–2022 pandemic. - The Volunteering afterworks
The goal of these events was to discuss volunteering issues in a relaxed manner, while also facilitating networking and building a genuine community of practice around volunteering challenges in Montreal.