The Volonteer Bureau of Montreal (VBM) began as a movement of women who chose to structure mutual aid instead of leaving it to chance, urgency, or goodwill alone. In a changing city, they created a space for coordination, training, and connection, in other words, solidarity with a backbone.
The organization was created on December 1, 1937 as the Central Volunteer Bureau, under the leadership of the Jeune Ligue de Montréal, a women’s charitable organization founded in 1912. It was officially incorporated on March 19, 1947 as Women’s Voluntary Services (Montreal) – Services volontaires féminins inc., a name adopted in 1940 during wartime, inspired by a British model.
Its founding objectives still feel remarkably current: placing volunteers in social agencies, coordinating recruitment, organizing training, and initiating community projects. In short, connecting people to real needs, strengthening engagement through skills and structure, and expanding collective capacity to act.
Over the decades, the organization’s official name evolved (1957; 1967; 1992). The names changed, but the essence remained: welcoming, connecting, supporting, training, and mobilizing, with care and consistency.
That essence is profoundly human. It lives in what is often invisible: the time taken to listen, the dignity of a warm welcome, the care involved in matching a person to a cause, the rigor required to support organizations that carry essential missions.
To connect this legacy to the present, one recent data point is especially meaningful. According to the Réseau de l’action bénévole du Québec (RABQ) (Portrait des bénévoles et du bénévolat 2025 au Québec), women volunteers are more likely than men to agree that volunteering is essential to a just and balanced society (81% vs 72%). This is not only a statistic, it is continuity: a civic belief carried forward.
The same RABQ portrait also notes that most volunteers report being involved with one organization (56%). That speaks to commitment that is relational and rooted. Behind every “organization” are people, bonds, and community. Perhaps that is the most precious legacy of the founders: a form of solidarity that does not simply pass through, but endures, and keeps people connected.
On March 8, we therefore celebrate more than a timeline. We celebrate women builders, and the vision they made possible: organized volunteering that remains human, respectful, and deeply anchored in community.
References cited
Réseau de l’action bénévole du Québec (RABQ), “Portrait des bénévoles et du bénévolat 2025 au Québec”, 2025
VBM' origins: https://www.cabm.net/en/about-us
