The purpose of Training Designs is to pool the knowledge and experiences of trainers around the world and to create a unique, user-friendly, expanding training resource to enhance the training activities of those working with volunteers and paid staff. The quarterly articles provide training examples, exercises, tools, resources, and tips on various aspects of content and processes in training staff and/or volunteers. Each issue offers an in-depth exploration of one technique or topic applicable to a wide range of organizations.
The training materials are intended as a starting point to stimulate further sharing among readers. Please share your insights, experiences, and knowledge of previously published or unpublished training examples on the topics addressed.
Here's an important addition to your advocacy toolbox. This Training Designs presents training resources to help you describe and demonstrate the power of volunteer engagement to peers and senior managers through the lens of “transformational leadership.” Newly-appointed…
We all know that an organizational culture that values volunteers and volunteer management is an ideal environment in which to engage citizens in important, meaningful service. But how do we foster this culture? One approach is to design and implement in-house training and…
Adult learners bring a wealth of knowledge to any training session. But more often than not, they still expect the trainer to do most of the teaching. As trainers, we have plenty of information to convey, but we also want learners to interact with each other to reflect on the…
Do you think that creating training videos requires special expertise, lots of time, and a big budget? Think again. Perhaps nothing has evolved so rapidly in useful technology than videography: every smartphone has the capability to produce quality video; camcorders today have…
In this issue's Training Designs, author Terry Straub discusses ways to include and engage volunteers in conversations that build stronger communities. At the heart of Straub’s discussion are a variety of facilitation tools from “The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations…
Not long ago, three Volunteer Centres in neighboring communities near the Waterloo-Wellington area of Ontario, Canada were all trying to provide top-quality training and professional development for their member organizations. After noticing that many topics of interest were the…
The Training Designs feature of e-Volunteerism is based on the recognition that orientation, induction, and training are critical to the success of each volunteer and to the entire volunteer involvement effort. Great training starts volunteers on the path to positive service…
Volunteers increasingly come to organizations with expectations that their involvement will be supported by the smart use of new technologies – during recruitment, induction, and in their actual volunteering. As shown in previous Training Designs, the Internet and video have the…
In this issue’s Training Design, Linda Miller, the president and founder of Intern Programs, Inc., offers a two-hour workshop on the timely topic of interns. In this interactive process, Miller walks participants through a series of questions to determine whether or not having…
Assessing learning needs, performing a skills audit and carrying out a knowledge inventory are important activities when providing effective training within organisations. How thoroughly should we extend such techniques to volunteers? How might we link an individual volunteer…
In this issue, guest author Emma Corrigan shares resources that enable volunteers to summarize meaningful information about their volunteering experience – and turn it into great material for their CVs or résumés. Corrigan, a Volunteer Coordinator for the housing and…
Leaders of volunteers often feel pressured to know the right responses or to solve all the problems presented to them. In this Training Designs article, Sue Jones challenges this perception. Jones asks volunteer leaders to consider the value of supporting individuals and helping…
Take a tour of some of the technology tools currently being used in learning design and delivery. In this issue, Sue Jones introduces a range of new learning platforms and explores the potential for organisations to further develop and enhance the ways they train volunteers.…
As the new editor of the Training Designs section, Sue Jones shares her perspective on the importance of training in volunteer management. In her first column for e-Volunteerism, she notes that training is not the same as learning, and that leaders of volunteers need to…
Want to elicit an “ah-ha!” moment from people who think too narrowly about what volunteering is and who does it? The “Personal Volunteer History” worksheet provided in this Training Designs article is the core of a training exercise that will do just that. It will help:…
This Training Design presents a thought-provoking, high-level exploration about the volunteer management field and its future. According to those who attended the recent presentation of this material by author Katherine H. Campbell, Executive Director for the Council for…
To be effective and to thrive in upcoming years, volunteer programs must learn to engage Millennials, that slice of population also referred to as “Generation Y” and generally born somewhere between the mid-1970s to the early 2000s. As this generation assumes its role in the…
If your organization still hasn’t fully embraced the Internet to support and involve staff and volunteers, this Training Design is the key to bridging your organization’s digital divide. Jayne Cravens, who directed the Virtual Volunteering Project and helped pioneer the concept…
Following the 9/11 terrorism attacks in New York, approximately 60,000 people converged on Ground Zero hoping to help at the World Trade Center. Lessons learned from this event and other disasters have taught us that it is so much easier to prepare for what have come to be…
Founded in 1904, the American Lung Association is the nation’s oldest voluntary health agency. Our work throughout our first century has been innovative – ours was the first disease-specific organization to couple the skills and expertise of the medical professional with the…
