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1. By Definition: Policies for Volunteer Programs by Linda Graff.
A great resource of sample policies and recommendations on how to
write them.
2.
Beyond Police Records Checks by Linda Graff. A great tool to further
develop your risk management program.
3.
Better Safe...Risk Management in Volunteer Programs & Community
Service by Linda Graff. Provides background on risk management,
an easy-to-apply risk management model, and hundreds of tips and
tricks to make volunteer programs safer and more productive. Packed
with ready to use worksheets, checklists, and sample forms. Linda
Graff's products are available on her website: www.lindagraff.ca.
4.
Safe Steps by Volunteer Canada (handbook as well as workshop). Based
on ten steps that are crucial for implementing an effective risk
management program.
5.
Volunteer Management, Mobilizing all the Resources of the Community,
by Steve McCurley and Rick Lynch. A wonderful general resource for
anyone who is interested in volunteer management.
6.
BC volunteer centres provide excellent resources on risk management
and screening. A list of volunteer centres can be found on our links
page.
(Volunteer Vancouver's library has a number of excellent resources
and offers an introductory course to volunteer management. www.volunteervancouver.ca).
7.
Sport BC has developed a number of valuable tools and also collected
a wide variety of recommended resources on their website www.sport.bc.ca.
8.
Two great general web sites loaded with articles, resources and
tons of links are www.energizeinc.com
and the Canadian www.charityvillage.ca.
9.
To download the complete text of Volunteers and the Law, visit http://www.publiclegaled.bc.ca/home/index.htm.
10.
To network with other administrators of volunteers and gain access
to professional contacts in BC and beyond consider joining AVRBC
(Administrators of Volunteers BC). For more information see www.avrbc.org.
11.
And of course visit Volunteer BC's website www.volunteerbc.bc.ca
for risk management information, our database, information on upcoming
events and contacts in your region of the province.
Why
policies?
Every
organization has rules, standards or guidelines, whether they are
written or unwritten for carrying out its work. However call them
policies and people tend to get nervous dreading the complicated
and formal process that goes into formulating policies. The task
of planning and developing policies seems daunting and is often
left up to board members who will write and/or approve policies,
imposing them on staff and volunteers who may or may not understand
the rational for these policies. In many cases policies are created
to respond to a crisis or a problem. However, planning and developing
policies ahead of time can prevent crisis and problems from occurring
in the first place, as the policies provide structure and guidance
for staff and volunteers. In the true sense of the word, a policy
expresses a position being taken or states a value or belief.
Written
policies are key to reduce or eliminate risk, clarify rules and
expectations, increase the effectiveness of programs, guide newcomers
to the organization, provide standards of conduct, direction and
delineate responsibilities and boundaries and offer continuity over
time as new staff and volunteers join. Written policies create an
equal playing field for all involved.
Policies
will tell us what to do whereas a procedure tells us how to do it.
Often a policy statement is accompanied by procedures. Even though
it is ultimately the responsibility of the board of directors to
approve policies for the organization, when it comes to volunteer
programs, coordinators of volunteers are instrumental in formulating
what policies are required to run an effective and safe volunteer
program.
Sample
policies
In this document you will find an overview of the most common policies
related to screening in volunteer programs. A checklist
of policies (
PDF, 64KB) gives an overview of the most common policies required
in a volunteer program. Each policy item will have a sample wording
and some key aspects to consider when developing this policy. The
samples are designed to assist you in developing your own policies
and are for guidance only. It is key that your organization carefully
discusses the need and purpose of each policy as well as the content
to adjust the wording. Volunteer Canada's Safe Steps screening
manual (
PDF, 280KB) contains an excellent check list to assist you develop
a comprehensive risk management program.
Who
is responsible?
In
an ideal world, each organization that runs a volunteer program
would have a trained and experienced professional responsible for
the management of the volunteer resources. Just like you would hire
a qualified accountant to look after your finances or an experienced
manager and leader as your executive director, the volunteer program
requires a professional who can implement and oversee the full volunteer
management cycle of planning, recruitment, orientation and training,
supervision, evaluation and recognition. However, we recognize that
in many organizations financial restraints may not allow for the
hiring of part-time or full time administrator of volunteer resources.
Instead a number of staff or even volunteers may take on one of
more of the components of administrating a volunteer program. If
that is your reality it is still key to ensure that there is always
a clearly identifiable contact person and/or supervisor for the
volunteer program. For more information on the skills and requirements
and sample job description of an administrator of volunteer resources,
please see the AVR-BC Employer's
Information Package (
PDF, 100KB) or www.avrbc.org
(Administrators of Volunteer Resources-BC) for more information.
View
the Volunteer Program Policies...
Planning
Recruitment
Orientation and Training
Supervision
Evaluation
Acknowledgments
We
would like to thank the staff of these organizations for generously
sharing their time, expertise and resources:
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