Volunteer with CAN

Many of CAN's activities are done by volunteers, both nationally and in our local groups. We need your help to make things happen!

See below for some of the activities you can get involved with, or check out specific roles on our 'Situations Vacant' page. And check with your Local Group to see if there's something they'd like you to help out with.

Building relationships

CAN plays a key role in the cycling network in developing and maintaining relationships with other national-level organisations whose activities impact on our goals. These organisations include government agencies such as NZTA and the Police, political parties and MPs, and other cycling and road user groups, such as Living Streets Aotearoa and the AA, as well as recreational and sporting cycling groups.

Volunteer opportunities can include:

• Being on our executive team at the "core" of CAN - making things happen!
• Coordinating submissions on publicly consulted strategies, programmes, or legislation
• Meeting with elected representatives and other groups
• Running campaigns that raise public awareness and encourage councils and government to support cycling.

Volunteer & group development

IT support

We always love IT support! Get in touch if you can help with:

• Website design, upgrades and ongoing maintenance
• Any skills in our website's Drupal CMS would be highly valued!
• Web wordsmithing
• Email management
• IT training and user support.

Campaigning and communications

We're aiming to run several campaigns, or phases of campaigns, each year. We'd love you to be involved!

• Social media - X/Tweets, Instagram, Mastodon, Bluesky, Blogging, website updates, member shout-outs
• Local direct actions on the streets
• Developing CAN's campaigning strategy and coming up with creative ideas
• Designing and developing resources and materials for CAN campaigns and promotions
• Talking to people, getting media attention, getting CAN's view out there

CAN's media relations are mostly handled by the CAN spokesperson but we can share this around for campaigns. 

Technical & policy

Many times we can achieve our goals by offering technical advice or contributing to policy debates. If you have specialist skills we are keen to give you a role! Such as:

• Policy 
• Cycleway planning 
• Legal
• Urban design.

Activities & events

If coordinating CAN activities and events rings your bell, you are most welcome to step forward, such as for CAN's work in:

• Annual "CAN Do" advocates workshop (CAN DO 2024 - help with organisation/presentations)
• Annual Cycle-Friendly Awards
• Biennial 2Walk&Cycle Conference
• Other CAN/local workshops
• Various CAN promotions.

Volunteering benefits for you: 

• Looks good on your CV
• It presents an opportunity to meet new people
• It helps you determine your career goals
• It allows you to develop and refine new skills
• It makes you more confident

Yes, volunteering is a great and powerful thing. Not only does it get you off the couch in order to do something positive with your time for getting more people on bikes more often, but it can also have a pretty huge impact on your career and job search.

You can volunteer directly with the national network (CAN) and/or with your local group.  Click on your nearest group on this page and you'll see contact details.

To volunteer for CAN directly or for more info, just email or phone-

Patrick Morgan- patrick@can.org.nz or 027 563 4733