Although he remembers feeling anxious ahead of his military service, Daniel planned to make the most of it.
“It is necessary for all Korean men; we grow up waiting,” said Torontonian, 32, “but I wanted to make sure I don’t hinder my growth in terms of career.”
You emigrated to Canada at high school and attended two years from university before returning to South Korea in 2014 for compulsory military service. He also completed some English domain exams in advance, which led to a role as an army translator.
“I had the opportunity to work in an American garrison … but also opened the opportunity to apply abroad and work in the EAU for about eight months. So I was happy with that experience,” he said.
Several nations worldwide have some mandatory military or civic service that begins with young adults and, according to a recent survey, Canadians support the idea of citizens under 30 who dedicate a year to serve their country in a similar way. Young adults who are volunteers get a lot of benefits, experts say, but making it mandatory is a more thorn proposal.
Support for civil service, but divided into military
At least seven out of 10 people who responded to a recent Angus Reid survey supported the idea of a mandatory public service for Canadians under 30, such as children’s tutoring or working in national parks. However, mandatory military service was more divisive, with 43 percent in support and 44 percent opposed.
In the midst of Canada’s elbows, the idea was to measure our appetite for this type of national initiative, according to the president of the Angus Reid Institute, Shachi Kurl.
“We live in an era in which society feels much more stratified … much more divided in terms of how they see their country,” he said from Vancouver.
“There is nothing like being in a situation in which you interact with people from different areas of life, different cultures, different linguistic background … [to] Continue better where people come from. “
However, volunteering has decreased, affected by factors such as Covid-19 pandemic, the shortage of inflation and work.
Canadians over 15 years of age who are offered as volunteers for beneficial organizations or non -profit organizations fell from 41 percent to 32 percent between 2018 and 2023, according to the data of Statistics Canada in June.
It is a significant fall, said Megan Conway, president of Volunteer Canada, which helps groups to create voluntary initiatives.
By tuning the algorithms of social networks that feed us with specific information, we are not necessarily seeing how our society looks really, said Conway.
“Volunteering helps you understand that,” he said. “Build a stronger sense of connection and also belonging.”
The voluntary president of Canada, Megan Conway, shares how volunteering can benefit the young participants.
Applied learning, personal fulfillment
When the pandemic pushed Priscilla Ojomu to virtual learning, he first ventured from his comfort zone with online volunteering and, later, experiences in person. Since then, the 23 -year -old has co -founded an education platform led by young people about racial and social injustice, attended a United Nations Conference and received the Canada Voluntary Prize.
“Many young people are looking for a purpose, they are looking for how they can apply what they are learning in something tangible and something practical. And those opportunities gave me a place … to really do that,” said Ojomu, who studies law at the University of Leicester.
Direct acts, such as the filling of donated backpacks for school children at home in Calgary, still attract it, said: “You are really seeing that right impact on you.”
Ojomu calls the public service a “third space” outside the home and school, where young people can build social connections and develop real world skills. Instead of “sleeping or seeing Netflix … you’re doing something that leads to the future,” he said.
For Aryan Gautam, volunteering is how a cause that is passionate about: climate change. He grew up from street cleansing and parks in his hometown of Mississauga, Ontario, to found a non -profit organization of Ecoeducation as a nine -year -old boy, to work more recently in a cryptocurrency of energy efficiency.
“I have a connection with this cause and it is something I want to contribute to,” said 19 -year -old Johns Hopkins University, who just starting his second year in Baltimore.
No matter what are the service acts “they alter the way the world sees,” Gautam said. “They motivate you at a hyper level … because it is really making a difference.”
You, whose service in Korea covered from 21 to 23 years, remembers it as a period of self -reflection. “In the first two years of the University, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he recalled.
Military service provided you with more time to contemplate your future, you said; A year of volunteering for Canadians “would give that similar opportunity.”
Recognizing volunteer costs
In spite of these benefits, making the public service mandatory is complicated because not all young people can forge a full year to balance it while balancing financial circumstances or other circumstances.
“Volunteer: there is a cost associated with him”, beyond those who have the reception organizations, Conway of Volunteer Canada said.
Canada faces an affordable crisis, he said, and young people are worried about entering the workforce, landing jobs and obtaining a decent income. “No [everyone] He is arriving at the table equitably, “he said.
A lot of work is also needed to build the infrastructure and volunteer capacity of Canada if we wanted to reflect on the mandatory public service for young people aged 18 to 29, he added. But at this time, “it is simply not possible.”
While some provinces have required high school students to meet the volunteer hours for the credit of the course or graduation that date back to a few decades, that has not necessarily caused generations dedicated to community service. According to the data of Statistics Canada in June, the highest fall in the hours of volunteering and volunteer came from those aged 25 to 34, a cohort that completed the secondary school before the pandemic.
However, at a time when we are reflecting on what it means to be Canadian, Conway feels that it is the perfect time to make volunteering “fun and easy”, leave the notion of service as a punitive and establish a national strategy, one that perhaps includes a pilot for the compulsive public service.
Instead of discussing mandates, he wonders, how about making a brainstorm about how to “arouse people’s interest in really exciting ways”?
After all, she says: “If you tell me that I must do it, I will find all the reasons for not doing so.”
