Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (12)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (20)
Similar to WS 4C Building Community Through Open Streets - San Francisco
Similar to WS 4C Building Community Through Open Streets - San Francisco (20)
More from TheOpenStreetsProject
More from TheOpenStreetsProject (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
WS 4C Building Community Through Open Streets - San Francisco
- 1. Sunday Streets San Francisco
- 2. Why Volunteer • Brief History of Sunday Streets • How Volunteer program evolved
- 3. Various Volunteer Roles: • Volunteer movie nights • Street Team • Sign posting • Day of event
- 4. Day of Event Volunteers (2.5 hour shift): • Set up/Break down • Volunteer Captains • Intersection Monitors • Group volunteers • Adopt an intersection • Information Booth • Local Access • Mystery Shift • Event Photographers
- 5. Training for Volunteers • Volunteer Trainings • Volunteer Manual
- 6. Volunteer Retention • Sunday Streets Volunteer T-Shirt • Free lunch (day of event volunteers) • Volunteer appreciation events and end of season thank you gifts • Chance to attend Outside Lands • Discount on CityCarshare membership
- 7. Partnerships with community • Non-profit Organizations • Small Businesses • Churches • Neighborhood Associations • City Agencies
Editor's Notes
- Sunday Streets began as two events. These events were staffed by city agencies, and were planned in conjunction with bike and pedestrian advocates, and community and health minded volunteers who worked tirelessly to get the open streets event off the ground. The Department of Public Health was the leading city agency, as this was seen as a possible preventative health measure for residents of communities that were lacking open space to get out and engage in healthy activities. Livable City is the city’s nonprofit partner, and at the time Susan King was the Director, who coordinated the logistics with SFPD, SFMTA, and DPW, and the SF Bicycle Coalition managed the part time volunteer program. The event was wildly successful, and each year the number of events increased until there were 10 between the months of March and October. It became apparent that having a new part time volunteer coordinator each season wasn’t the best way to recruit and retain volunteers, and as the amount or preparation and outreach grew for the program it was clear that volunteer coordination had become a full time, year round job. The volunteer coordinator position was brought into Livable City, and since then has continued to thrive. In order to save the city money since the creation of the program, many of the tasks originally done by city staff are now handled by Livable City. The staff is very small, just 4 people, so many tasks are handled using volunteers. The event logistics, volunteer management, and outreach coordination are handled by staff members. The day of the event there are five extra paid event staff to help coordinate sponsors, and ensure everything that needs to be done gets done. There are paid traffic control officers to help manage intersections where cars cross the route, SFPD is on site for security, and there is an ambulance stationed along the route with paramedics in one or two locations. This small staff is supplemented by some amazing volunteers, and because of stellar recruitment, training, management, and proper recognition the volunteer program in san francisco continues to grow.
- There are four main roles of volunteers at Sunday Streets. Movie Nights – This is where volunteers prepare the no parking signs for each event, while socializing and getting to know staff and other volunteers. In the off season, the movie nights are used to help with direct mailing tasks. The Street team are outreach volunteers who distribute door hangers, talk with merchants along the route (maybe ask them to take postcards or put up a poster in their window). It’s a good way to notify neighbors about traffic changes and no parking as well as invite them to the event or even get them involved as a volunteer. Sign posting - someone has to post the no parking signs along the route, usually takes about three hours. Day of event – numerous roles
- Each event takes anywhere between 60 to 100 volunteers to produce. Every role is important, and there are many roles: Set up/Break down barricades, A-frames and banners, create or remove street closures and vehicle access areas. Volunteer Captains have more responsibility, as they help manage other volunteers. They are asked to volunteer for at least half of the events, and usually stay for half or day. Intersection Monitors support PCOs by directing people on bikes or pedestrians to stop when vehicles are crossing open intersections Group volunteers are accommodated by size of group and amount of time they have to give. Most are used for sign prep, or Adopt an intersection - Nonprofit organizations or corporate groups can adopt an intersection for the entire whole day. Will staff a designated intersection (controlling pedestrian and vehicle traffic) while promoting their organization and hosting an activity to thousands of people attending Sunday Streets (10 or more people). Information Booth - answer questions and direct people to activities. In down time they collect surveys, newsletter signups, participant counts, collect donations, sell merchandise Local Access - escort cars to homes along route, provide access for churches, special events (moving day, etc.) Mystery Shift - always have no shows or cancellations, so being prepared is important Event Photographers – capture all of the great moment throughout the day
- Training is a very important part of any volunteer program. Your volunteers are the face of your program, and they represent you while they are in the streets. In San Francisco Volunteer Trainings are held one evening the week before each event, also twice during the event. All volunteers are required to attend one before their vol shift at least once per year for refreshers and updates At the training they are given a Volunteer Manual which includes a history of the program, thorough info on volunteer program, FAQ so they can answer questions from participants, and basic protocol on things like lost children and emergency vehicles, as well as a list of terms thrown around (like PCO and ITC intersection).
- Every volunteer’s experience is important, as you want everyone involved to enjoy what they are doing so they come back and bring their friends and family! Sunday Streets offers many incentives to volunteer, including opportunities to meet other amazing volunteers, and make connections. Some perks include: Sunday Streets Volunteer T-Shirt Free lunch from a neighborhood restaurant (day of event volunteers) Volunteer appreciation events and end of season thank you gifts Chance to attend Outside Lands Discount on CityCarshare membership There are incentives for giving 10, 20, 30, 40 hours. Hoodies, messenger bags, calendars for captains
- It’s important to include the community in planning of Sunday Streets events. Each neighborhood has numerous neighborhood associations, non profits, churches, and merchant groups who have a stake in what happens in their community. Including as many people as possible in the planning of the event helps with outreach, as they help spread the word about the day as well as share the volunteer opportunity with their networks. However, in San Francisco it also helps fill the streets with activities to draw people to the event. Non-profit Organizations – opportunity to share the work they are doing with thousands of participants, while providing an activity Small Businesses- direct outreach for yoga studios, martial arts, art classes, etc. great advertising at minimal cost Churches – share information on the church, many hand out water bottles, Neighborhood Associations City Agencies – great opp to share any local projects with city residents. Composting, water use during drought, muni reroutes or street redesign. Because every neighborhood is different, it’s important to work directly with the groups local to that area. Each neighborhood has unique needs, for example in San Francisco, the Tenderloin has the highest percentage of households without cars. It’s the neighborhood with the most kids, but it has the least amount of open space and nearly every block is included in the Vision Zero High Injury Network. This makes it the perfect neighborhood to transform the streets into a safe place for physical activity, and by including all of the stakeholders from these groups, those streets have been transformed into a safe space for people to dance, bike, do yoga, engage in art activities, walk, and just enjoy a quiet day in their neighborhood. The difference in that community on a regular day and during Sunday Streets is so inspiring, and if you ever get a chance to visit SF during Sunday Streets, I strongly recommend visiting that weekend. It takes an incredible amount of work to produce an open streets event, and as you can see the volunteers are an integral part of ensuring the event is a success. It’s important to put as much as you can into the volunteer program, as it really will make the event the best it can be.