2. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:13
3f Managing a team of volunteers
The ground that hatred has gained, will be retaken by love
The losses that we’ve sustained, will be remembered by love
The tears that we’ve cried, will be wiped away by love
The pain and grief inside, will be healed by love
A world that seems divided, will be remade by love
The fight is one-sided – the universe was built by love
And it was made to bring us together.
Love is patient, kind, formidable, invincible
And it’s the only thing that will last forever.
Not even death can defeat love.
So all of the sorry and the loneliness, all of the anger and bitterness,
And confusion and brokenness, will be outflanked, outdone,
Outmatched and overcome, by love
3. Why do we volunteer?
What are your motivations for
volunteering as youth or children’s
workers? (For paid youth workers, as
volunteers in other spheres)
What do you think are the
motivations of the other volunteers in
your teams?
5 minute conversations in breakout
rooms…
3f Managing a team of volunteers
4. Motivations
1) Seeing a need and feeling they can help meet it
2) Strong personal drivers – ‘I’ve always volunteered’
3) Family example
4) Desire to serve – ‘I want to give something back...’
5) Personal commitment to the cause e.g. family members passing away from
cancer
6) A need to be needed
7) Friendship / social reasons
8) Personal – even selfish – motives – ‘To get out of the house’
9) Guilt – ‘If I don’t no-one else will and it’ll close down’
10)Gaining fulfilment
11)Spiritual drive / religious faith
12)Desire to be part of a team
13)Simply because they’ve been asked
3f Managing a team of volunteers
5. Daniel Goleman: ‘The
fundamental task of
leaders...is to prime good
feeling in those they
lead...the primal job of
leadership is emotional.’
If that is true, then recognising our
volunteers motivations for volunteering
at your youth group will help us to
‘prime good feeling in them.’
3f Managing a team of volunteers
Richard Steel: ‘Many
recognise, and are quite
open about, the good that
volunteering does to them,
as well as the good done by
them.’
6. ‘The Volunteer Paradox’
• Churches recognise their need for
more volunteers or paid workers
• Where a paid youth worker is in post,
they will need more – not less –
volunteers.
• Aging volunteer pool to choose from
The role of our
volunteers and how
we manage them
well is therefore
crucial to help them
– and our work with
young people -
flourish
3f Managing a team of volunteers
8. 3f Managing a team of volunteers
Impact of Covid-19 on
volunteering in Scotland
(Summary Presentation)
(slideshare.net) June 2020
9. 3f Managing a team of volunteers
Impact of Covid-19 on
volunteering in Scotland
(Summary Presentation)
(slideshare.net) June 2020
10. 3f Managing a team of volunteers
In your context:
• How has the landscape of volunteering and volunteers
changed over the last 12-15 months?
• Have there been any positive changes?
• Have there been any negative changes?
• What opportunities are there going forward?
• What challenges are there going forward?
11. Changing face of volunteering
Silent Generation (1920s-1945): Commitment to a cause = duty
Boomers (1945 to 1960’s): More selfish but still large place for
deferred gratification
Gen X (Mid 1960’s to early 1980’s): ‘What suits me – now.’
Generation Y (Mid 1980’s to early 21st Century): ‘Whatever!’
This can and does affect how people volunteer
3f Managing a team of volunteers
12. Other issues around volunteering today:
Younger volunteers tend to volunteer for one-off events (e.g. Holiday clubs,
Spring Harvest etc) rather than week in week out
Many younger people can’t afford to volunteer – need to work instead
Larger commitments in other areas of their life
Families spread out – weekends often spent visiting family
University students need to work during holidays
Are there any other issues around volunteering today?
3f Managing a team of volunteers
13. Gen X needs:
-Options and flexibility
-Dislike close supervision
-Love change so much they actually need it
-They work to have a life; they don’t live to work.
Gen Y:
Expect more intense reaction more immediately than previous
generations
Want community, fun, enjoyment, and high ‘take-home value’.
Socially-networked generation – and shows in volunteering.
3f Managing a team of volunteers
14. ‘Volunteers today demand, whether explicitly or
not, more time from those who lead them. They
respond to appraisals (formal or not),
mentoring, regular reviews, volunteer
agreements. Gen X and Y are used to them in
their working life and they expect their leaders,
even in voluntary situations, to be professional.’
3f Managing a team of volunteers
15. How were you ‘recruited’ into
your youth work?
How are you managed in your
current position?
How do you recruit volunteers
in your current context?
How do you manage your
volunteers?
Emlyn Williams: ‘Research has found that short-term volunteers are
often recruited by a friend or colleague, and that long-term
volunteers tend to become so through having a close link with
existing volunteers or the organisation over time.’
If someone’s in charge of you… If you’re in charge of other
volunteers…
3f Managing a team of volunteers
16. Recruitment
• Job or role description
• References
• Interview
• DBS
• Probationary period
• Decision to appoint
• Induction & Training
Should we have a formal recruitment
process for our volunteer youth
workers in Church? Why / why not?
3f Managing a team of volunteers
17. 1) Good Induction. What did you want to know when you
started?
• The vision and aims
• Key people they need to meet
• Relevant policies – child protection, health and safety etc
• Relevant procedures – how things are done, team
meetings, other people’s roles etc
• Practical issues of where things are kept, how equipment
works
2) Clear expectations
• Two-way expectations: what are your expectations of
your volunteer and what are their expectations of you
and what they’ll be doing?
3f Managing a team of volunteers
18. 3) Tasks and Roles which, wherever possible, are tailored to the
volunteer
4) Training and Development both formal and informal.
5) Rewards – Jesus spoke about reward for service (Matt 5:12, 6:4,
10:41, 16:27, 19:29).
6) Ownership – talking about ‘us’ rather than ‘you.’ Good chance that
other volunteers will out last you, especially if you’re a paid worker.
Williams: ‘Ownership is grown through the involvement of volunteers in
planning processes, decision making and evaluation and through regular
consultation.’
7) Support and Supervision
3f Managing a team of volunteers
19. Supervision & Management
• Making good use of your supervision
• Accountability
• Mentor
• Your responsibilities over others
• Review sheets
• Appraisals
• Aims and Goals to encourage growth
• Keeping a team on board
• Model what you want to see your leaders
doing with your young people.
3f Managing a team of volunteers
20. Your leaders / helpers should know
• your aims and goals (overall and specific)
• what you expect of them (behaviour and role)
• good safeguarding practice
• how to head up safely if you’re not there
• what to do if a young person discloses information of a
safeguarding matter
• what the theme for the week/term is all about
• how to relate to the young people (what is appropriate)
• the boundaries of the group and how to discipline
• other areas of training covered by Aurora…
3f Managing a team of volunteers
21. Opportunities:
We are here to serve our volunteers as well as our young
people – so how can you serve yours?
Enabling people to volunteer on a one-off basis might help secure
them in the long term.
Volunteering opportunities provide people with different experiences to
their work and family life
Provides a sense of community and ownership for volunteers
3f Managing a team of volunteers
22. Everybody can be great. Because anybody can
serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to
serve. You don’t have to make your subject and
your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know
about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have
to know about Einstein’s theory of relativity to
serve. You don’t need to know about the second
theory of thermo-dynamics in physics to serve. You
only need a heart full of grace and a soul
generated by love.
Martin Luther King Jr.
3f Managing a team of volunteers
If our volunteers volunteer because they want to help young girls in particular, then empower them to work more with the girls than with the boys. If their passion is to disciple young Christians, then enable them to focus more those who are wanting to explore issues of faith rather than those who just want to come to play pool…and if they’re wanting to engage more with those who are on the margins of faith, then let them hang out with young people over the pool table…
Covid 19 – massive volunteering drive and response, and there will be a mixture of all of the above motivations. Opportunities for some of those new volunteers to continue the other side of the Pandemic. There’s also a challenge around how to manage and recruit all the volunteers safely, and also manage volunteer expectations if there isn’t the volunteering opportunities they expected. E.g. I signed up to be a NHS First Responder volunteer, and with our local Age UK Centre…but haven’t been asked to do anything yet…
They’ll also be a whole group of people who would be chomping at the bit to volunteer, but can’t for a variety of reasons – health, childcare, age etc – and will be dealing with a whole bunch of guilt around that.
Covid 19 – massive volunteering drive and response, and there will be a mixture of all of the above motivations. Opportunities for some of those new volunteers to continue the other side of the Pandemic. There’s also a challenge around how to manage and recruit all the volunteers safely, and also manage volunteer expectations if there isn’t the volunteering opportunities they expected. E.g. I signed up to be a NHS First Responder volunteer, and with our local Age UK Centre…but haven’t been asked to do anything yet…
They’ll also be a whole group of people who would be chomping at the bit to volunteer, but can’t for a variety of reasons – health, childcare, age etc – and will be dealing with a whole bunch of guilt around that.
Covid 19 – massive volunteering drive and response, and there will be a mixture of all of the above motivations. Opportunities for some of those new volunteers to continue the other side of the Pandemic. There’s also a challenge around how to manage and recruit all the volunteers safely, and also manage volunteer expectations if there isn’t the volunteering opportunities they expected. E.g. I signed up to be a NHS First Responder volunteer, and with our local Age UK Centre…but haven’t been asked to do anything yet…
They’ll also be a whole group of people who would be chomping at the bit to volunteer, but can’t for a variety of reasons – health, childcare, age etc – and will be dealing with a whole bunch of guilt around that.
Covid 19 – massive volunteering drive and response, and there will be a mixture of all of the above motivations. Opportunities for some of those new volunteers to continue the other side of the Pandemic. There’s also a challenge around how to manage and recruit all the volunteers safely, and also manage volunteer expectations if there isn’t the volunteering opportunities they expected. E.g. I signed up to be a NHS First Responder volunteer, and with our local Age UK Centre…but haven’t been asked to do anything yet…
They’ll also be a whole group of people who would be chomping at the bit to volunteer, but can’t for a variety of reasons – health, childcare, age etc – and will be dealing with a whole bunch of guilt around that.
Development of Volunteering and fundraising ‘experiences’ – ultra marathons, bike rides, sponsored sky rides etc.
Break out rooms
It’s important that we take the role of recruiting volunteers seriously – and I would argue that we need to take it as seriously as we take recruiting paid employers in the work place. Our volunteers are investing spiritually into the lives of the young people that we work with, and therefore it’s important that they are the right people with the right skills and talents and hearts to do so. We spent a large part of Module 1 looking at our own calling, gifts and talents for a reason – because we believe it’s a calling to work with young people. In the right context, the recruitment process for our volunteers can help them with that discernment process.
