Friends Outside Lend a Hand to Those from the Inside

By Emily Farver, VIP Fellow at Friends Outside and Jennifer Harman, VIP Leader at the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz

The Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz has 18 programs that empower young people, families, seniors, working professionals, and people with disabilities to be the difference in their community. Each year the Volunteer Center collaborates with over 500 partners, including fellow non-profits and businesses, to ensure our community organizations have the capacity to recruit and welcome new volunteers. AmeriCorps VIP Fellows are partnered through the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County with local non-profits to help develop volunteer programs, bringing resources to children and families within Santa Cruz County.

One of these programs is Friends Outside, where Emily Farver is the VIP Fellow this term.


The re-entry process for our clients is a difficult transition, exacerbated by little to
no support from the community.  Friends Outside acts as an advocate and resource referral service to support individuals who are incarcerated or have recently been released.

Our organization has noted that many post- released clients confront boredom, which is a primary factor that increases their likelihood to get rearrested.  Many clients have a challenging time obtaining employment, figuring out housing, and creating a healthy social network.  Due to these difficulties, Friends Outside needed to expand our programs to provide participants free courses on life skills to integrate into their daily interactions.

The development of the Life Skills Workshops has been most successful by involving staff, volunteers, and our clientele in the process.  As a result, we have built a program that reaches out to individuals in need and is taught solely by volunteers from our community who are professionals in their fields or have a strong passion for the topic. With the addition of this service, we have engaged a whole new set of volunteers into our organization.  Thus far, we have held four classes, from Financial Aid Assistance instructed by an advisor at Cabrillo College to Stress Reduction and Time Management taught by a licensed Social Worker (LMSW).  These classes have had a high rate of client attendance and have been well-received.

Turning A Story Into A Mission

By Teddy Hennes, VIP Fellow at Big Brother Big Sisters of Orange County and Maria Lemus, VIP Leader at OneOC

With volunteer, training, consulting and business services, we help Orange County’s nonprofits become as effective and efficient as they are passionate about their missions.

OneOC’s mission is accelerating nonprofit success.  Our services are fully integrated, and strengthened through partnership with other local service providers. Together, we work to accelerate the success of Orange County nonprofits, enabling them to reach their full potential.  OneOC’s nonprofit partner, Big Brother Big Sisters of Orange County, currently hosts AmeriCorps VIP Fellow, Teddy Hennes as their Community Outreach Coordinator. Here, Teddy shares the impact that a story can make for a nonprofit’s mission:

“Stories are transcendent in their ability to share experiences and provide relatable identities.  We see throughout our daily lives how the act of storytelling supersedes cultures and regions as the primary way to connect us as human beings.  The people we may never meet or speak with understand us through the stories we share and the stories that are shared about us.  As such, there is no greater tool in a recruiter's possession than the expression of his or her organization's volunteer stories.  

At Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County, we feature the stories of our volunteer "Bigs" and mentee "Littles" to motivate the thousands of potential Bigs in our county to become actual Bigs who will create new experiences with their Littles that will be shared with our community and beyond.  That is not to say that hard numbers are unimportant from a recruitment standpoint--they are--but many individuals are not sparked because there are over 125,000 single-parent families in the area who could use our service; they are driven by the tangible impact that our Big of the Year, Richard, has had on Julio and the bond of friendship that has developed throughout their decade-long match.  It is Richard and Julio's story that connects with people in a much more profound way than statistics could solely achieve. 

Every organization has a story to tell about its volunteers, and every volunteer is a microcosm of that story.  In many of your nonprofits, these people are the difference between upholding your mission and not, so engage your potential volunteers with those relatable experiences that inspired the volunteers that came before them.”

Appreciating Your Volunteers

By Kelsey Larsen, VIP Leader at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles

As the nonsectarian children’s literacy program of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, KOREH L.A. trains volunteer reading partners to work with kindergarten through fifth grade students attending our partner schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  Our volunteers work one-on-one with children identified by their teachers as “reluctant readers” for one hour per week, helping enhance the students’ reading skills and foster a love of reading.  Four AmeriCorps VIP Fellows (including myself) work together to serve volunteers in different geographic regions of Los Angeles.  KOREH L.A. also has a program supported by a fifth VIP Fellow called the Teen Literacy Corps (TLC), which involves high school students in the process of increasing literacy skills in elementary school children. TLC partners public and private high school classrooms with nearby LAUSD elementary school classrooms, and trains the high school students for one-on-one reading mentorships. 

One of the most important and fun aspects of volunteer management is recognizing and appreciating your volunteers for all the amazing work they have done.  This year alone, KOREH L.A. had over 400 volunteers working with over 600 students in 60 schools, not including our TLC program.  Here’s some creative ways we’ve shown appreciation to volunteers. We hope you can use these tips to celebrate the work of your great partners!

KOREH L.A.’s Volunteer Appreciation Tips:

1. Have a culminating celebration.  Because we work with schools, the school calendar provides an easy structure for the “end” of the year’s volunteering.  However depending on your program, any time could work for this (December, or the end of the day’s events).  This year, KOREH L.A. held an end of year appreciation brunch for all of our KOREH volunteers, where they had a chance to come together as a group, eat some good food, celebrate, and be recognized for their service. Our volunteer brunch was a great sendoff to our 2012-2013 volunteers!

Welcoming volunteers to our Appreciation Brunch

2. Give shout outs!  Be sure to recognize both the individual and the group.  Individual recognition should be as personal as possible and doesn’t need to be expensive – at the brunch, our volunteers received certificates with their name and the name of the school where they volunteered, as well as a handwritten thank-you from the VIP Fellows.  During our Fall Enrichment Seminar, a festive and educational holiday gathering for our volunteers, we highlighted “great stories” volunteers had shared with us about their experiences. We also love to mention volunteers on Facebook and Twitter.   

KOREH L.A. Volunteer Nikki Turbin shares the KOREH L.A. love!

3. Let them share their stories and advice.  Since recognition comes not just from Volunteer Coordinators but from other volunteers, allow volunteers to be heard!  At all of our events, we provide time for volunteers to discuss their experiences with one another.  Often, it’s hard to get them quiet again!  Another way to connect volunteers is by asking volunteers to share their wisdom or experiences on a blog post.  If you have a volunteer who wants to share their expertise at an event, let them!  At her regional volunteer meeting, VIP Fellow Kaitlin Schluter reached out to a volunteer with a background in child development to share some tips with other volunteers, providing them with valuable guidance.   

 

VIP Fellow Kaitlin Schluter leads volunteers in discussion at her regional meeting

4. Give them something they can take away.  Before our volunteer brunch, we reached out to the LAUSD School Board President, who agreed to speak to our volunteers about education.    This year, each of the VIP Fellows also held a regional meeting for their volunteers, where they led a discussion on a topic that volunteers wanted to learn more about and provided them with ideas for new activities to do with their students.  Whether it is a speech from a respected individual on a topic they care about, or some extra resources, our volunteers appreciate the new ideas and information.

5. Recognize loyalty.  Give a special mention to volunteers who have been serving for a long time (In the case of our program, this is multiple years, however it could also mean coming to more than one service day, serving for one month, etc.).  At our brunch, we had volunteers raise their hands or stand up for the number of years they’ve been volunteering with us.  This encourages volunteers just beginning their service to keep coming back!

Volunteer Management

 by Alex Drey-Mulari, AmeriCorps VIP Fellow at THINK Together in Ontario, CA

HandsOn Inland Empire (HOIE) is the volunteer department at Inland Empire United Way. In conjunction with hosting volunteers at the United Way, HOIE manages a website that allows volunteers and non-profits in the area to come to one place to connect. The department also organizes two large-scale school makeovers a year, manages corporate volunteer groups, and trains community members to become Volunteer Leaders. Through the department’s combined knowledge of volunteer programs and management, they are able to successfully support 7 AmeriCorps VIP Fellows. Alex Drey-Mulari is one of the Fellows currently hosted by HOIE. Alex works at THINK Together as a volunteer coordinator and he wrote the following from his experience throughout the year.

Volunteer Management is a huge umbrella term, and there are certainly many ways to approach it. Here at THINK Together, an academic support program in Southern California, we get to oversee all aspects of volunteer management. Over my term of service I had the wonderful opportunity to develop and strengthen many skills related to volunteerism. Here are some of my personal experiences with coordinating volunteers, and I hope that you can gain some insight into what it takes to work with volunteers.

First, always be present in your job, by being energetic and engaged. This does not mean that you need to a social butterfly if you are not that type of person. You should always look happy while doing your job, especially when interacting with current or potential volunteers. Always remember that volunteers are giving their precious time, and they want to feel excited about what they are doing. Your position is key to taking the volunteer’s desire to serve, and making it as enjoyable as possible. Also being energetic is more fun anyway.

Next, I would suggest getting to know your volunteers. This could be in the form of a volunteer interview, included in their volunteer application, or even just asking them questions. Volunteers serve for a myriad of reasons, and it is important to understand why each individual is volunteering. If they want to spend time tutoring children, then do not assign them to spreadsheets. Also, find out what kind of recognition the volunteers like. If they want a standing ovation in front of everyone that’s great, but maybe a hand-made thank you card is more their style. Taking that extra time to be on a first name basis with all of your volunteers really helps keep volunteers around, and again the experience is more fun this way.

The last skill I think that is essential to effective volunteer management, is scheduling of time. Many a time during my service, even today as I am writing this piece, scheduling has been an issue. I had volunteers scheduled to attend orientation to work for our summer programs, and turns out the summer ended before they could even start. Due to this interference I fell behind in other work, and had to scramble around last minute. This is a terrible position to be in, so being on top of everything is much more preferable. Learn what needs your immediate attention, and what other tasks can wait until later. Managing volunteers starts with managing your own time properly, and that is a skill I am continuing to develop.

Alex (on the far right) with VIP Fellows from HOIE.