Opportunities

Volunteers are placed on a fixed weekly shift doing things like playing with children in waiting areas and playrooms, delivering items between units, staffing information desks, and supporting family resource spaces. You must clear a police check and immunization screening first, and commit to a set number of months.

Mackenzie Health runs volunteer placements at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. Typical roles are wayfinding and greeting at entrances, delivering patient mail and supplies, helping in gift shops, and assisting staff on inpatient units. You commit to one regular shift a week for a set term and complete health screening beforehand.

Volunteers work a scheduled shift at the Markham or Uxbridge site doing patient-facing support: escorting visitors, restocking units, helping in outpatient clinics and waiting rooms, and running errands for nursing staff. Placements require a police check, immunization records and a minimum commitment, usually several months.

Placements include patient visiting on inpatient units, helping in clinics and the emergency department waiting area, guiding people through the building, and supporting programs for veterans and older patients. Sunnybrook screens for immunization and a police check, and asks for a weekly shift over a fixed term.

Teens help run children's programs and summer reading clubs, shelve and tidy collections, assist at branch events, and support tech help sessions for seniors. Branches also take teen volunteers onto advisory groups that suggest programming and help plan teen events.

Volunteer roles include helping at children's storytimes and craft programs, running summer reading club sign-ups, tidying and shelving, and assisting at branch events. Teen advisory involvement means meeting with library staff to plan programs aimed at your own age group.

Teens support children's and family programming at branches, help with summer reading, assist with collection upkeep, and staff sign-in tables at library events. Some branches run teen groups that plan programming and help choose materials for the teen collection.

Youth advisory groups at individual branches meet with librarians to plan teen programs, run events, and give input on what the library buys and offers. Separate teen volunteer postings cover homework help for younger students, program assistance, and support at branch events.

The city places teen volunteers as helpers in summer day camps, swim and skate programs, and seniors' and community centre activities, and needs event volunteers for festivals and civic events. Youth advisory and youth council opportunities are posted on the same city pages when seats open. Most roles require training sessions before you start.

Teen volunteers assist camp counsellors, help run recreation and aquatics programs, support community events and festivals, and work on park and trail cleanup days. Youth advisory seats and leadership training for teen volunteers are advertised through the same city pages.

Volunteers help at city day camps, recreation and aquatic programs, community centres and large city events. Vaughan also runs youth leadership and volunteer development streams, and posts youth advisory openings on its city pages when they come up.

Volunteers work timed shifts in the Etobicoke warehouse sorting donated food, checking dates, repacking items into hampers, and loading orders for member agencies across Toronto. Shifts are bookable individually or as a school group, and hours are signed off afterwards. There is a minimum age for warehouse work, so check before booking.

At a ReStore you unload donation trucks, test and price donated furniture, appliances and building materials, keep the sales floor stocked, and help customers find things. Proceeds fund Habitat home builds. Shifts are a few hours and hours are recorded for you.

Volunteer roles include cleaning and enrichment for cats and small animals, dog walking, laundry and supply work, helping at adoption events, and front-desk support. Minimum ages differ by role and hands-on animal handling has the highest one, so read the role descriptions before applying.

Volunteers at animal centres across Ontario, including locations serving York Region, help with cleaning and feeding, socializing cats and dogs, laundry and supply runs, and staffing adoption and fundraising events. Age requirements vary by task, and some youth roles are event-based rather than in the kennels.

You register for a single event and spend a morning planting native trees and shrubs, pulling invasive species, or clearing litter from ravines and shorelines in the watersheds across the GTA, including the Rouge and Humber. Tools and instruction are provided; you bring boots and gloves. Hours are signed off on site, which makes these an efficient way to build the 40-hour requirement.

Volunteers help plant and care for trees on residential properties and in public green spaces around Toronto and York Region, and assist at community outreach tables. The Tree Tenders training covers tree identification, planting technique and basic care, which lets you take on more responsibility at events.

A student EcoTeam, with a teacher lead, runs waste and energy audits, organizes litterless lunch and waste-reduction campaigns, plants and maintains school grounds, and records the evidence needed for the school's certification. If your school has no team, this is one of the more straightforward clubs to start because the framework and action list are published.

You compete in a timed hands-on contest in a trade or technology area, such as welding, carpentry, electrical, baking, hairstyling, robotics, 3D animation or web design, judged against an industry standard. Entry is normally arranged through a tech or co-op teacher at your school. Provincial medallists can be selected for the national competition.

A three-hour programming contest written at your school, where you solve algorithmic problems in a language of your choice and submit code that is graded against hidden test cases. There is a junior and a senior level, and top senior scorers are invited to a further selection round. Every past problem set is published, so you can practise the exact format.

Through your school's DECA chapter you prepare for events in marketing, finance, hospitality and entrepreneurship. Most events combine a multiple-choice exam with a role-play in which you are given a business scenario, get short prep time, and present a solution to a judge from industry. Written events involve a full business or marketing plan. Provincial qualifiers can advance to the international conference. Membership and conference fees apply.

You join or help start a school team that designs, builds, wires and programs a robot to play a new game announced each season, then competes at regional events with other teams. Teams also need people for CAD, electronics, scouting, fundraising and outreach, so it is not only for programmers. Team registration and parts cost money, which teams usually cover through sponsorship.

Venturers is the youth-led section for roughly ages 15 to 17: the members, not the adults, plan the meeting program, choose and organize camping trips and expeditions, manage the budget, and run service projects. You take turns chairing meetings and leading activities, which is where the leadership record comes from. Annual membership fees apply and financial assistance exists.

A team of students forms and runs an actual small company over several months: you elect officers, raise start-up capital by selling shares, choose and source a product, do the marketing and the bookkeeping, sell, and then wind the company up and report to shareholders. Volunteer mentors from local businesses sit in on the weekly sessions.

A committee of teenagers that screens and selects films, plans and hosts events and panels, and programs part of TIFF's youth film festival, working alongside TIFF staff. Members meet regularly through the school year at the Lightbox. Selection is by application and places are limited.

You pick university-level short courses taught by U of T engineering graduate students in areas such as robotics, aerospace, biomedical engineering, machine learning and programming, and work in labs on campus. Each course ends with a project or design challenge. Courses are paid per session and some financial support is offered.

A two-week physics program in Waterloo for students in their final years of high school, covering quantum mechanics, relativity and cosmology through lectures and discussions with working researchers. Participants also work in small groups on a research-style project and present it. The program is free to accepted students, and online editions have run alongside the in-person one.

A co-op placement in a skilled trade, such as electrical, plumbing, automotive, carpentry, horticulture or culinary, where you work at a real employer for part of the school day and earn co-op credits. If you and the employer register the placement, hours worked can count toward an apprenticeship, and some students sign a registered training agreement while still in high school.

A ministry-approved bundle within your regular diploma: a set of subject courses in a sector such as health and wellness, ICT, construction, business or environment, plus a co-op placement and industry certifications like standard first aid, CPR or WHMIS. Completing it puts a red seal on your diploma. Which sectors are available depends on your specific school, so ask guidance.

A four-year undergraduate award at partner Canadian universities that selects on character, service and long-term commitment rather than marks alone, though a minimum average applies. The application asks for a detailed account of your activities and references, followed by regional and national interviews. Selected scholars also get funded summer placements and a mentor.

A large entrance scholarship for students starting a STEM degree at one of the partner Canadian universities. You cannot apply directly: your high school nominates you, and nominees then submit an application judged on academic excellence, leadership and either entrepreneurial or community involvement. Ask guidance early how your school picks its nominee.

You sit a written problem-solving paper at your own school under supervision — Cayley and Fermat are multiple choice with a short full-solution section, while Euclid and the Canadian Senior Mathematics Contest ask you to write out complete proofs. Past papers and full solutions are posted free, so you can practise for months beforehand. Strong Euclid results are looked at directly by Waterloo's maths and engineering admissions and scholarship committees.

A two-and-a-half hour written paper with short-answer questions and four long-form problems where you show complete reasoning. It is the first stage in the selection path toward Canada's International Mathematical Olympiad team, but most students write it simply as a harder challenge than school maths. Results are used for several university entrance scholarships.

You write a chemistry exam at your own school covering material beyond the Grade 11 and 12 curriculum — thermodynamics, equilibrium, organic structure and stoichiometry. Top scorers nationally are invited to a selection camp, and four students go on to represent Canada at the International Chemistry Olympiad. Preparation is mostly self-study from first-year university chemistry texts.

Two multiple-choice chemistry exams written under supervision at your own school. The Avogadro Exam is pitched at Grade 11 chemistry and the Chem 13 News Exam at Grade 12, so an SCH3U student normally writes Avogadro first. Past papers are available, and results are recognised by Waterloo chemistry admissions.

A written physics exam combining multiple-choice questions with longer problems that require setting up and solving the physics yourself. It is open to senior secondary students across the country and doubles as the first stage in selecting Canada's Physics Olympiad team. Past exams with solutions are posted publicly for practice.

You design and run your own investigation or build an engineering project over several months, then present it to judges at a regional fair. Regional winners are sent to the week-long national fair, where projects are judged again and compete for cash awards and university entrance scholarships. The work is genuinely independent — you pick the question, do the experiments and write it up.

You compete in a single hands-on trade or technology contest — electronics, IT network systems, web development, mechatronics, cabinetmaking, welding and dozens more — working to a project brief over one or two days while judges score the finished work. Secondary and post-secondary students compete in separate divisions. Winners at nationals can go on to compete internationally.

You write a multiple-choice exam on a business cluster — accounting, finance, marketing, hospitality — and then present a solution to an unseen case to a judge, usually with ten minutes of prep and ten to present. There are also written events where you prepare a full business or financial plan over several months. Qualifying students go on to the international conference against chapters from across North America.

A month-long residential program on a Canadian university campus where you live in residence, take lectures and labs in STEM and entrepreneurship, and work in a team on a design-and-business challenge that you pitch at the end. Participants are placed at a campus other than their own city's, so you are living away from home with students from across the country. Substantial financial assistance is available and the application is written by the student.

Actua is the national network behind the STEM outreach camps run out of Canadian university engineering and science faculties, so its site is the way to find the program nearest you. Camps cover coding, robotics, engineering design and environmental science, usually taught by undergraduate instructors. Many member programs also hire or train senior secondary students as junior instructors, which is a paid or volunteer route in once you are too old to attend.

A week in Ottawa learning how federal government actually works — you sit in on parliamentary proceedings, meet MPs, senators and public servants, and run a simulation where you debate and vote on legislation in committee. Participants come from every province and territory and stay together for the week. Needs-based bursaries cover most or all of the fee for many students.

An award for graduating students who have led a sustained community initiative — the application centres on describing one project you drove and what changed because of it. Recipients receive tuition support, a living allowance and the offer of summer employment. It rewards depth in one cause rather than a long list of activities.

An undergraduate award for students with a record of voluntary humanitarian or community service, often while facing obstacles of their own. The application asks for a detailed account of your service and references from the organizations you worked with. Recipients keep the award for up to four years as long as they continue to volunteer.

Need-based scholarships for graduating students who have faced significant financial hardship and still maintained their studies and community involvement. The application requires financial documentation alongside essays about the adversity you have worked through. Recipients also get access to a mentoring and alumni network.

You pick your own activities in four areas — voluntary service, a physical activity, a skill, and an adventurous journey — and log hours against each over a set minimum period to earn Bronze, Silver or Gold. An adult leader verifies your entries, and the service hours you log are the same ones that count toward Ontario's graduation requirement. Gold additionally requires a residential project away from home.

A free youth program where you join a local group led by a paid coordinator and spend sessions doing conservation work outdoors — habitat restoration, invasive species removal, wildlife surveys — and planning your own community action project. It is aimed at 15 to 18 year olds and the hours are supervised and documented, so they count toward the 40-hour requirement. Availability depends on whether a chapter operates near you.

Teams of girls and gender-diverse students pick a problem in their own community, build a working mobile app or AI prototype to address it, and submit it along with a business plan and pitch video. A mentor supports the team through the curriculum, which is free and delivered online. Teams can be formed at school, through a community group, or with friends — no school sponsorship is required.

A Canadian non-profit that runs free hands-on coding workshops for teenagers, online and in person, covering web development, Python, data and design. Sessions are taught by volunteer mentors and you leave with something you built. There are also volunteer mentor roles for students who already code and want to help teach.

You classify real research data in your browser for active science projects — identifying galaxies in telescope images, tagging animals in wildlife camera footage, transcribing historical weather records. Each project has a short tutorial and your classifications are pooled with those of other volunteers and used in published papers. Volunteers are sometimes credited in the resulting publications.

A month-long event where you make pull requests to participating open-source projects on GitHub — fixing bugs, improving documentation, adding small features — and a set number of accepted contributions completes the challenge. Maintainers label issues as beginner-friendly, so a first contribution is usually a documentation fix or a small bug. It is a concrete way to end up with public code contributions attached to your own GitHub account.

Students work one scheduled shift a week across the Newmarket campus, supporting patients and staff in clinics, wayfinding at entrances and helping in non-clinical departments. You must be at least 16 when you apply, and secondary students apply through their school's co-op office rather than directly. The year-round stream asks for a minimum of 75 hours and the summer stream for 40 hours across June, July and August, with orientation and online training before your first shift.

Volunteers at Toronto General, Toronto Western, Princess Margaret and Toronto Rehab greet and direct patients, prepare clinic rooms, visit inpatients, and handle administrative work on units. You must be 16 or older, supply two professional references, complete a two-step TB test and a signed immunization record, and finish a twelve-module online orientation. The standard commitment is one two to four hour shift a week for six to twelve months, so this is not a placement you can finish quickly.

Osler places volunteers at Brampton Civic, Etobicoke General and Peel Memorial in information desk, patient assistance, elder companionship and healing music roles. The minimum age is 15, which is unusually low for a GTA hospital, but the screening is thorough: a phone pre-screen, immunizations, references, a virtual interview and an orientation session. Most roles want a weekly shift over several months, and the elder life program asks for at least eight months.

Volunteers support patients and visitors across the North York hospital in greeting, wayfinding, unit support and program roles. The minimum age is 16. After the online application you are interviewed based on your availability, then complete references, a health assessment, e-learning modules and an orientation session before your first shift.

Trillium runs placements at Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga Hospital and the Queensway Health Centre, covering patient and family support, clinic assistance, wayfinding and program help. The hospital onboards a cohort of secondary school placements each year, so ask your co-op or guidance office whether your school is connected to it. Expect police and immunization screening and a fixed weekly shift over several months.

Be clear about the limit here: most Lakeridge Health hospital roles are 18 and over, and high school volunteering is currently offered only at Lakeridge Gardens, the long-term care home in Ajax. Student shifts run on weekday evenings or at weekends, supporting recreation activities, escorting residents to programs and spending time with them. Screening, health clearance and onboarding all happen before your first shift.

Baycrest has one of the lowest minimum ages of any GTA health organization: 13 to volunteer independently, with parental supervision required below that. Roles include friendly visiting with older residents, escorting people to programs, eating assistance with specialized training, music performance and administrative support. You need two non-family references, a doctor-signed immunization record, flu vaccine proof over the winter and a six-month minimum commitment.

Teen roles include the Teen Advisory Group, Reading Buddy mentoring for younger children, peer leadership in the young adult Pride club and mentoring at the children's chess program. The library is explicit that these are for high school students earning community involvement hours. Teen roles do not need a police check, but orientation is mandatory before you start.

The minimum age is 12, so this is one of the few library programs a Grade 9 student can walk straight into, though roles that involve handling money or supervising children need you to be 16. Volunteers help with general branch work and program support. A police record check is required where the role calls for it, and the library reimburses the fee after 20 hours of service.