hello, everyone. i'd like to officially welcome you to today's webinar, creating group volunteer opportunities that engage and inspire. i'm molly pelzer, a management analyst at vista headquarter in washington, d.c., and i'll be the host for today's webinar.
also joining us are bethany from our partners at education northwest and sam from jds international, who have helped to prepared today's webinar and will be managing the webex technology. you'll also see them in the chat and the q&a to help address any questions you
may have during the session. and here's what we hope you'll get out of this webinar. we'd like you to be able to describe the elements of successful group projects. identify the planning components and resources you need to consider for your project. also identify the type of project that will work best for you. and access planning tools and templates. and apply a planning process to your own group volunteer project. and here's a flow of the topics we're going to cover today.
group projects. community needs assessment. planning process. project examples. and finally, resources. and i'm very happy to welcome our main speakers today, both of whom are vista alumni. katie sadler-stephenson first served as an americorps vista with georgia 4-h in athens, georgia.
she went on to serve two terms as a vista leader. georgia 4-h liked katie's work so much that they hired her, and now she manages the vista grants and a youth services america grant. katie is passionate about effective volunteer management, and it has been part of her work for ten years. karen d'angelo began her national service involvement also as a vista member with old dominion university in norfolk, virginia. then she went on to serve two terms as a vista leader at the advancement foundation in vinton, virginia.
there she supported 17 vista members working in the focus area of economic opportunity, education, and healthy futures. karen now works as a program officer in the cncs tennessee state office, where she supports 12 americorps vista projects and seven senior corps projects across the volunteer state. now i'm going to turn it over to katie. katie? thanks, molly. i am really happy to be here talking about a topic that i love.
and before we dive in to the webinar, i want to take a minute to share a bit about the vista leader program. as molly mentioned, both karen and i served as vista leaders. the role of a vista leader is to support a team of vistas, either at one location or across many sites, by coordinating their activities, providing ongoing training and coaching, helping secure resources for the project, facilitating communications and reporting, among other responsibilities. serving as a vista leader really allowed me to make a lot of professional connections and to push myself in the areas that i didn't have much experience
with, which has been incredibly useful for me. karen, did you have a similar experience? i think it should go without saying that since i've been on as another year as a vista leader, i love the experience, but i'm going to elaborate anyway. for me, one of the best parts of being a leader was actually how we met, katie. in 2014, katie and i participated in an action learning challenge together. the action learning challenge is a professional development opportunity available exclusively to vista leaders where you apply for and are selected for a small team to develop a tangible product designed to address a particular
challenge. this tangible product to address a challenge probably sounds like what you're already tasked with as a vista in your assignment description, with one main difference. the alc end product is meant to be shared widely with the larger national service family. the team of eight vista leaders from across the country was presented with the challenge of how to help vistas and leaders plan and manage volunteer projects for national days of service.
our team developed a detailed guide for five different types of national service day events. they can be replicated by vistas across the country. the guide includes templates, tools, and tips to guide you through planning a national day of service project with a list of other project ideas. this guide is available on the vista campus, along with all the other products developed by vista leaders action learning challenge teams. all right. so this is katie again, and before we go any further i'd like to make sure that
we're on the same page when we talk about group volunteer projects. as you can see, we're looking at a project or event that can be planned and implemented by a group of volunteers. we'll get into more detail on the "how to" of this in a bit, but the what is pretty simple. for the types of projects we are looking at today, we really are looking at groups of at least ten people, so this is one of those situations where the more, the merrier really does fit. now that we're all on the same page for what a group volunteer project is, let's
talk about some of the benefits. i'd like you to take a moment to share with everyone what some of the benefits of group volunteer projects are. please enter your ideas in the chat box, and make sure that you do send it to all participants. we want your comments to be visible to everyone, so please be sure to enter them in the chat panel and not the q&a panel further down the screen. okay, we have some responses coming in already. work gets done faster.
good collaboration and energy. coming face to face with the challenges that people with limited income face. likely to get good publicity. different perspectives. networking. team building. sufficient large projects can be done quickly and relationships are built. these are really great, guys. keep them coming in.
volunteers find it engaging. bringing in different strengths from others. the volunteers motivate each other. builds communities. cultivates donors, which is great. different ideas. more engaging. communication skills development. let's see.
greater diversity. and can bring in a large amount of resources for the site. again, looking at some of that fundraising. we've got networking opportunities. i think that's most of them right now. number of perspectives and backgrounds to address an issue, so you can get some different perspective. public awareness. unity.
etc. i think that is the most of them. katie, i'll send it back to you. great. those are really awesome. like, y'all – y'all are good. i love how this is really delving into some of the deeper things about what happens with these group projects and how you're building community by doing it. so thank you for all of the great benefits that you've shared.
and now we're going to talk about the value of group volunteering. so now that you've all mentioned some great values and benefits for having the volunteers participate in group projects, we're going to go on to some of the big picture ones that we want to talk about. of course some of you did mention this, getting stuff done is a huge part of it. sometimes you just need a massive number of people to come together and make something happen in a short amount of time. and there's something about being surrounded by others that are doing similar work that is energizing and motivating so that momentum builds and tasks get
done more quickly. group volunteer projects are also just a great way to raise awareness, even if awareness raising isn't necessarily the goal of the project. there's nothing like a group of people, all wearing matching tee shirts, with perhaps a banner in the background, to draw attention to the activity and the underlying need that prompted it. people will learn at least a little bit about the specific needs that is being addressed by the project, but also it's an opportunity to raise awareness about your sponsoring organization, community partners, resources in the community,
and the vista program in general. and then the last one with this is a really big one, that sometimes it can take a while to come to fruition but it can be so beneficial to everyone. it's that community building piece and the engagement that happens from the awareness raising, the buy in, and the recognition of how working together really does make an impact. when you're doing the group volunteer projects, it's not just about getting stuff done on saturday at the local community center. it's about making an investment in your own community.
getting an ownership stake is what is being developed. it's also about those connections that everyone is making from being in the room together when you're planning everything and then when you're actually doing the these connections tend to happen more when the volunteers are more engaged in the planning of the project than in those turnkey experiences. turnkey group volunteer projects, which are those projects where your volunteers show up, do the work, and then go home, are incredibly valuable and useful. projects that involve community members in the planning process typically allow people to go deeper into their connections to each other and increase engagement
with each other and with the community in general. now i'm going to turn it back over to karen, who's going to talk about elements of and universal characteristics of group volunteer projects. thanks, katie. i'm going to elaborate on the variety of group volunteer projects that allow planners to determine what makes sense for their time, needs and efforts. one time or ongoing opportunities are available throughout the year and are projects that have no specific dates and require interested groups to coordinate with agencies to schedules a date and time that is convenient for both parties
such as sorting donations for a thrift store. ongoing projects can also engage volunteers on a consistent basis, providing the opportunity to go beyond a one-time experience and have a sustained experience and impact on the community. seasonal one time opportunities, such as delivering or serving a thanksgiving meal, are projects that occur annually around the same time each year and have specific days and times for the event. offsite opportunities are projects that are completed for particular agencies but can be done from any space.
for example, baking cookies at home and taking them to a local senior center. immediate group opportunities are projects that occur on a specific date in the immediate future. the projects vary in type, but are in immediate need of volunteers. this type of project can be considered a mix of seasonal and special event opportunities, and could include national days of service. special event opportunities are projects that may require an organization to supply many volunteers for the event and may only ever occur once for that organization, such as being the beneficiary of a festival or summer concert
series. all of these types of events have some key characteristics, which will be detailed on the next slide. any successful group project is going to have these characteristics. by making it a team effort and using community partners for a local issue, you can have more impact on a community through both the measurable output and the community connections that are established. you may already have a passion for a particular issue, such as education, the environment or the economy.
assessing community needs can help guide the efforts of the project, and can be as simple as taking a walk through your neighborhood or as complex as surveying the entire city. the important thing is to focus on the community when identifying what is needed. by working together with community members, you will build community awareness and help ensure community buy in and support for your service efforts. measurable outputs refers to the number of individuals served, units of service provided, or other similar counts.
outcomes are the "so what" of the delivering those outputs. the changes or results you expect the proposed outputs to accomplish. the specific measurable outputs and outcomes should logically reflect the goals of the group volunteer project. you have probably heard a measurable outcome states as, "by a certain date, this percentage of the total number of clients served will expect this impact of the program." i want to highlight and address the difference between engaging the community and claiming the project versus putting together a single or one-off as katie mentioned, this is considered a turnkey project.
the turnkey project simply involves volunteers showing up without input or much beyond just registering. both of these approaches are valid and are suitable for different situations. but for the type of service that vistas do, engaging the community in designing and planning a project is preferable as it helps develop buy in and sustainability. turnkey experiences do have a place and can be really useful, especially if getting a particular task or activity done is the most important aspect of the but there is less chance of making lasting connections between people and
organizations. an example of a turnkey project could be the roof of the food bank is leaking heavily and a group of volunteers is needed as soon as possible to help out before all the food at the bank is ruined. our focus today will be on the type of group volunteer projects, like special events, that require quite a bit of planning time. one time or off site group volunteer projects can also utilize components of project planning outlined here. whether it's a relatively small one time project or a bigger one, there is a
planning process to ensure project success. bigger events will have more details to be worked out, but the basic process will be much the same. there are many steps to successful project management and many ways to be a leader who views a local community need and takes the initiative to find a solution. this framework is just one way to learn how to create high impact, well-managed projects that will help you sustain volunteers and have a positive impact in your community.
the content is organized into action-oriented steps that will help you work with the community to meet needs, effectively plan and manage projects, and develop a framework for your project. the intent is not to prescribe how your project should be structured, but rather to provide pointers and connect you to tools and resources you can adapt to meet your local community needs. we're going to go over each of these steps, but we're going to pull out step one, focus on the community, as well as step five, evaluation and reflection, and delve into those more deeply.
there are pieces of those two steps that can often be overlooked and slide by without completing, but the value that they add to any project can be immeasurable, and we often don't spend as much time explicitly talking about them. we want to change that. when you begin to plan a service project, it is important to involve the community from the very beginning. what are the social issues that the community is facing? what are the names of local nonprofit organizations, schools, parks, or other
community areas? by working with community members, you can identify projects that will make a true impact. you can use a variety of methods to assess community needs. you should select one that fits the scope of the volunteer effort. for a one-day project, you may want to choose an assessment technique that is less time consuming. if you are committing to a long-term project, you will want to conduct an in-depth assessment to ensure that you are effectively utilizing your resources.
katie will provide a more in-depth look at this very important step. so you should see a poll up on the right-hand side of your screen with the following question. have you conducted a community assessment or do you have access to one recently done in your community? and your choices are yes, i did my own, or yes, i have access to one that's already been done, sort of, or i'm working on it, or no, not yet. so everybody please take a few second to select one of the choices and hit submit.
and while all of that is coming in, i'm going to talk a bit about the assessment. now before you get started on planning a community volunteer project, you'll need to do a community needs assessment. so that's what we've been talking about. a community needs assessment not only identifies what the needs of the community are, but it also identifies the strengths and resources available to deal with the particular need or focus area. i want to stress that you really shouldn't skip this step.
it can be tempting to do so, especially if you are really familiar with the community, say you're a vista in the community where you've grown up. but by doing the needs assessment, it keeps your project relevant to the community you are serving. it puts the project in the context of the community. and it makes you more aware of what resources there are available, and also clues you in to key stakeholders. if you've planned a volunteer project before, you've probably done a lot of this in your head, but it's always best to go ahead and be explicit about it and
document it. you can do a google search and you can find many, many, many recommendations for doing the community needs assessment. some are more detailed or geared towards a particular topic area than you'll need. my two favorites are from youth service america and from the university of kansas. the needs assessment from youth service america is part of their booklet, youth changing the world.
the one from the university of kansas is part of their community toolbox. and we'll have links to those later on. these two things really represent the spectrum of simple and very detailed. there are both available online and free, although with youth service america you do have to register with their website to get to it. now i'm going to go through the steps of doing a community needs assessment with a little bit of explanation, but i won't be including everything that you would find on the needs assessment from the community toolbox. before i do that, let's go ahead and we're going to look at the results on this.
i think it's still going, so i'll keep going and we'll come back to the poll results in just a second. so you may find that your organization or an organization that you partner with has already done one. many urban areas have government agencies and nonprofits that have conducted a community needs assessment. and you may find that one organization has done something to assess some needs, one has done something to assess some strengths, and another has the best resources.
if that's the case, you can completely use their information. if it's more than an year or two old, you'll need to do some updating. and some categories you may need to update, even if it's only just six months old. let's see if we have the poll results yet. okay, they should be coming up shortly because i think the poll has ended. so let's see. they should be up. oh.
stephanie, is it possible, do you have the results? could you talk through what the responses are? i can. this is sam, sorry. okay, i'm sorry you can't see the poll results, but i can tell you that 11% of those who responded, responded yes, that they did their own community needs assessment. seventeen percent had access to one already finished. seven percent said sort of, i'm working on it.
and finally, 25% said no, not yet. awesome. thank you for letting us know that. so we've got some people who have done it, and it looks like we've got a chunk of people who are familiar with the idea at least, so that's good. let's move on to what all is involved in doing a community needs assessment. so, as you can see, you've got a few questions to answer. you may approach this with a project already in mind, but you may be a person that would just acknowledge that you want to serve a particular community.
you can make this work for you either way. let's start with the history of the community. this can be either very detailed or general information. a lot of times it will depend on what type of project you're looking at doing. if you are looking at having a park cleanup, you probably don't need as much information, honestly. if you are looking at creating a fundraising event with the goal of raising enough money to renovate part of the local community center, that's going to be more involved.
the second one is a big deal. who is going to benefit from the process that you are planning and what matters to them. what is truly going to be most useful. say you were in an area that has just enough space to do a community vegetable garden. you have people willing to donate items for it. and you would host a community volunteer day to get it started. lots of physical work that day.
are the people living in the community going to work that vegetable garden and use it in the future? is there buy in? you have to make sure you know the answer to that question before you push ahead with anything. next up is key stakeholders. same as before. you have to have buy-in from your stakeholders. let's go back to the vegetable garden.
who are your key stakeholders in this project? in this case, your beneficiaries are stakeholders, as is whoever donated the space for this. so let's just say it's the local middle school. you've got the principal or other administrators that will be heading it up, possibly someone from the board of education. what is important to them about this? is it important to them that this always be attractive when people drive down the road and not look overgrown?
how long are they willing to let the community garden last? now, should this project be a priority? look at your histories, your beneficiaries, and your stakeholder and honestly ask if this should be a priority. is this a good use of resources so far? if there is no buy in, then probably not. sometimes you have an opportunity that looks perfect but actually just isn't the right opportunity for right now. and that's okay.
sometimes it is the right opportunity for right now, and those are always the very exciting times. you just need to make sure that you know which one it is. so at this point, we are halfway through the community needs assessment, so we'll keep going. we're halfway there. who are your potential partners is next. i'm sure as vistas, you all expected this to come up eventually. go ahead and list out all those people and organizations that can be helpful.
if you go back to the community garden at the middle school, we know that the school will be a partner. maybe a local gardener, a farm supply store as well. next, who is already working on this. this can go back to your community's history. has this been tried before in your area? is there someone else already doing awareness raising about personal vegetable gardens? the local extension agent probably is, so get in touch with her.
did they try this at the middle school across town or further that's in a neighborhood with similar strengths and needs? talk to them and find out what when well. what were their successes and failures? use that to guide your decision making and planning. and then we have the barriers and the resources. list them all, and be explicit about it. last, we come back to the question that we asked before. that's not a mistake.
i meant to do that. you need to ask yourself again if this should be a priority. do you have 15 resources and five barriers plus community partners? that's awesome. this could be a great project for you. do you have one potential partner, no one working on this currently, ten barriers and three resources? if so, maybe this isn't the time for this project. the time for it may be next year, after we've laid more groundwork.
i know that this can kind of seem like a lot of info, and sometimes a needs assessment can be a lot of info. on the flip side, you may already have a lot of this information in your head, or it might be in the heads of three people at your service site. the needs assessment is the best way to get all of that community and institutional knowledge down on paper. when you have the right combination of everything that leads to a yes, you'll move on to planning your project. once the community assessment is done, there are a few more pieces in this step
of focusing on the community. using the information in the needs assessment, and by working with community members, you can identify projects that will make a true impact. be clear about who you hope to benefit with the project and what sorts of benefits you hope to accomplish. bring together a diverse planning team by inviting people who you think have assets to support your project. what values and ground rules will help your team work well together and ensure that the project goes smoothly?
tap into the board of your organization, personal connections, previous volunteers, or even fellow service members. as we continue to move through the steps of group volunteer project planning, keep in mind that there are multiple perspectives from which you can view this information. one perspective is your role as an americorps vista welcoming volunteers to your organization. another is as a potential group volunteer project participant. and yet another perspective could be as a future planning committee member for
someone else's project. remember that different steps and components of planning a group volunteer project can apply to each project uniquely. in your community needs assessment, you identified a community issue on which you want to focus. this step will help you narrow your scope so that you can develop a project that is effective and manageable. find some statistics about the issue in your community, the background and underlying causes, and some ideas for the project to address the need.
research what other civic-minded groups are already working in this area. are these other groups meeting all of the needs? if so, you may want to focus your efforts on another issue. once you know what groups in your community are working in a particular issue area, you can approach them about partners partnering for a project. you may already be working with this partner, in which case you should have a good understanding of how your organizations will work together and the resources that each partner can bring to the project. take time to visit the potential project site to determine the greatest need.
whether you are working at a shelter, a part, or a community service organization, a site visit will help you identify potential projects. if possible, you should visit with key stakeholders and decision makers such as the volunteer coordinator and/or maintenance staff. this will ensure that critical decisions that can affect the project development process can be made quickly. also, by involving key stakeholders in the planning process as early as possible, you'll be able to garner support for the project as well as increase the likelihood of obtaining resources you would not have been able to attain
otherwise. at this stage, it's exceptionally important to manage the expectations of the organization's contact person, and potentially of yourself. help him or her see both the possibilities and limitations of working with volunteers on the project. also, be clear about budget and time constraints for tools and materials. more information on the planning process of a large group volunteer project is available in ralc project guide that bethany linked in the chat earlier. as you narrow the scope of your project and determine what you are going to do,
you will need to formulate ideas for how you can achieve your goals. in order to have successful service projects, you have to plan well. you need to prepare for every detail, from the number of volunteers to the method of reflection you will facilitate. this step will help you map out your project so you can work effectively, meet your goals, and make an impact on the community. part of the planning process is determining the tasks involved in completing the consider what you want to accomplish and the tasks needed. then create a comprehensive list from the assignments and the number of
volunteers needed for each task. if there are multiple goals, prioritize them according to each task's importance. delegate tasks to the planning committee, along with a deadline for completion of the tasks. an important part of the project development process is determining the resources you need to complete the project, including human, material, financial, and educational. establishing volunteer needs can be a challenge.
consider these variables. volunteer skill levels. is the work appropriate for beginners, or do you need more skilled volunteers? volunteer age. is there an age limit for the project, either on the high end or a minimum age? duration of the project. what is the time commitment required? availability of supplies. will you have enough supplies so that every volunteer has the necessary tools to
be occupied throughout the project? physical space available to perform the work. how large is the service site? how many people can comfortably work there? in addition to assessing your volunteer needs, you must also address your tangible resource needs to determine what supplies, materials, goods and services you need in order to complete your project. with your project partners, strategize about the types and amount of resources that are needed.
make your list as comprehensive as possible, including resources for every aspect of the project, from name tags and refreshments for volunteers to tools and restroom facilities. while in kind contributions will help you complete the project, some items will require financial resources. as you list the supplies and materials needed for the project, note the ones that have a cost associated with them. how will you secure the resources needed to cover these costs? when recruiting volunteers, remember that the personal ask is always the most
compelling form of recruitment. consider using volunteers from a partner agency, or approach other groups, such as unions, sororities and fraternities, civic organizations, teachers' organizations, or even independent living homes. you can also display recruitment information through the internet, newspapers, local fairs, schools, community bulletin boards, classrooms, and other interesting high-traffic places. there are some great ideas from marketing and recruitment in the action learning challenge guide.
volunteers come in all shapes and sizes. child or adult. disabled or able bodied. various races, religions, sexual orientation, and income brackets. not all volunteers look the same. not all types of volunteering will appeal to all people. so make sure that you render diverse volunteer opportunities available. similarly, be sure to target recruitment in ways that will appeal to different groups.
now that you have created a recruitment strategy and enlisted volunteers for your project, it's a good idea to pre-register volunteers. pre-registration can be as simple as providing a contact name, number, or email address where your volunteers can sign up. if volunteers pre-register, you will be able to contact them about project details and also discuss with them the skills, supplies, or friends they might also want to bring to the project. prior to the event, check with volunteers to make sure that all special needs, medical or otherwise, have been addressed and met.
also, keep the commitments you make. people will not support you if you do not provide information requested, address issues they have, or miss scheduled appointments. ensuring the safety of life and property is critical. by reviewing a project for possible hazards and educating volunteers about safety, project staff will reduce the chance of someone getting hurt. review the safety emergency plan with your project leaders. know any nearby emergency exits, first aid kits, or automated external defibrillators if available.
assign a safety point person for the day of the event, especially if the event is outdoors. always have a first aid kit on hand and a phone to call first responders if necessary. we're going to have another chance for you to participate by responding to a chat question. please enter your ideas in the chat box and make sure you send to all participants. in the chat panel and not the q&a panel farther down the screen.
we want to know how might you recruit volunteers for a group project. we'd love to hear from you guys, and responses are already coming in. robert says he's going to do all of it, all forms of media. stephanie is going to use social media. alexandra is e-newsletter to partner agencies and orgs. kia has a great recommendation, speak at churches and community events. justin says we have a volunteer website that is widely used by the community. that is also excellent. we've got some other ones coming in.
senior citizen centers. asking current volunteers to bring three friends, which is a brilliant idea. reach out to similar organizations. work through partner networks. do some tables out outreach at community events or farmer's markets. having things on websites. universities and colleges. churches. back-to-school events.
city council meetings. a news channel. flyers. flyers and signs around the community are a great idea. also we've got recommendations to reach out to civic groups. newspapers still work, too. celeste, you are absolutely right. school pta meetings. inform people about what you are trying to accomplish, which is why that
community needs assessment is so important. make sure that what you're doing is what the community needs done, and then you can tell your volunteers why you need to do it. we've got meetup.com groups, canvassing local neighborhoods, working with employers' networks. yes, those corporate volunteer groups are a wonderful thing. and radio broadcasts, local npr stations, and referrals, etc. so those were a heck of a lot of really great ideas, karen. i think most of them were covered.
i will hand it back to you. i would agree that there's a whole ton of ideas there that are really fantastic. when i was a vista leader, cabling was one of my absolute favorite ways to both recruit new vistas for our project and to get out the word about, you know, any events that were going on, or volunteers needed. and the bring three friends idea is completely brilliant. i think that's a really fantastic but, i guess, low intensity way to make sure that someone is committed when they bring their friends. successful projects exhibit a good balance between logistics, time and people.
so as the project manager, you will need to balance these three elements effectively in order to implement a successful, productive service project. to successfully complete your project, you will need volunteers. if you have too few participants, the project will likely go unfinished. if you have too many volunteers, someone will have little to do and might feel that their time was not utilized well. you also need to factor in that not everyone who signs up will show up. successful leadership of a project or team involves empowering others to lead. as with the task list to the planning committee, delegate day-of
responsibilities to area leaders. is there a volunteer who can play a key role in monitoring progress at each area? ask them to use their judgment and expertise to adjust the work according to the progress being made. is there a safety expert who can focus on proper tool usage or mitigating injuries? ask them to give lessons to teams using dangerous or difficult tools. wrapping up the project on site means cleaning up, the task that is often the
least exciting or motivating of the day but no less important. ask everyone to do their part. have project leaders lead volunteers in pitching in to make the site look better than it did when they arrived. all materials should be used or donated back to the organization. all tools should be returned to their respective areas. spend adequate time cleaning up after the project is finished. you always want to leave the site cleaner than it was when you arrived. recognition.
volunteer recognition is a must. you should make sure that volunteers feel appreciated. you should invite them back to serve again. showing appreciation for your volunteers is a great way to get them to come back. the simplest of acknowledgment and appreciation practices are often the most effective. no matter how the event goes, be sure to thank your volunteers, partners and donors.
the thanks can take different forms, depending on how much work was contributed. in some instances, a brief thank you speech may be sufficient. if a volunteer group went above and beyond, a handwritten thank you card is a welcome expression of gratitude. other types of recognition could be small gift cards or vouchers, the availability of snacks or meals during the project, or an awards ceremony at a later time. reflection and community building provide volunteers an opportunity to reflect on the day's events.
these activities help volunteers connect to the mission of the project. as americorps vista members, it can be easy to feel removed from the community at host sites, so performing or organizing direct service gives you a presence and tangible impact on the community. evaluation and feedback are necessary for improving your project. the information gathered through formal or informal evaluation is about the actual project. the work, planning, coordination, delivery, implementation, logistics and management.
it will help your future projects better suit the needs of your volunteers and your communities. reflection and evaluation are important parts of the service project. reflection is a process through which volunteers think about their personal experiences, and evaluation is intended to assess the project. you should take time before the project to plan how you are going to incorporate these steps into the overall service activity. throughout the project, provide structured time for volunteers to think and talk about their service experience.
this time of reflection can create a stronger sense of accomplishment, establish a deeper connection to the community, deepen volunteers' understanding of the social issue your project addresses, and increase their commitment to serve. reflection is designed to encourage volunteers to examine the project in terms of what they did, what they learned, how it affected them, and how they will continue to support the issue. reflection can take many forms. for example, volunteers can have a group discussion, write about their experience, create a photo journal of the project, or respond to quotes about
service. when planning your project, decide which form of reflection you will use. tailor the reflection activity to the project. for example, if volunteers are assisting with arts and crafts classes at a daycare center, they can create a simple art project about their experience. what did you notice happening around you during the project? what did you think about during the project activity? what affect do you think this activity has had on those intended to benefit from it?
what more needs to be done to improve these issues? how will you apply what you have learned here in the future? you should always evaluate your project so that you can report successes to volunteers, partners, and the community. evaluating will also help you learn what was successful and what things you should change for future projects. overall, the evaluation process will provide you with valuable information to show the impact of the project on the community and to help you in planning, managing, and implementing your next project.
was the project well organized? was the communication from the organizer effective and thorough? what were the results or outcome of the project? how did you find out about the project? how could the volunteer experience have been improved? you want to make sure the day-of participants, the planners, the beneficiaries, and yourself do an evaluation and reflect on the project. some of these different categories may be the same people, but if you're doing a turnkey project where people just come in for three hours and volunteer, then
you'll have some people who are just participants and didn't do anything else. when crafting an evaluation specifically, you need to spend time thinking about what the best medium for it is and how to phrase your questions so that you get data that is useful for you. a few things to remember are that it's best to get feedback from participants immediately, specifically if they have no other role. if they leave your project site without giving feedback, you've probably lost them, so have a plan to provide an evaluation tool before the project begins, and have a plan to collect that information.
with your planners or your planning committee, you have more time. chances are that you will have a meeting after the project to reflect and celebrate your accomplishments. depending on the group and what kind of information you need in an evaluation, this could be more of a documented conversation than a form that is filled out. your reflection and evaluation might bleed together with your planning committee. be aware of that, and capture the information that you need. for beneficiaries, the evaluation may very well come later.
it just depends on the project. but, this is how you go back and make sure that the project was useful, and that the beneficiary's needs were met, and that they were included in the process. last, you need an evaluation and reflection from yourself. this is your opportunity to be honest with yourself and the person that comes after you about what went well and what didn't. be specific and give examples when you do this evaluation. always remembering that the person who comes after you may never have the opportunity to sit with you and talk about this project even though they may
have to recreate it. so the steps, we're going to go into the steps on – we're going to – the steps about putting together a group volunteer project are pretty universal. but you also have to decide what project is the right project. and sometimes the project will be obvious because there is a need and is addressed in a very obvious way. sometimes the project doesn't jump right out at you. the community need might be obvious, but you need to nail down the best way to address it with a group of volunteers.
answering these questions can help you narrow your focus down to what the appropriate project is by clarifying the community needs or wants, your timeframe and your needs, the capacities to raise funding and volunteers, and whether or not this is an inside or outside project. we're going to talk about some samples of service projects that involve multiple people. when i spoke earlier about the community needs assessment, i mentioned the youth changing the world booklet from youth service america. it's a really neat resource because it maps out how to plan a service project,
but it's written for youth, so it lays things out a bit differently than some other resources. one thing it does that i really, really, really like is that it categorizes volunteer projects into four categories: service, awareness, philanthropy and advocacy. in this situation, advocacy projects are about political advocacy where you would join others to influence elections or persuade lawmakers to change policy or laws. as a vista member, you cannot be involved in a project like this.
you can tuck this one away in your post-vista volunteer project file. any sort of march, demonstration, community action towards influencing legislators or influencing the outcome of an election would fit into this advocacy category. i'll give at least two examples for each of the other categories and a little bit of information. some will be general ideas, and some will be specific events. i'll also mention some of the projects in the national days of service project guide that karen and i worked on because it has very detailed directions on how
to coordinate those projects. first, we've got philanthropy projects. these involve giving for a community need. this can be raising funds or in-kind donations. any sort of drive is a philanthropy project. food drives, coat drives, book drives. drives can be some of the easier projects to put together, and there are a lot of resources online about ways to organize them. next is a drive called – it's a military care packages drive.
this is a project that's actually included in the national days of service ideas document. the goal of the project is to collect a box of supplies for military members actively deployed and ship it to them. if you're interested in doing that, the guide includes all sorts of useful information about accomplishing it. another example i've seen work well is 5k fund raisers. 5ks have become incredibly popular. i know that within our georgia 4-h vista program that we've been really, really
successful with them. they take an organized team to make happen, and they also require donations from local organizations and businesses. one that's been very successful for us has been our trick-or-trot 5k where people run in costume, and then they include trick-or-treating as part of it. people have the opportunity to be involved in the planning, the day of the event, and you can also use it as an opportunity to do some awareness raising about whoever the beneficiary is on the day of the event. next we have awareness raising projects.
this is any project that has a main focus of education or information about something to provide positive change. any sort of community fair, like a health fair, would fit into this category. another example would be a science night. you could also do math or reading, whatever is the greatest need in your community. there are a lot of online resources to develop activities that are age appropriate for your target group. this can be a great opportunity to partner with a local elementary school as it
can meet some of the parental involvement requirements of title i schools. the basic premise is that there are stations with experiments for children along with family members to complete. you could have volunteers prep the projects and lead the projects. you could also do it out of a community organization. just make sure that it matches up with your community needs. the next example is one that actually happens in the county that i live in and is a great – i'm sorry. i am not going to do that one.
i skipped (inaudible). i am sorry you guys. the next project that we're going to talk about is the teen maze. and i am sorry that i got mixed up on my notes, you guys. and this is an event that does actually happen where i live. and it happens for our local ninth graders. and it focuses on the consequences of what they term as "risky behaviors." so underage drinking, texting while driving, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, things in that category.
so the ninth graders go to different stations and are randomly assigned an action that they've done and then go through steps of what that would be like. the local sheriff's department brings a golf cart that they blur the windshield on to simulate drunk driving. there's an ambulance and a medical helicopter on site as well as medical professionals to talk about what happens when you are injured in a car wreck. this is an event that takes months to plan by many, many members of the community, volunteers and businesses, and many organizations. obviously that's a project that takes a lot of resources to make happen.
it is definitely not something to pull together in four weeks, but there are some projects you can do with a shorter planning time. one example is a random acts of kindness campaign, which is included in the national service day project ideas guide. the object is to complete as many random acts of kindness as possible, which could be done as a group or as an individual. good deeds could range from picking up litter to giving a sincere compliment, but to get the most out of raising awareness, you can have participants target specific locations to perform these acts of kindness or a specific time of year.
to raise awareness you'll need to spread the word about who is organizing the campaign and why. social media is a great way to do that through using tagging features and hashtags. and now we're on to service projects, which is volunteering directly to meet a need in the community. these are often the projects that we think about when we think about group volunteer projects. and are probably the best way to provide a lot of people the opportunity to
volunteer at one time. these can be one-time events or ongoing activities. it also gives volunteers the opportunity to serve in a couple of ways, actively doing the project or being on a planning team. and you'll have volunteers who do both. one of the big examples of this that you are probably involved with already is the martin luther king, jr. day of service. a one-or-two-day community project, typically a playground repair or a park
cleanup. these can be nice one-and-done activities or more depending on what the community need is. you can find resources on planning this in the national days of service project ideas guide. an ongoing community service project that has been successful here in georgia is called rivers alive, and this is an annual event to clean up waterways in georgia. it's sponsored by the department of natural resources and the epa, but it's
actually organized at the local level. and it's similar to a part cleanup, except it's a state wide effort that happens at the same time every year. now that we've talked about the steps of planning a project, and picking the right project for you and your community, and we've given you some project ideas, we want to share some resources with you. links to these resources should be appearing in the chat window, and active links will be available with the recording of this webinar. so first is the national days of service project ideas.
this is the action learning project that karen and i worked on, and it is available on the vista campus. it has step-by-step guides for completing five different projects, but those steps can easily be turned into other projects as well, which i think stephanie has already put it up in the chat. and then next is the youth service america, the youth changing the world toolkit. this is the booklet i mentioned earlier that categorizes volunteer projects into the four categories of advocacy, philanthropy, awareness raising, and service.
youth service america's goal is to get more youth involved in volunteerism. they are the organization behind global youth service day and semester of service. they have information that's useful to everyone, but they are really great if you are working with youth. to access the toolkit, which is a guide for planning service projects for global youth service day, you'll need to register with ysa and then download it from their training center. the community toolbox is a public service of the university of kansas.
it is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change with thousands of pages of tips and tools for taking action in communities. today we referenced their community needs assessment, but there's actually a lot of really great information on their website, and i encourage you to look at it all because it's really wonderful. next is the global citizen 365 project development tips. and that is a three-page pdf that goes through the steps of planning a project. they're specifically looking at planning a martin luther king, jr.
day of service project, but it's useful for everything. this is an organization that coordinates service projects in the greater philadelphia area. and, of course, cncs has several project planning toolkits on serve.gov. there are over 15 project planning toolkits addressing a variety of issue areas. and they've even got a template to create your own project plan. so the inevitable question happens now. what next? it's largely up to you how you're going to start.
you may already have some ideas for going forward. we recommend that you spend some time researching and reflecting. educate yourself about community needs and what types of projects might be appropriate for you and your sponsoring organization to coordinate. reflect on the capacity you and your sponsoring organization have to do a once you've got your head wrapped around what is possible, it's time to make a plan, and then to put it into action. there are a lot of resources out there for you, many more than what we went over today.
and so many of them in your own community. remember that there are many ways to get help. these projects can be a lot of work, but it can also be one of the most rewarding parts in your vista term. and with that, karen and i would like to thank you for participating in the webinar today and for giving us the opportunity to talk to you all about group we hope that you feel like this is something that you can and will do in your community during your vista service. wow.
katie and karen, thank you both so much for an information and action-packed discussion today. before we get to the q&a component of our discussion though, we would like to know what you all thought of the session today. so on the right side of your screen you will find a quick poll where you can share feedback about this webinar. please take a moment to answer the questions. we like to be able to improve these webinars, and your input really does help us.
all right, so as you are filling out the evaluation, again, hopefully you guys take a moment to do that before submitting your questions, we've given you a lot to think about, and now it's time for your questions. you can ask a question using the q&a panel located on the right side of your screen, and some of you have already done that so we do have some questions queued. but i will also ask erica, our operator, to come back on and remind us how to ask a question via the phone. erica?
thank you. if you would like to ask a question, you may press star followed by one on your phone. please make sure your phone is unmuted, and you will be prompted to record your first and last name. that is star and then one. thanks, erica. and while we're waiting for our phone questions to come in, i'm going to go ahead and go through some of the questions that were submitted online.
and the first one is a question from connie. karen, i think this might be a question for you because you spoke about some of these topics, but connie wanted to know how do you address liability issues? what are the insurance needs, does it vary between organizations or type of project, and what about waivers or other things that you should do to probably protect the community or the agency where the volunteer activity is occurring? do you have any info on that? that is a fantastic question, connie, and has multiple pieces. so i'm going to try to actually be a little more broad because what is one of
the beauties of americorps vista is that we serve in so many different states with so many different laws, policies, applications, and rules. so the first suggestion i would make is to ask your partner what their policy is for something like this. so, for example, let's say that you are working on a – like a part shelter rebuild. and the city park service has – or parks and recreation – you know (inaudible) and instead of using, you know, employees or an outside contractor is, you know, wants to have this type of partnership work out.
so they might have information about what their insurance requires. it might not necessarily be something you have to worry about because they have it covered. another way that you could handle this is to task your planning committee with something like this, so delegate that responsibility. what i think is the most important here, and it might sound like a little bit of a pass off, but that you are thinking about it and asking about it. and so to me that means that you won't forget when you are planning a project, and, you know, it depends on what might come up.
but so often depends on the type of organization – other organization – that you might be working with. those type of especially insurance or waivers might already be in place or available for you to tweak. and for a lot of things, maybe even photo waivers where, you know, a simple sign off, you know, when volunteers register for the project, there might be a way to capture that they say they're not going to bring suit against you or your organization for that project. i hope that's helpful.
thank you, karen. and katie, is there anything you'd like to add to that? i think karen got a lot of good information about it. the other thing that i would be cautious about and just be really clear about, and this is probably because of the fact that i work with organizations that work with children, is also being clear about what sort of waivers or liabilities relate around children. if you need to have a specific age cutoff, like say it's an event where kids as young as 12 could volunteer, but if you're working on building a roof you're not
going to want five-year-olds on site. so just being kind of clear about that kind of stuff to make sure that you're covered and being aware of kind of what those liability laws are by state because the kid stuff can get complicated and it does differ a lot. it just depends on where you are. thank you both so much. kimberly submitted a question early on in the session, and she'd like to know how many volunteers should i ask for if i'm implementing an after school program.
so perhaps, katie and karen, you could talk about determining the scope or the size of a volunteer group to help can really answer that question. this is katie, and i would say the biggest thing you would need to find out is to talk to whoever your partners are with it. like if you're doing it at a school, to communicate with whoever is coordinating there and just find out what your attendance is going to be. because you have to find that fine balance between if you build it they will come, because it's really great to think that, but if you build it too big then, you know, you've got volunteers sitting around doing nothing.
so kind of find out what your anticipated goal for participation amongst the kids in the after school program is, and then recruit your volunteer numbers based on that. the other thing that you could also look at doing is i guess – i don't really mean it this way – but prioritizing your volunteers. and that's not to say that one volunteer is better than another, even though that might be the case. but saying, okay, we're going to call on these five volunteers first, and then i have a second set of volunteers that if this program gets bigger i'm going to
start pulling into those. so you may just want to kind of prioritize who you're going to call first on your volunteer list. and kimberly has another question actually. it sounds like she wants to know about background checks on volunteers. she asked specifically if there is any training on background checks of volunteers, but do you have any experience about programs or volunteer assignments where there have been background checks conducted? so this is katie again, and with our organization all of our volunteers are
background checked, but it's because they all work with youth. everything that we do is with children, and so we are very conscious of everybody being background checked. and so i think that, you know, this is where you need to get a lot of advice from people who are in the know as to what is your best bet on that. if you are going to be doing a service project where maybe everybody is always in a group, and supervised, nobody is going to be alone with resources, whether those resources be money, be tools, or be people, that nobody is going to have kind of one-on-one opportunities, then you could go without doing the background
checks maybe. but like – and i hesitate to make a recommendation one way or the other because that's such a – every organization is going to want to make that decision. you really do need to kind of figure out with your partners what your background check needs are going to be. and once you do decide to do background checks, they're not that difficult to do. there are several companies that will do them and they'll say, you know, if you're willing to do so many per year, we'll give you this kind of cut rate deal
on them where you don't have to pay as much. and i think sometimes you can get them as low as $25.00. um hmm. this is karen. i would also say that there are a few different ways that you could create peace of mind or maybe like a feeling of security without necessarily paying the – or conducting a full background check. and those files would then need to be kept secure for a specific period of time. you'd probably have to have some kind of policy in place to apply it
consistently to all volunteers, again depending on the type of volunteer projects. i would suggest that for partnering – or for, excuse me, for background checks, maybe partner with a larger organization in your organization in your area to maybe find out how they do it. so, for example, like a united way. and if you're already at a united way, there is undoubtedly someone in another department if not in yours, who has experience with conducting that on their volunteers.
boys and girls clubs and big brothers big sisters are often sources as well of how to have that happen in a way that satisfies their requirements as well for pairing mentors and things like that. and then it's also possible that there are ways to search for criminal history information that does not cost anything. my first caution would be, though, is to determine whether or not, as katie mentioned, that is necessary for completion of the project. thanks karen and katie. we're going to shift gears a little bit here.
sarah would like to know, do you have any recommendations for resources to use for volunteer sign up? my site has software, but it's not very user friendly and pretty ineffective. karen, katie, whichever one of you would like to chime in. so before we (inaudible) volunteer management or tracking? i'm sorry, i missed that. was the question about volunteer management or tracking? i also missed it. i'm sorry.
sure, sure. so sarah would like to know if there are any recommendations for resources to use for volunteer sign up. my site has software, but it's not very user friendly and it's pretty ineffective. and i know there are some tools out there, like volunteer hub or volunteer up. she might be asking about those types of information or if there are any tips or tricks that you all have to make website signup a little bit more user friendly and not as burdensome.
this is katie. so i've only used this program on the volunteer end, not on the planning side end, but an organization that i volunteer with uses signupgenius.com to do it. i think that there is a few attached to it, but i don't think it's very much. and they have – like, and i've talked to them about it, and they said that they like it a lot. that the way it kind of sets out information for them is very useful. but, yeah, so before we got started, i will say i joked that i was going to let karen answer all of the hard questions, and that's a question that i was like, i
should let karen answer, because that's a hard one. like volunteer management, like keeping track of all of your volunteers and figuring out how to like get that all into a good system so that you are organized with it is difficult. and i just want to recognize that, you know, we're all kind of working with volunteers, and for so many vista's that a piece of your service, but it's a hard piece. and to just to kind of recognize that about it. and there is no person system, and so just kind of finding what works best for
you. personally, i'm a big fan of google forms because they're super easy to fix and to set up, they're easy to share, and they're free. we will check in with erica to see if we have any questions on the phone. at this time we have no questions in the queue, but again that's star one if you would like to ask a question. we'll go back to the questions that we have online. we've got another ten minutes or so for questions, so go ahead and submit your questions if you have them.
let me take a look. candace would like to know, should i be careful about asking past volunteers too many times to help out again? i wouldn't want them to get burned out? what recommendations do you have for candace on this topic? so this is katie, and i was – karen can speak on this, too, but i just want to say a couple of things about this. i think that being conscious of that is important. and i think it depends on what kind of volunteer role they're in, too, as well,
as to how much you're going to ask them to do stuff. so i have a couple of recommendations. one is that you have either a six-month or a 12-month check in with your and if you're having the person volunteer – like you're calling them on an emergency basis every three months, or every, you know, one month, you might want to have this checkup more often. but i strongly recommend having a check in with your volunteers and saying, you know, how do you feel about this? do you want to continue doing this?
is there something else you'd rather help out with? so, and it kind of goes back to, you know we were talking about your reflection of the project and evaluation of the project. do that in an informal way with your volunteers to get their feedback. now if you have 200 volunteers that you're working with, that becomes kind of unmanageable. maybe not for you, that would make me a little worried to do that with 200 but, you know, if it's the same ten people who are volunteering over and over again, definitely have those checks ins.
if you can, go out to coffee with them, and sit down and talk. and when you get into kind of these informal situations, they'll be – typically people are more relaxed and will give you more information. so i did want to say that. the other piece that i wanted to say that is if you have volunteers who are volunteering in a leadership capacity on a regular basis, it is a good rule of volunteer management that you do that in three-year chunks, especially if you have like committee work that volunteers are involved with. you have somebody take on that leadership role for three – not three months –
for three years, and then you send that person off. so that's also when you were recruiting those volunteers, we want you to be in charge of xyz for three years, and then we would like for you to step down. and when you talk to them about it, you don't want to say, well, you're being kicked off of your volunteer job. you say, this is an opportunity for somebody else to share their leadership skills. so those are kind of the two things that i would recommend on that. katie, did you have anything that you'd like to add?
this is a really fantastic question, and one, i think, that's never easy to answer. you know, compassion fatigue is a very real thing. when i was a leader, i, you know, whenever a project came up, or, you know, something, i would always say, oh, so-and-so and i will be there, and i would always bring my partner or, you know, another friend who wasn't necessarily involved with the organization or something like that. and towards the end, right before i finished service, i said no more, because i brought just, you know, volunteered us both for everything, and it doesn't
necessarily always work like that. so the short answer is yes, it's something that you should be mindful of. i don't know if i necessarily have any better tips than katie gave you, but especially be mindful of volunteering, you know, your roommate or if you live near your home your parents, or siblings, or something of that nature. sometimes those relationships outside of your term of service are just as important as, you know, fulfilling a volunteer quota. those are great responses. and shifting gears just a little bit but still on the topic of volunteers, so
lisa would like to know, what's a good way to reach out to volunteers who have stopped volunteering or what about reaching out to organizations that we've partnered with but don't partner with anymore? katie, what do you think? i think it's the same sort of thing about checking in with your volunteers to see how they're doing. you know, it's pick up the phone and call, see if you can set up a time to meet with them. i am a big fan of the informal meeting.
i think it just gives more space for people to kind of mentally and emotionally process what's going on. and you may find out that volunteers are really interested in still doing stuff but every time they were volunteering before they were doing the exact same thing and it was something they didn't enjoy, and so they just quit volunteering because they didn't want to do that activity any more. so it just goes back to picking up the phone and calling those volunteers. and then with partners, you know, that's probably – with organizations, depending on what the organization is, that's not really the opportunity for
those informal things. maybe it is. it just depends on who they are. but it's, you know, calling and saying, hey, just wanted to check in, see where you are. it's also, you know, maybe saying, these are some of the new programs that we have going on, and i see that two years ago you guys were partnering with us on xyz, and i'm just calling to find out are you still interested in that. but it goes back to those personal communications and actually talking to
someone. you can't do those kind of things over email. and i'm going to check in with erica one last time. erica, do we have any phone questions? no, at this time we have no questions in the queue. okay. and connie would like to know, going back to a topic that we recently discussed, what was the name of the site for volunteer acquisition that was just mentioned? she said it was free, easy to use, but i did not catch the name.
katie, did you talk about – what was the one that you mentioned? well, i mentioned google forms, so that's not specifically about volunteer acquisition, it's just a way to make forms online so that you can send your volunteers to that place. it's not anything like volunteer match. it's part of the google suite of free services. and if you go onto it, you can use it to create a free – a form, kind of any kind of form that you want. there are lots of like guides online for how to do it, but it is super simple to
make an online form, and then it just dumps into a spreadsheet. wonderful. wait – katie, you also mentioned something that was like signup.com? oh, yeah, yeah. signupgenius.com, which is – it's just another sort of online forum where people can sign up to do things. i think it probably does feature more tracking sort of information, but it is – you do have to pay for it. and i have no idea how much you pay for it.
well, karen and katie, thank you again so much, and thank you all of us for attending. thanks for the great questions. and before we depart, i would like to let you know about one of our upcoming webinars. so thank you again for attending this webinar, and we hope you can join us for our next webinar, which is using the segal americorps education award.
random acts of kindness campaign,it will be on july 7th at 2:00 p.m. eastern. and i think we hope to see you again soon.
otherwise have a great holiday, and thank you all again so much for attending and thank you to our guest speakers today.
