Standards of Excellence for Volunteer Group Leaders
(Created by a team from The Boston Project Ministries, People Making a Difference, Pine Street Inn, Park Street Church, and the Emmanuel Gospel Center)
This brief article serves as a “mini-workbook” for volunteers who will be leading a group service project. It contains practical steps and advice for creating and organizing a project, preparing the volunteers for the project, serving in the project, and celebrating afterwards.
Why does FASTEN recommend this resource?
Volunteer group leaders will find helpful advice here to enable them to effectively plan, implement and celebrate a service project for their group.
Helpful Tips for Encouraging Volunteer Work Through Your Church
(Adapted from "Research Briefs from Related Projects Connecting Faith and Service," Baylor University School of Social Work and partners.)
Challenge members to get involved in community ministry as a required, not an elective, practice of the Christian faith. Challenge them from the pulpit, in Christian education, and at every available opportunity.
Make community ministry an integral part of the life of the church. Serving the community is more important for the faith-life of members than attending a worship service!
Provide opportunities that move members from one-shot or short-term ministries (great places to begin) into involvement sustained over time.
Help volunteers to recognize that this is Christian discipleship, an opportunity to learn, and that they should not expect to be the answer to the complexity of problems they may face.
Always wrap volunteer service with specific prayer for the work. Provide a time for sharing experiences, for reflecting on those experiences with other volunteers and with congregational leaders, and for Bible study related to the work. This is Christian education at its best!
Provide opportunities in which volunteers meet and develop relationships with people over time, such as mentoring services, classes, or community building projects.
Encourage relationships with people who come from different backgrounds and experiences, and may make volunteers a bit uncomfortable, at least at first.
Help volunteers to recognize and respond to the systems that oppress others. Show them how to respond to systemic problems; for example, through community development or emergency relief for persons in poverty. Discuss the impact of these systemic problems in the lives of individuals.
-adapted from a series of Research Briefs from Related Projects, to be released by Baylor University School of Social Work as part of a 30-month research project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The research reported in this brief was conducted in another research project led by Baylor University and funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc., "Service and Faith: The Impact on Christian Faith and Congregational Life of Organized Community Caring (2000-2003)." The research team consisted of Diana Garland, Dennis Myers, and David Sherwood (Baylor University); Paula Sheridan (Whittier College); Terry Wolfer (University of South Carolina) and Beryl Hugen (Calvin College). For more information on this project, contact Diana Garland (Diana_Garlandbaylor [dot] edu (Diana_Garlandbaylor [dot] edu)).
Introduction
Welcome to volunteer management — a most rewarding and challenging profession. This publication is designed to provide community-based organizations with an orientation to the fundamental elements of establishing a volunteer program. Best Practices for Developing a Volunteer Program is produced by seasoned practitioners from the volunteer management field. Through their years of experience, useful lessons have been learned and are now being shared to help you develop a successful volunteer program.
Pamela was looking for a chance to care for children at an orphanage. Her search on ChristianVolunteering.org would eventually lead all the way from her home in Singapore to the Nepal Children Welfare Association (www.fmorphan.org).
Click on the presentations below to get a webcast with synchronized audio and presentation . Requires Internet Explorer 5.0 or later or Netscape 7.0 or later
(Adapted from Helping You is Helping Me by Virgil Gulker (World Vision, Inc., 1993), pp. 29-38. Used with permission.)
Volunteers get a kick out of helping others. There is just something about helping others that literally makes people feel good. In a study published in Psychology Today, the main sensations reported while volunteering were: “high”, “stronger, more energetic”, “calmer, less depressed,” and a “greater sense of self worth.” Volunteers are often excited about helping others and sending the message that people care.
Volunteers gain a sense of impact or significance not always available through career or other responsibilities. While family and work responsibilities provide a deep satisfaction, there is often something missing in our experience of life. Volunteering just a few hours a week to help others can make a real difference and provide a much needed sense of accomplishment. Volunteers can find fulfillment in an opportunity to share high level skills or more often, just being there for someone.
Volunteering Enhances Employability. Volunteering provides the side benefit of a valuable work experience. It is a real opportunity to provide invaluable help while broadening your network of potential references and employers.
Volunteering helps you to discover what color your parachute is. “Discovering the color of your parachute” is the process of exploring your vocational strengths and interests. For those entering the workforce or exploring a career change, volunteering is an excellent opportunity to field-test your interests and discover new abilities.
Volunteering helps turn negative life experiences into strengths. When you consider how you may be able to help others, don’t simply think about what you may be good at, think about what you have been through. People in tough circumstances often need to talk to others who will listen with real understanding and speak to their concerns with conviction and authority. Your failures and negative experiences may hold the key to your effectiveness in helping others.
Volunteering can provide a break from preoccupation with your own problems. Working with the less fortunate allows you to change your whole frame of reference and begin to focus on what you have rather than what you lack. Volunteering often allows you to move beyond your own problems and sense of dissatisfaction to focus on the needs of others.
Volunteering provides an advanced degree in the school of life. Volunteers often tell of invaluable lessons learned from those they are helping. Sharing in the sufferings, failures and triumphs of others who are in need can provide you with a more profound and diverse perspective on life.
Click here to read the full press release! Family.ChristianVolunteering.org was recently launched to connect families with local ministry opportunities, short term family mission trips and volunteering resources. The website, a joint venture between SixSeeds.org and ChristianVolunteering.org, has attracted thousands of organizations--all looking for families to donate their time in helping the disadvantaged.
The partnering organizations hope to aid families in their search for purposeful family time, while touching those in the community with Christ's love and compassion.
Today’s teens can find almost anything online. Searches include a summer job or a college education, a new hairdo or the perfect mate. An ability to personalize searches and choose the features right for them means that these days, teens looking for the right fit often turn to the internet first to begin a search.
So no one was surprised when Alicia Barroso found a volunteer opportunity online that was the perfect fit for her talents.
Research shows that while 52.4% of those in poverty in the USA are people of color, only 16.5% of nonprofits are led by people of color, and only 3% of foundation funding goes toward organizations that are led by people of color. This presentation provides three recommendations of how AmeriCorps can counter this bias: (1) reaching out to Black and Latino led Faith-based organizations (2) requiring grantees provide diversity profiles (3) Revising funding priorities.
"Mr. Mandela has spent 67 years making the world a better place. We're asking you for 67 minutes." That's the call to action from the Nelson Mandela Foundation to people all over the world to come together and start taking steps to bring about social change. As they work to make July 18, Mandela's birthday, an official holiday, you can show your support by pledging your time to volunteer in your community.
Stephanie from Davenport, Florida discovered a way to volunteer from thousands of miles away.
Through ChristianVolunteering.org, Stephanie found an opportunity to serve as a virtual administrative assistant for Orphanages of Africa--an international humanitarian organization in Canada.
Part of being a TechMission Corps member is recruiting and managing volunteers. How do you do that well? This presentation covers recruitment, interviewing, orientation, supervision, and recognition.
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Both volunteers and volunteer managers can find training resources at the UrbanMinistry.org 
Today’s teens can find almost anything online. Searches include a summer job or a college education, a new hairdo or the perfect mate. An ability to personalize searches and choose the features right for them means that these days, teens looking for the right fit often turn to the internet first to begin a search.
We've done something really really exciting--designed a volunteering web portal for every major city in America. 
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"Mr. Mandela has spent 67 years making the world a better place. We're asking you for 67 minutes." That's the call to action from 
Stephanie from Davenport, Florida discovered a way to volunteer from thousands of miles away.
