For Volunteers Themselves

Thanksgiving, Christmas, Diwali, Chanukah. Holidays and festivals like these can create even busier times for organisations that run fundraising drives or develop special projects tied to these events in an attempt to reach more of the communities they serve.

As evidenced during the most recent holiday season, some organisations depend on existing volunteers to put in extra shifts. Others view a special seasonal time of year as a great opportunity to recruit new volunteers to their causes; these volunteers may come to help out at a one-off event only, while others can likely be retained and end up making longer-term volunteer commitments. Still other organisations or projects exist and operate only n the run-up to and during the holiday period itself. Do they get the same volunteers to return year after year? And if so, how do they make that work?

In this Along the Web, Arnie Wickens presents websites of various organisations that have created a reputation or brand identity from identifying their work with holiday seasonal times, based on effectively recruiting volunteers to maintain the work they do. This article offers a wealth of tips that will prove invaluable when planning the next crunch of seasons and holiday volunteering.

Along the Web has previously highlighted volunteering in health care, human services, and in very emotionally challenging settings or situations. But in this new article, the focus turns for the first time to volunteering in hospice care, with a special look at how and why volunteers provide end-of-life and palliative support to adults and children, their families, and friends. Through links to hospice websites, resources, videos, and relevant research about volunteers and hospice care, author Arnie Wickens shows volunteers being well integrated alongside highly-trained professionals, either on-site or in hospice at home and community programmes.

An increasing number of hospitals and other healthcare environments are now beginning to incorporate integrative health interventions into their settings to meet the stress or symptom management needs of both patients and employees. These practices often include massage, canine visits, art, music, energy healing, guided imagery, essential oils, yoga, and Tai Chi, and work in tandem with mainstream medicine to address everything from patient boredom to emotional distress, physical symptoms of pain, anxiety, and nausea.

While interest in integrative health interventions in hospitals has grown over the last several years, the use of volunteers in these programs has grown, too. And as integrative care expert Cathrine Weaver writes in this issue of e-Volunteerism, there has also been an uptick in the unanticipated need for emotional support and more focused monitoring of volunteers in these programs. “The integrative interventions volunteer role makes great demands on the individual, and these demands can take an emotional toll,” writes Weaver. “Understanding this has helped us see the importance of supporting these volunteers in a different way.”

In this feature story, Weaver explores how to engage volunteers in integrative health programs and how to provide the monitoring behaviors and support they need to maintain their own wellbeing while helping others.

We typically write about volunteers in human service settings, but we don’t want to overlook the enormous popularity of volunteering with animals and the volunteer management involved with these unique settings. In this issue, Along the Web highlights the many roles volunteers take up in zoos and animal parks – including  working alongside rather than ‘hands on’ with animals and the many human-facing roles volunteers often play with paying customers. Writer Arnie Wickens provides links to websites of zoos around the world to illustrate some of the volunteer experiences to be found, and also includes links to videos of volunteers, volunteer managers, and relevant academic research about volunteers in zoos.

“After 12 years at the helm of a leading faith-based volunteering charity, I have decided to retire.” So writes Leonie Lewis, MBE, who has been Director of the Jewish Volunteering Network (JVN) since its inception in the UK in 2007. Having recently chosen to retire from her role, she reflects in this personal e-Volunteerism essay on the changing trends she has seen in volunteering over the last decade and on how the community can adapt to maximize the impact that volunteers make.

 “I leave with many questions that still need to be asked and many that I’ve hopefully answered through my time with the organization.  Do I leave the charity in a good place? Have I made a difference? And what is my legacy?” In this poignant reflection, Lewis tries to answer her own questions. In the process, she reveals some changes, challenges, and insights into volunteering that will no doubt resonate with the entire profession.