Green Venture’s Volunteer Programs

One major task is maintaining green spaces in Hamilton, Ontario which demands dedication, coordination, and consistency. 

As we enter the busy season of volunteering outside, here are some of the most significant challenges we face as an organization:

Recruitment and Retention

One of the primary challenges is attracting and retaining volunteers. While many people are passionate about the environment, competing commitments and busy schedules can make long-term involvement difficult. We often have a dozen people sign up to volunteer and on the day of the event 1-3 show up! If you cannot attend an event you signed up for, please let us know so we can plan accordingly. Green Venture strives to accommodate various levels of availability and commitment, that’s why we offer self-paced volunteer opportunities and shifts during the day, evening and weekends. 

View all of Green Venture’s volunteer opportunities and explore the Urban Gardening Club which is a free club for like minded individuals to meet and improve upon their gardening literacy and knowledge. Our meetings focus on environmentally conscious topics and are delivered through workshops, volunteer opportunities, and experiential group outings. Each meeting is created to be its own topic so members of different commitment levels are able to drop in when available and feel like they have picked up where they left off.

Training and Skill Development

Green Venture has incredible staff who can train volunteers on plant identification, wedding and gardening techniques and more! Please visit our calendar of events to see upcoming workshops so you can learn more about invasive species, garden design, and volunteer opportunities. 

Communication and Coordination

In 2025, Green Venture launched a new website and volunteer platform with incredible features which will make it easier for volunteers to sign up for events. Our new NationBuilder site helps volunteers automatically add events to their calendars and opt in for text and email reminders so you know where to show up, and when! 

Volunteer Motivation and Engagement

Keeping volunteers motivated and engaged is vital for the program’s longevity. Green Venture is lucky to have a handful of dedicated and active volunteers who are comfortable with self-paced work and constantly join us at events. But they are rare! Most often, we see volunteers a handful of times and need to keep finding new volunteers. We’d love to build our network of recurring volunteers who attend multiple events. That's why we developed our Stewardship BINGO card which encourages participation. When a BINGO sheet is filled out, you are entered to win a prize! 

Balancing Maintenance and Expansion 

Green Venture has installed over 27 green spaces with community members including rain gardens, pollinator gardens, permeable surfaces, tree planting sites, and mini forests. We’d love to keep expanding and adding more sites but need to balance our goals with maintaining the existing locations. Installing a new site is viewed as more important which is evident by significantly higher volunteer turnout and sponsorship. But the reality is that tasks such as replacing plants, weeding, and site maintenance are equally important so the sites are sustainable. 

Here is a list of some of the green spaces and tree planting sites in Hamilton that Green Venture needs help maintaining and monitoring. 

Green Venture's Dundas Sites

1. Dundana Mini Forest
2. DVMS Mini Forest
3. Dundas Public Library Pollinator Garden
4. DVSA Pollinator Garden
5. Governor's Manor Rain Garden
6. Morton Park Mini Forest
7. Yorkview Elementary
8. 122 Hatt Street 

Green Venture's Central Hamilton/Barton St Sites 

1. 342 Barton St E/255 Emerald
2. 529 Barton St E
3. 579-581 Barton St E
4. 571 Barton E - Library
5. 621 Barton St E
6. 673 Barton St E
7. 155 Cannon St E- Good Shepard 
8. 320 Charlton Ave W - St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church
9. 286 Sanford Ave N- Westinghouse
10. 155 Ottawa St N - Laidlaw United Church
11. 1393 Cannon St E- Our Lady of Vietnam and Holy Family Parish
12. Adelaide Hoodless Elementary School, Hamilton
13. 95 Hess Street South
14. 30 Sanford Avenue South

Green Venture's East End Sites

1. King and Pottruff Tree Planting
2. King and Nash Tree Planting
3. EcoHouse Mini Forest
4. Windermere Basin Park
5. Lake Avenue Park Mini Forest

Green Venture is ready for a busy and fulfilling 2025 season. Our volunteer opportunities will be listed on the website and we welcome people of all ages and skill levels to join us to keep Hamilton clean and green! In 2024, we completed over 60 volunteer events, worked with more than 200 volunteers and collected more than 300 bags of garbage around Hamilton. Help us break these records this year. Sign up to be part of the change.