Qualitative research, interviews and evaluation 

Through building her professional profile, Marijke found networking to be an empowering experience to advocate for her community.  

Marijke found some hindrances in measuring evidence of volunteering other than in numbers and figures, including: 

• Not many linkages between the volunteer sector and academia 

• Not funded to undertake in depth evaluation work 

• The perception that volunteering is free 

• Managers of volunteers aren’t sharing their stories 

Further exploration is needed in the following areas: 

• Explore the ways volunteering benefits our community and share those stories through implementing evaluation plans in programs for Volunteer West  

• Build networks and work collaboratively to build evidence on the impacts of Volunteer West’s work 

• Increase linkages with academia with a focus on practice-based research, in particular looking to theories of wellbeing and how they can demonstrate volunteering confidence in our community

Next read about Masters’ research with NIODA →