Student Volunteer Army

On the 22nd of February 2011, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake devastated Christchurch, New Zealand. During the following month, 11,000 students volunteered 75,000 hours cleaning up liquefaction silt across the city. They were known as the Student Volunteer Army, and today the Student Volunteer Army legacy continues as a national education charity focused on providing meaningful volunteering opportunities for primary, secondary and tertiary aged young people in Aotearoa. At primary level, the SVA Schools programme extends the SVA spirit to 1000 classrooms nationwide. Each year, 32,000 students identify a local project, build a team, develop a plan, operate their project, and report on what they have achieved. The programme teaches cooperation and leadership skills to young kiwis and helps them become lifelong volunteers! The SVA Service Award is a nationwide framework to measure, incentivise, reward and deepen the volunteer-based relationship secondary school students have with their community. Operating in over 30% of public, private and special schools in New Zealand, the SVA Service Award is a five level, badge based system. Young volunteers log their hours (approaching 150,000!), earn SVA Service Award pins, build an SVA Summary of Service and use it in job, scholarship and tertiary applications. The University of Canterbury Student Volunteer Army (UC SVA) has flourished since it was founded in September 2010. Today, UC SVA engages with over 3000 volunteers every year, providing a unique experience by combining the fulfilment of volunteering with the fun of working with other like-minded students. The largest club on campus operates a variety of volunteering events, from small weekend projects to large-scale Connect the Community events and camps.