Aurora

1. Welcome to

2. 3f) Managing a team of volunteers
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.
National Survey of Volunteering defined volunteering as:
...any activity which involves spending time, unpaid, doing something
which aims to benefit someone (individuals or groups) other than or in
addition to close relatives, or to benefit the environment.

3. Managing a team of Volunteers
‘The Volunteer Paradox’
•Churches are employing less paid
youth workers 2017 than in 2007
•Those that do are generally part
time fixed term contracts
•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

4. Managing a team of Volunteers
The typical make-up of a volunteer...
•Consistent trend towards more women volunteering than men
•Peak age: 50. Then drop off followed by a peak at retirement age
•More likely to be middle class than working class – although working
class more likely to be involved in informal volunteering (e.g. Helping
elderly neighbour)
•More likely to be married than single
•More likely than not to be church attenders
•Likely to read a mid-market Sunday tabloid and give to a good cause

5. Managing a team of Volunteers
Most common areas for volunteering:
Sport / exercise: 34%
Children’s education / schools: 30%
Hobbies / recreation / arts / social clubs:
25%
Religion: 23%
Religious people are twice as likely to be
involved in volunteering compared to non-
religious people.
26% of people participated in
formal volunteering at least
once a month & 35%
35 per cent participated in
informal volunteering
2007/8: formal volunteers
contributed £22.7billion to the
economy
(http://timebank.org.uk/key-
facts)

6. Managing a team of Volunteers
Objectives
1) Motivations of our volunteers
2) Managing and recruiting volunteers
3) Changing face of volunteering

7. Managing a team of Volunteers
Motivations...
What are your motivations
for volunteering as youth
workers? (or for paid youth
workers, as volunteers in
other spheres)
What do you think are the
motivations of the other
volunteers in your teams?

8. Managing a team of Volunteers
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) A need to be needed
6) Personal commitment to the cause - Two relatives passed away from cancer in
the past 12 months…
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
Does recognising our
motivations for volunteering
help? If so, how?

9. 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.’
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.’

10. Managing a team of Volunteers
Recruiting and Managing Volunteers
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?
Emelyn 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.’ How good are we at asking people to volunteer?
If someone’s in charge of
you…
If you’re in charge of
other volunteers…

11. Recruitment
• Job or role description
• References
• Interview
• DBS
• Probationary period
• Decision to appoint
• Training
Should we have a formal recruitment
process for our volunteer youth
workers in Church? Why / why not?
Managing a team of Volunteers

12. 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…

13. Training opportunities…
-Aurora September 2017
-YMCA Learning Hubs with Care for the Family
(May 16th www.billetto.co.uk/MayLearningHub)
-Diocese Networking Gatherings (May 24th
www.sheffield.anglican.org/network-
gatherings)
-Joined Up Conference (Sat 10th March 2018:
www.joinedupconference.com)

14. Managing a team of Volunteers
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?

15. Managing a team of Volunteers
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

16. 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.
Managing a team of Volunteers

17. Managing a team of Volunteers
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

18. Managing a team of Volunteers
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.

19. Managing a team of Volunteers
‘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.’

20. Volunteers
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?

21. Managing a team of Volunteers
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

22. Managing a team of Volunteers
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.