Sustainability 101

By Maggie Hollingsworth, VIP Fellow at Fresno State Career Services

As a college campus resource, Career Services finished strong; a happy ending to a productive school year. More students have made contact with us to improve their earning potential this year then they have in the past several years, and they know about us thanks to the help of our volunteers, the Career Ambassador Team. The 21st century economic depression, which was due (mainly) to increased energy costs and irresponsible mortgage lending practices, affected the entire nation, and with unemployment rampant, college students felt the brunt of it. Career Ambassadors helped students learn resilience through our mission, “to improve [students’] self-knowledge, career-literacy, job-search preparation, and expanded opportunities to connect to employers”.

Talking to students about how and why they should utilize our services was easy; developing the program was the challenge. And now, the challenge is to sustain the program that I’ve built with the help of Career Services staff, and the feedback of the Career Ambassadors. The process of program sustainability is this:

• Making sure the position description is right;
• Coming up with a recruitment strategy, screening process, and orientation timeline that can be used annually;
• Communicating frequently with the staff member who will soon be managing the program, and adapting it as necessary;
• Finalizing all of the volunteer materials, and organizing it in a hard and digital copy;
• Reviewing volunteer records; confirm they are complete;

The last thing I would recommend to guarantee that the organization's Volunteer Coordinator, and the (returning or new) volunteers can get along without you, is to integrate them as soon as possible, and research an online interface for them to communicate all aspects of the program (calendar, discussion board, to retrieve program forms, etc.) in a simple and organized way. For Fresno State, it’s Orgsync, and it’s amazing. 

Volunteer Training Program @ CalPoly San Louis Obispo

By Nick Bilich, VIP Lead with the Gender Equity Center, a partner site of CalPoly San Luis Obispo

An aspect of capacity building that we’ve implemented this spring at the Gender Equity Center is our updated volunteer training program.  A crucial aspect of designing any capacity building project is answering the “why?” question for potential volunteers—Why volunteer with our organization?

Our Center is (like a LOT of nonprofits) focused on aspects of social justice.  Many potential volunteers can be unaware of:

1. the ability to become involved in a movement they’re passionate about, and 
2. that our site provides the opportunity to exercise their energy and talent towards an important goal.  

Thus, this training project is designed to educate our community about WHY our Center exists, and show people the impact volunteers can have by investing in the Gender Equity Center.

A specific tip I’d like to highlight as we’ve designed this training is how it’s marketed to highly invested volunteers AND marginally invested volunteers.  The first group is comprised of those passionate about gender identity education, feminism, and social change.  These volunteers are attracted to the potential ability to impact our community through the education they receive, and the subsequent application.  It takes less of an effort to attract these volunteers, because they seek out these opportunities and education.  

The second group however, is not as deeply concerned about the goals of the volunteering, but is looking for some added value gained in the experience.  For us, it’s important to emphasize that our volunteer training is a GREAT resume builder!  Socially competent employees are very attractive in today’s job market, and our volunteer training can provide someone education to increase their understanding of what types of people could potentially be in their workplace.  Also, volunteering gives the individual opportunity to cite the hours they’ve devoted to our Center on their resume.  Mentioning all these aspects of the volunteer training allows us to throw the net wider than we might have otherwise.

I would encourage those developing similar programs/trainings to consider how they can market to groups who might be in the “marginally invested” category.  You might get more volunteers than you think!

Nick (bottom left) and other VIP Fellows as part of a human mesa.

Engaging Youth Volunteers at South Bay Community Services

By Liz Ertel, VIP Fellow at South Bay Community Services, a partner site of Jewish Family Service

Youth are often thought of as the recipient of community resources, rather than the solution to community problems. As a result, nonprofits don’t always look to young people when recruiting volunteers. However, youth are an untapped resource of volunteers. They are excited, energetic, eager to help, and full of fresh ideas.  High school students, and now even middle school students, have required service hours for school, service clubs, and college applications. Utilizing youth volunteers simply requires a different approach because these volunteers need constant engagement, stimulation, and unique schedules.

Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School students help put together food packages for families at South Bay Community Services’ food bank.

Here at South Bay Community Services - a nonprofit social services organization serving youth, children, and families in Chula Vista, CA - requests from youth needing volunteer opportunities for school or for court are very common. Unfortunately, we could not accommodate every request. After turning away what felt like hoards of youth, we set out to create new opportunities to engage more young volunteers in various programs to involve them in their own community. Since SBCS started off as a youth drop-in center in 1971 and has a history of utilizing youth to further its goals to improve the lives of families in the South Bay, we wanted to build upon that legacy.

Youth volunteers from United Methodist Church Westlake village pose during a graffiti clean-up. The church youth group chose to spend their spring break volunteering at SBCS. 

Recently, SBCS begun a Buff-a-Block program in partnership with the city of Chula Vista to clean up trash and graffiti in an assigned area of the city.  This was one of our first volunteer programs geared specifically towards youth volunteers. After only a few months, the program has proven to be very successful in cleaning up the city of Chula Vista and serves as a great way for youth to volunteer in the community during the afterschool hours.

Here at SBCS, we hope to continue to open up more youth volunteer opportunities and that other non-profits will do the same. If non-profits are creative and open to new partnerships, they can give youth the opportunity to take responsibility for their own communities.  When youth volunteer, they gain confidence, take on more leadership roles, and begin the journey to a lifetime of service.