Local volunteers are seen clearing smashed pumpkins during a Halloween event held in October. Thursday the city kicked off a free five-part learning series aimed at engaging and rejuvenating volunteerism in Medicine Hat.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
The value of building strong relationships with people who choose to spend their time volunteering was a key topic discussed during the first of a five-part learning series held by the city and Volunteer Alberta for local organizations.
The collaborative workshop series called “Volunteer Alberta Rooted in Action Series” is aimed at rejuvenating and educating the volunteer base in Medicine Hat, and is free to attend.
Thursday morning the workshop series began with an online webinar titled “Volunteerism 101,” exploring the values of volunteerism, including how acts of volunteerism strengthen the community in a variety of ways.
Participants were also provided tips and tools on ways to support volunteers and engage others to get active, as well as common sense implementations around recruiting and screening.
The online workshop was instructed by Erin Navarro, senior co-ordinator of learning and resources with Volunteer Alberta, and was presented by the Volunteer Screening Program, a partnership between Volunteer Alberta and the government to provide education resources for the non-profit sector.
Navarro suggests non-profits and organizations using volunteers have a clear mission or goal they would like to achieve, and match volunteers to meaningful roles to help achieve that.
“The mission and vision is so important that volunteers know why they’re doing what they’re doing, and it’s important for you to know,” said Navarro. “Volunteer co-ordinators have the wonderful opportunity to kind of be the ‘master storytellers’ of your organization’s purpose, why you exist at all, what you’re hoping to do.”
For the protection of both clients and volunteers, the 1.5-hour workshop covered in depth the importance of screening volunteers as part of the onboarding process.
Navarro said volunteer screening promotes community safety and matches volunteers to meaningful roles, and shared an adaptive 10-step process to screening applicants.
“First of all, not all of us are going to need all 10 steps for every single role,” said Navarro. “You don’t have to follow the 10 steps to a T in this order.”
Loosely, the 10 steps include planning, risk assessment and management and other administrative tasks involving policy review and writing job descriptions.
However, the topic of safety was not skimped over as Navarro emphasized the importance of community safety and prevention of risks, as well as covering legal responsibilities such as preventing avoidable injuries.
“We want to do everything that we can to protect the people who are looking to us for programming,” she said.
Participants were also provided a Risk Assessment Checklist to help identify potential harm, like a volunteer who is required to drive but has no licence, or a volunteer’s level of access to import organization documents, records or financial data.
“It’s going to state a boundary of what is and what isn’t OK, and it provides guidelines for decision making,” said Navarro.
She also discussed the goal of the interview process and the importance of building a personal relationship with applicants, and provided tips for making the process flexible and accessible, like meeting for a coffee.
Providing volunteer support along their journey is also vital, says Navarro, who explained that support supervisors can maintain engagement to address any issues that may arise.
The next free workshop will be held in person on Dec. 8 at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre starting at 9:30 a.m.
Navarro will be on -hand to present the workshop titled “Volunteer Screening.”
The series will then continue in the New Year with sessions planned for Jan. 15, Feb. 12 and Mar. 3. Participants can register online by visiting the City of Medicine Hat’s homepage.
