Student Led Volunteering Aletheia Bligh Flower a.blighflower@adm.leeds.ac.uk
Back to Basics http://www.ivr.org.uk/researchbulletins Generation V : Young people’s attitudes towards, and practice of volunteering, Mobilising volunteers, Incentives and rewards http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Student+Volunteering Brief history of student volunteering, publications and resources http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Student+Volunteering/Publications Student Volunteering: A National Profile 2010 http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Local+and+Regional Good Practice, Marketing, Development of opportunities
The Role of Staff and Student Role of Staff Member Role of Student Volunteer Leadership Lead, direct, ensure Manage, implement, deliver Health and Safety; - Source and provide training - Prepare and uphold risk Accountability and assessments, - Monitor the project, Legality - Follow policies - Ensure policies and risk assessments are complete. - Share information with new volunteers - Check external organisations are ok to work with (i.e. policies in place, public - Report back to volunteer liability insurance in place) You have a coordinator “duty of care”* to your students Finance - Provide information on areas of funding - Organise fundraising activities (i.e. local grants, university grants)** - Apply for grants ** - Support volunteers by proof reading bids Marketing - Local, regional, national links - Write Press Releases - Training i.e. how to write a press release - Coordinate photos - Templates for photo consent forms - Responsible for collecting signed photo consent forms *You are liable if a negligent omission is committed **www.fundingcentral.org.uk
Recruitment Before recruiting it is important to know exactly what each volunteer will be doing. Volunteers will want to be clear on what they are volunteering to do and you will need to be clear on this too, so that you get the correct volunteer for each position. Below are some points you might want to include in a role description Identification of the role Role title Location of the role The number of people doing the role The purpose of the role A brief general statement of the major objectives of the role A list of the duties A list of tasks that the role involves doing Responsibilities State what resources the person will be responsible for, e.g. money, people, equipment Relationships With other people directly involved in the project Physical/social conditions The working environment e.g. outside, inside etc The hours they will be required to volunteer The groups of people the volunteer will be working with Benefits, expenses etc Experience Expenses Meeting new people Skill Development As a general rule students are likely to take the role more seriously if a more formal description of the role is laid out at the beginning. The volunteer role could also include a person specification. This is useful for when you are looking for volunteers with specific skills and abilities.
Skill Development of Students through Volunteering Decision-making Adaptability and Flexibility ‘Identifying options, gathering information about their ‘Changing or modifying behaviour in response to the needs, wishes or demands of others’ suitability, ant then systematically using this to choose the best option’ Negotiation Problem solving ‘Trying to reach an agreement or compromise by ‘Devising and then using an appropriate method, rule, discussion with others’ technique or logic in order to find a solution to a problem’ Leadership ‘Possessing the quality of character and personality to Planning & organisation gain the confidence of and lead others’ ‘Working out how to schedule available resources and activities in order to meet an objective’
Advertising for volunteers Internet/website Advertise your opportunities on your university website or on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter Ask your student newspapers and magazines if there is space Student newspapers/magazines to promote volunteer opportunities Put up posters around your university/students union Posters advertising the opportunities Word of mouth Tell all your friends and people you know about the opportunities and get them to spread the word and see who is interested Lectures Promote the opportunities in lectures or any public events you go to. Just ask if you can make a small announcement at the beginning or end of a meeting or lecture ‘All users’ email Find out if there are any other email lists that you can send an email out on, for example, departmental emails or Students Union emails etc Meeting Arrange a separate meeting that people can attend if they are interested in finding out more about the project Talk to the IT people at the university to find out if you can Screen Savers have a screen saver for the computers across campus. Sometimes the university might make you pay a small fee but if you negotiate carefully you may be able to do this for free!
Activity 1: What do you want to change? • In groups of 4 or 5 think about your local area. What is lacking? What do you hate most about your local area? What would you most like to change? What’s missing from your community? When you’ve been to other areas what have they had that you wish your area had? • Write your ideas on post its • Each group should now prioritise the issues, create a diamond on your piece of A3 with the most important issues at the top, and the least important at the bottom
What the change will be and how to create the change? • On your piece of flipchart paper draw a large tree with roots, tree trunk, and branches • In the roots write the problems you identified, concentrate on the ones that your group prioritised • In the tree trunk put the vision of how the problem would look if it were solved • In the leaves put the resources or help that might be needed to carry out the change from problem to solution • In the fruit of the tree show what will be the outcome of the project
Planning the project • Do your students know what roles they want to take on in a committee? • How often will the group meet to organise activities? • How long will the project run? • Is there any training or support needed? • How much time can you offer to the project? How much time can the project offer other groups/people?
Getting on with it! • You may need pad out your project plan with details but you have now identified: The background context (roots of your tree) Aim of your project Activities Expected Outcomes • You can run this exercise with new volunteers for them to set up a project and a committee Or • You can recruit students to the committee
Further Questions a.blighflower@adm.leeds.ac. uk www.volunteering.org.uk
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