Volunteers for Volunteers
1
by Chris Wolff
Working with many rural communities in Maine, I am always in awe of the level of civic engagement within these communities. Many small towns are governed by volunteers who serve as selectmen and school board members. Some small towns are lucky to have a local library and historical society. If these do exist, they are only open and organized because of volunteers dedicated to having these services available or preserving artifacts for future generations.
Matinicus Island, the Historical Society places all of their artifacts in the home of a local volunteer, since a designated building or room does not exist. If this person was not willing to store these objects, they may become damaged and unavailable for future generations. On Swan’s Island, the Librarian position is a very part-time, paid position. The Library then relies on community volunteers to open the library and provide programming. If a community has a recreation center or after school programming for youth, the success of these programs almost always relies on a volunteer effort.
Many of the volunteers in these small, rural communities don numerous volunteer hats. When your community consists of less than 100 individuals, there is an expectation to participate in the sustainability of the community, whether it’s volunteering with the school, participating in a subcommittee of the town’s comprehensive plan, helping out with the local solid waste efforts, or alternative energy research. Without this volunteer effort, these communities would not function. But, on the flip side of it, these same volunteers experience a high level of burnout. They attend meetings almost every night of the week. They have families and full-time jobs. For some of these volunteers, they have a strong desire to volunteer and help out with community efforts, but may be lacking the necessary skills to further the mission of the organization or planning effort.
For instance, the small Community Center on Long Island has requested an AmeriCorps member to help with sustainability initiatives. They would like to have help with researching grants, and finding support for programming and infrastructure/building rehabilitation. The current staff and volunteers either do not have the time or the skills to move their projects forward. On North Haven, the North Haven Historical Society has recently completed the construction of a new building, with a state-of-the-art climate-controlled archival storage room. The Historical Society is run by community volunteers, and they would like to have an AmeriCorps member help out with digital archiving and creating community programs. The volunteers do not have the technical skills and time to move their mission forward.
Though AmeriCorps members fill a great niche in providing much-needed support for community initiatives on a 1-2 year full-time basis, some communities have specific needs requiring expert skills. The Island Institute is getting more and more requests from older citizens who will be retiring to Maine and who want to volunteer their time with the Island Institute and the communities we serve. These individuals have been CEOs and consultants with corporations. They have been leaders of large non-profits. They’ve been teachers and superintendents. They possess a breadth of experience and expertise and could be a great resource for the small communities that rely on volunteers to get things done. Their volunteer effort could help enliven volunteerism in these small communities.
In a preliminary survey conducted in January, Casco Bay islanders were asked to report on their volunteer needs. Speaking with a number of representatives in the Casco Bay island communities, a number of potential volunteer needs were identified:
• Grant Writing Advice & Support
• Business Plan Development
• Brush Removal & Beach Cleaning-Ups (Arms & Legs)
• Legal advice regarding affordable housing: buy-back options, land leases, land trust models, eligibility language, etc.
• GIS mapping and data management
• Town ordinance language and planning and development
• Small business development- marketing, website development, etc.
These volunteer-led organizations need help coordinating activities, furthering their mission, and completing many projects. Volunteers can help catalyze projects and create energy and excitement for the work. By creating public interest around projects, outside volunteers can provide opportunities for further local volunteer participation.
It will take a little work to help train the island volunteers in volunteer management. And, in turn, it will also take some work to bring potential volunteers up to speed on island culture and the projects. But, even if the Island Institute is successful in having 2% of its membership volunteer with our communities, that is an additional 40-50 people who will be able to provide much-needed assistance to a group of dedicated volunteers and hopefully prevent volunteer burnout.
Chris Wolff is Community Development Director at the Island Institute.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:03 am
Your comments demonstrate what many in the volunteer field have been saying in recent years. That is, volunteers want meaningful positions that are time limited and clear in their expectations. In addition, Chris’ list also shows that volunteer opportunities combine both the traditional ‘helping hands’ and professional guidance on a variety of topics. Organizations need to be clear about the many ways they can use volunteer help.