Together for Short Lives
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Engaging volunteers

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This section provides resources to help recruit and train volunteers. You can also click on the links to any of the other sections below:

First check your progress: You can access a simple checklist of steps here, to see what you are already doing well and what gaps you might want to fill when recruiting and training volunteers.

Recruiting volunteers

A volunteer service can’t run without good reliable volunteers. This section includes resources to help you advertise and let potential volunteers know about their role. Resources that might help you include:

 

Training volunteers

Once you have people interested in volunteering, it’s important that they are given good information and training. Whether someone will be volunteering every week or month or just doing some occasional volunteering, they still need to be clear about their volunteer role, boundaries, expenses and other practical issues.

Giving volunteers written guidance is a good idea. Some organisations have found that having a signed agreement with volunteers helps to clarify the responsibilities of all parties.

Short workshops for volunteers are also useful. You might consider running some initial training workshops and then doing refreshers every quarter or six months to allow volunteers to come together to share their ideas and experiences. Such get-togethers can also serve a social function and keep volunteers engaged.

Resources that might help you include:

Next Steps
Return to Planning your service / Find out about Engaging families