United States

In the scenic Olympic Peninsula town of Port Angeles, Washington, businesses were struggling to survive the national economic meltdown. The six-week Hood Canal Bridge closure from May 1 to June 15, 2009, temporarily slowing the economy-driving flow of tourists from the Greater Seattle area to the Peninsula, was enough to make these businesses brace for the knock-out punch. Instead, residents of this feisty former logging community banded together, organized and launched an unprecedented drive toward sustainability. The plan: use the six-week period of isolation to transform the downtown core into a colorful, vibrant tourist destination that would draw visitors across the newly opened bridge.

In this e-Volunteerism feature article, Deborah A. Black reveals the step-by-step process that allowed a group of dedicated Port Angeles volunteers to take an ambitious community idea and turn it into a community success that exceeded all expectations. Today, the town has never looked better, the volunteer spirit has never been stronger and the tourists are coming back to Port Angeles.

This Training Design by Rick Lynch presents basic points about how to design an effective training session for volunteers. Co-author of the best-selling book, Volunteer Management, Lynch describes three distinct training arenas or “domains”  – training to increase volunteer knowledge, training to improve volunteer skills and training to affect volunteer attitudes. He then guides the reader to understand what works best in each.  Lynch’s suggestions for how to design a multi-hour training program provide both insights and valuable suggestions for anyone who has ever been involved in training volunteers.

In this Research to Practice, Steven Howlett reviews a recent research report that delves into how middle-aged and older Americans spend their time when they’re not at work. Published in January 2010 by AARP in Washington, D.C., this report collects information from a comprehensive survey of Americans over age 45 (with a smaller sample of younger Americans for comparative purposes). Although the report itself is largely descriptive, Howlett reveals that it outlines what organizations older Americans belong to, how they make connections and build communities, and what, if any, volunteering they do. The valuable insights offered in this research can be used to examine the latest volunteer trends in older Americans and to draw out implications for practice in the US and elsewhere.

Is the worst of the recession over? Many nonprofits are still feeling a dual pinch - more clients to serve and less money to do it with. But despite the downturn, many organisations seem to report steady volunteer numbers. Anecdotal evidence from the UK even suggests that problems in the private sector may be resulting in new volunteers - and ones with exceptionally useful skills. This Research to Practice looks at two recent short reports to try and make sense of this rather surprising but welcome turn of events and to review ways to recruit and create opportunities for skilled volunteers.

There’s a huge train leaving the station, and it’s loaded with resources that many say have the potential to fire a capacity building revolution in the nonprofit/government organization service “industry.” Let’s call it “The Pro Bono Express.” Pro bono is the latest buzzword whenever folks gather to talk about volunteerism and service in the United States. Highly skilled volunteers are not a new phenomenon, but the current twist means that for-profit corporations, especially, are seeking to offer the expertise of their employees in strategic ways that make a difference to the community.  

But what’s powering this train? What is it carrying? Can the promise be delivered? And why are some nonprofits and government organizations already on board and others concerned they’ll be left waving at the station? In this e-Volunteerism feature, author David Warshaw explores these questions and argues that finding a way to engage pro bono volunteers should be on every organization’s agenda.  

In 1990, the Bethlehem Area School District in Bethlehem, PA., decided that every public high school student would perform 60 hours of unpaid community service during high school. The District gave students an open-ended list of approved organizations where they could perform this service, and named Phyllis Walsh, a teacher in the District for 21 years, as the first Community Service Coordinator. When the new program launched in the fall of 1990, two students and their parents filed suit against the District, arguing that the mandatory community service program violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments and constituted involuntary servitude in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment.  Three years later, the United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit Federal District Court ruled that a school district did not violate any rights by requiring community service. This lawsuit - Steirer by Steirer v. Bethlehem Area School District - set precedent for the rest of the United States and was a cause célèbre at the time.

In this Voices from the Past, Phyllis Walsh, now retired, gives a first-hand account of what it was like to be the center of attention in defending student service.  She notes that bumper stickers about the case can still be seen in the Bethlehem area, sporting the rallying cry: “End Slavery at Liberty and Freedom!” - a direct reference to Liberty High School and Freedom High School, the two schools involved in this landmark case.

 

The Internet increasingly provides a means for nonprofits and government organizations to engage with people in their circles of influence. More and more organizations are blogging and posting YouTube videos and, more importantly, a great many organizations are asking their volunteers to blog on their behalf, to share photos of their events and to tweet about upcoming opportunities. In this way, organizations reach  volunteers in the spaces where they are already comfortable and engage them around their passions. And while working to increase the volunteers’ connection with the organization, we also spread our message to all of their friends.

This Training Design is not intended to be a how-to for online volunteer engagement. Rather, it will help participants identify opportunities to use social media in their volunteer engagement strategy. After the training session, participants will be able to develop the strategy for one or two small and simple Web2.0 initiatives. Those who started the training feeling overwhelmed or apprehensive about social media will leave feeling excited about the abundant opportunities that these technologies afford.

In these incredibly difficult economic times, there is perhaps one silver lining: volunteer resources.  For those organizations wise enough to seize it, the economic crisis can be viewed as an opportunity to take advantage of the skills and ambitions that today’s volunteers have to offer.  This Training Design can be used to guide volunteer leaders in exploring the challenges and opportunities of volunteer management during economic distress. Participants in the training  learn six strategies to capitalize on volunteer resources during tough times. The result?  A win-win for both organizations and volunteers.