Advocacy

Barwon Health, the largest and most comprehensive regional health services in Australia, concluded several years ago that its 1,000 volunteers were ready and able to improve the health of their community. So in February 2014, the health service implemented a Volunteer Training and Development program that provided volunteers with opportunities to expand their healthcare knowledge, participate more concretely in the health service's mission, and ultimately build an empowered, healthy, and sustainable volunteer base for the future.

In this e-Volunteerism feature, Barwon Health’s Lyn Stack writes that “by investing in our volunteers through health knowledge, we utilise their support to directly improve the health and wellness of our community, while also providing volunteers with opportunities to increase confidence and decrease fear of entering the health sector.”  Stack describes how the program has expanded in two years to include Australia’s first Volunteer Health and Wellness Calendar, a Healthy Living Ambassadors program, and a national public awareness campaign to help volunteers expand their own health awareness to others. “By sharing this program,” Stack writes, “we can empower all volunteer leaders to invest in and reward their volunteers through the power of knowledge.”

In 1954, the Seventh International Conference of Social Work convened in Toronto, Canada, with the theme of “Self-Help in Social Welfare.” While self-help is an important component of effective social work, it can also be seen as a challenge to the formal social work profession. The multi-day event in Toronto presented many speakers and panels in an effort to examine self-help organizations from many different perspectives, and resulted in a 342-page book known as the Proceedings of the event. In this historical Voices, we select key points made by authorities from various countries at this conference, key points that have stood the test of time.

Direct action organizing is a powerful instrument for change while engaging your organization’s supporters and volunteers. It is how ordinary citizens become involved in the democratic process and have an impact. Its tools are many, ranging from voter registration drives to lobbying local school boards, from letter writing to media campaigns. Grassroots organizing places power in the hands of people, enabling them to shape their community, its policies, priorities, and services.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) has decades of experience in successfully training staff and volunteers for activist efforts. In this Training Design, PPFA Senior Manager for Training, Jordan Fitzgerald, highlights techniques from their innovative “Live Action Camps.” Included is a PDF of PPFA’s Direct Action Organizing and PowerTrainer’s Guide.

For years I have been encouraging managers of volunteer programs to function as in-house consultants; building commitment, capacity and competency of all staff that interface with volunteers in their organization. For too many years, I have seen the leaders of volunteer programs laboring diligently, trying single-handedly to manage volunteer programs in organizations where there was little buy-in, support or appreciation for their efforts. This has taken its toll on them and on the programs they have led.

Training tools/modules have been developed to help managers of volunteer programs train all staff in skills needed to work effectively with volunteers. But, staff training alone does not solve the problem. Although upper management is increasingly endorsing staff training in supervision of volunteers, they themselves are not always modeling good volunteer management at the top levels of the organization nor are they understanding and performing the roles necessary for them to contribute to a strong volunteer-friendly organization.

Without a synergistic exchange among the management team (including a manager of volunteer programs or those who provide shared leadership for the volunteer program), the organization will never achieve an optimal volunteer program.

Betty Stallings makes the case for developing a volunteer program management team, with solid advice for convincing agency executives this is best for the organization – and for them personally.

In March 2005, a pioneering 48-hour event was held in Canberra, Australia: The 1st Annual Retreat for Advanced Volunteer Management . The 50 participants came from all of the Australian states and territories, plus representatives from New Zealand, Singapore, and the US. The intense but relationship-building retreat exceeded all expectations, with prospective outcomes that will strengthen volunteerism in the Pacific region in many ways.

The co-producers of the event explain how it evolved, the goals of the program, how the facilitation model was designed, and participant reactions. They also reflect on what the retreat meant to the emerging national professional associations of Australasia and plans for making the opportunity an annual one. They also explain the provocative slogan “Not just 50, not just 3” to which the retreat “alumni” committed in the last session.

The article is accompanied by audio “sound bites” recorded on site, in which participants explain what made the two days an “advanced” experience for them.

Whilst research and interest in all aspects of volunteering and the third sector generally have grown exponentially since the 1990s, both internationally and in Australia, Australian historians have been ‘missing in action’ – they have not generally been part of this explosion of interest. Sociologists, social workers, economists, lawyers, accountants, political scientists, environmentalists, business managers, information technologists, those interested in sport and tourism – the list is endless - are part of an evolving multidisciplinary approach to what is now labelled as the ‘third sector’, ‘voluntary sector’, or ‘non-profit sector’, depending on your national preference. Public debates and discussions over issues of social capital; global initiatives such as the United Nations International Year of Volunteers in 2001; and the rise of peak organizations such as Volunteering Australia, have all brought volunteering to the fore.

But volunteering and voluntary action, the history of the non-profit sector and its relationship with government, are largely neglected topics in twentieth century Australian history. Whilst volunteering and voluntary action are integral to our western democratic traditions and both have played key roles in the development of Australian society in the twentieth century, our national histories remain largely silent. Where are the stories of volunteers, volunteering and the voluntary principle in our national histories? They have largely been ignored. They are part of our ‘invisible histories’.

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Read the keynote address delivered by Melanie Oppenheimer at the 10th National Conference on Volunteering, held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 2 June 2004.

Volunteers from the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Misery of Public Prisons began visiting incarcerated people in 1787. Over the next 117 years, the organization continued its efforts to improve prison conditions and the treatment of prisoners. Today the same organization continues its work as the Pennsylvania Prison Society.

In 1895, Warden J.W. French, the first Warden at the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, realized that Federal prisoners needed an incentive to foster positive behavior. He and Chaplain F.J. Leavitt pioneered the idea of inviting people from the community to assist their institution, especially in providing literacy courses and religious services.

While much of society turns its back on convicted offenders, volunteering in prisons has always been a calling for others, both in the US and elsewhere. This article looks at how community activists, religious evangelicals, and compassionate idealists made – and still make – an impact on prison life.

Good, skilled people in the field of volunteer management are often unsuccessful because they function reactively in programs where there is little or no true commitment, understanding or support for developing and sustaining a healthy, cutting-edge volunteer program. Individuals leading volunteer programs must not only be excellent technicians but also be able to proactively influence individuals and systems to work effectively with volunteers. Betty Stallings takes you step-by-step through the process of developing your own persuasion strategy.