Student Led Volunteering Aletheia Bligh Flower - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Student Led Volunteering

Aletheia Bligh Flower a.blighflower@adm.leeds.ac.uk

Back to Basics

http://www.ivr.org.uk/researchbulletins Generation V: Young people’s attitudes towards, and practice of volunteering, Mobilising volunteers, Incentives and rewards

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Student+Volunteering

Brief history of student volunteering, publications and resources

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Student+Volunteering/Publications

Student Volunteering: A National Profile 2010

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Local+and+Regional Good Practice, Marketing, Development of opportunities

The Role of Staff and Student

Role of Staff Member Role of Student Volunteer Leadership Lead, direct, ensure Manage, implement, deliver Health and Safety; Accountability and Legality

• Source and provide training
• Monitor the project,
• Ensure policies and risk assessments

are complete.

• Check external organisations are ok to

work with (i.e. policies in place, public liability insurance in place) You have a “duty of care”* to your students

• Prepare and uphold risk

assessments,

• Follow policies
• Share information with new

volunteers

• Report back to volunteer

coordinator Finance

• Provide information on areas of funding

(i.e. local grants, university grants)**

• Support volunteers by proof reading bids
• Organise fundraising activities
• Apply for grants **

Marketing

• Local, regional, national links
• Training i.e. how to write a press release
• Templates for photo consent forms
• Write Press Releases
• Coordinate photos
• Responsible for collecting signed

photo consent forms

*You are liable if a negligent omission is committed **www.fundingcentral.org.uk

Recruitment

Before recruiting it is important to know exactly what each volunteer will be doing. Volunteers will want to be clear

• n what they are volunteering to do and you will need to be clear on this too, so that you get the correct volunteer

for each position. Below are some points you might want to include in a role description Identification of the role Role title Location of the role The number of people doing the role The purpose of the role A brief general statement of the major objectives of the role A list of the duties A list of tasks that the role involves doing Responsibilities State what resources the person will be responsible for, e.g. money, people, equipment Relationships With other people directly involved in the project Physical/social conditions The working environment e.g. outside, inside etc The hours they will be required to volunteer The groups of people the volunteer will be working with Benefits, expenses etc Experience Expenses Meeting new people Skill Development As a general rule students are likely to take the role more seriously if a more formal description of the role is laid

• ut at the beginning. The volunteer role could also include a person specification. This is useful for when you are

looking for volunteers with specific skills and abilities.

Skill Development of Students through Volunteering

Decision-making ‘Identifying options, gathering information about their suitability, ant then systematically using this to choose the best option’ Adaptability and Flexibility ‘Changing or modifying behaviour in response to the needs, wishes or demands of others’ Negotiation ‘Trying to reach an agreement or compromise by discussion with others’ Problem solving ‘Devising and then using an appropriate method, rule, technique or logic in order to find a solution to a problem’ Leadership ‘Possessing the quality of character and personality to gain the confidence of and lead others’ Planning & organisation ‘Working out how to schedule available resources and activities in order to meet an objective’

Advertising for volunteers

Internet/website

Advertise your opportunities on your university website or on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter

Student newspapers/magazines

Ask your student newspapers and magazines if there is space to promote volunteer opportunities

Posters

Put up posters around your university/students union advertising the opportunities

Word of mouth

Tell all your friends and people you know about the

• pportunities and get them to spread the word and see who is

interested

Lectures

Promote the opportunities in lectures or any public events you go to. Just ask if you can make a small announcement at the beginning or end of a meeting or lecture

‘All users’ email

Find out if there are any other email lists that you can send an email out on, for example, departmental emails or Students Union emails etc

Meeting

Arrange a separate meeting that people can attend if they are interested in finding out more about the project

Screen Savers

Talk to the IT people at the university to find out if you can have a screen saver for the computers across campus. Sometimes the university might make you pay a small fee but if you negotiate carefully you may be able to do this for free!

Activity 1: What do you want to change?

• In groups of 4 or 5 think about your local area.

What is lacking? What do you hate most about your local area? What would you most like to change? What’s missing from your community? When you’ve been to other areas what have they had that you wish your area had?

• Write your ideas on post its
• Each group should now prioritise the issues,

create a diamond on your piece of A3 with the most important issues at the top, and the least important at the bottom

What the change will be and how to create the change?

• On your piece of flipchart paper draw a large tree with

roots, tree trunk, and branches

• In the roots write the problems you identified,

concentrate on the ones that your group prioritised

• In the tree trunk put the vision of how the problem

would look if it were solved

• In the leaves put the resources or help that might be

needed to carry out the change from problem to solution

• In the fruit of the tree show what will be the outcome
• f the project

Planning the project

• Do your students know what roles they want to

take on in a committee?

• How often will the group meet to organise

activities?

• How long will the project run?
• Is there any training or support needed?
• How much time can you offer to the project?

How much time can the project offer other groups/people?

Getting on with it!

• You may need pad out your project plan with details

but you have now identified:

The background context (roots of your tree) Aim of your project Activities Expected Outcomes

• You can run this exercise with new volunteers for them

to set up a project and a committee Or

• You can recruit students to the committee

Further Questions

a.blighflower@adm.leeds.ac. uk www.volunteering.org.uk