Charter Chatter- Volunteer Personal Development

posted by JenGLV on Fri, 15/10/2010 - 5:56pm

Hi Folks,

It's Charter Chatter time and October brings us to the subject of Personal Development of Volunteers which is the  5th point on London's Volunteer management Charter.

Thanks to Volunteer England we can also offer our readers a great discount on the Art of Crazy Paving, a resource for Volunteers and Volunteer Managers (and many more) that looks at both personal and professional development - for more details please go to this months Charter Chatter

We'd like to get your thoughts on, How do you ensure your volunteers are continually developing?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

Experts in Volunteering Team

 

Forums: 
Volunteer Managers Skill Sharing

On Sat, 16/10/2010 - 5:37am
It is really important to know the personal development of a volunteer. People who do volunteering have their own reasons why they are doing this kind of activity. Some have the desire to learn new skills, others just want to have fun or make a difference. But of course there are really people who are completely devoted to the cause, while others simply wish to do their bit where they can.Whatever the reason that they have the most important is that they will use the opportunity to develop their skills and personality while they contributing impact on the surrounding people of the community by doing volunteer works.
By patreviaL

On Wed, 20/10/2010 - 12:21pm

Yes, personal development for volunteers in obviously important. What is more important is that there is active and meangingful commitment to support volunteer personal development from senior people within an organisation. This should then be embedded (from the top) to paid managers and staff who work with and, in the main, manage volunteers. Volunteers should not be seen as 'add/tag-ons', but regarded as key contributors to the strategic aims of organisations.  As such, their development is key, to retaining their skills and diverse experiences. My feeling is that volunteer personal development is not taken seriously enough by 'employers'. The general stereotype view is that 'they are not committed' as they can 'leave at anytime'. As such, they are treated like second class citizens with the organisation, and the given of their time, skills and abilities is not valued and adequately recognised.  This needs to change.

By Af10