Community Corps Learning Library – Community Corps Documents

Resources

Family Caregivers and Care Recipients

Volunteers

Program Administration

Community Engagement and Partnerships

Outreach and Marketing

Sustainability

Inclusivity and Access

Value Proposition

Grantee Snapshots

Examples of Volunteer Nonmedical Assistance

Volunteer Management Platforms

The resources provided are those of current and past Community Care Corps grantees and do not necessarily reflect the official views or, nor are endorsed by the Community Care Corps partner organizations, ACL/HHS or the U.S. Government. Individuals and organizations viewing this information will need to research and evaluate each resource to determine its appropriateness for their programs.

CiviCRM: https://civicrm.org/

CiviCRM-CiviCRM is a cloud-based, open source constituent relationship management (CRM) system developed specifically to address the needs of nonprofit, civic sector and association-based organizations. Because CiviCRM is open source, it’s highly customizable and free to use and develop. CiviCRM offers a variety of tools such as online and offline fundraising, grant tracking, event planning, donor and member management, advocacy campaigns, case management, communications and bulk email and more. CiviCRM stores all data, contact information and event history at one central place. Individuals can sign up for their membership, renew subscriptions, make donations, receive notifications and more. CiviCRM offers 40+ reporting templates to create custom reports.

Civic Champs: https://www.civicchamps.com/

On this site, volunteers can complete applications which your organization can then review. Volunteers can log hours and provide status updates using the app on their phones. Your organization can also use this platform to send text messages to volunteers. This site syncs with a variety of customer relationship management software systems.

Assisted Rides: https://assistedrides.com/

Better Impact: https://www.betterimpact.com/

Excel:

How to Use Excel for Project Management
- CodeGuru.com: https://bit.ly/49204WQ
How to Use Excel for Project Management in 2024
- the ascent, A Motley Fool Service: https://bit.ly/47GcLph
Using Excel for Project Management
- Office Timeline: https://bit.ly/428HsT6

Google Sheets:

How to use Google Sheets for project management
- Computerworld: https://bit.ly/3vInCSj

MS Forms:

Microsoft Forms cheat sheet: How to get started
- Computerworld: https://bit.ly/3Oa71gD

SurveyMonkey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/

Google Forms:

The Beginner’s Guide to Google Forms
- How-To-Geek: https://bit.ly/48Gj3qn

Mon Ami: https://www.monami.io/

This platform allows your organization to tailor an embedded application to meet your specific needs. It provides a centralized phone number for volunteers and care recipients who do not wish to use their own phone number during interactions. Use of this app provides you with information to get a sense of how long volunteers and care recipients are interacting by phone. It is recommended that you identify a customer service representative who will be invested in you to help you get the most from the software.

Microsoft Intune:

What Is Microsoft Intune and How Does It Work?
- Softlanding: https://bit.ly/426XqwT
Use of this application allows you to remotely manage loaned technology devices. When a care recipient, family caregiver or volunteer has a tech issue with a loaned device, the coordinator can log into the device through this application and help troubleshoot and repair as needed.

VolunteerHub: https://volunteerhub.com/

VolunteerMatch: https://www.volunteermatch.org/

Idealist: https://www.idealist.org/en

A social impact job board

Google Voice: https://voice.google.com/

Google Voice gives you a phone number for calling, text messaging, and voicemail. It works on smartphones and on computers, and syncs across your devices so you can use the app in the office, at home, or on the go. This allows volunteers to avoid sharing their personal contact information with care recipients.

Spedsta: https://spedsta.com/

A web based transportation scheduling, dispatch and routing software that does not require a phone app.

Volunteer Trainings

The resources provided are those of current and past Community Care Corps grantees and do not necessarily reflect the official views or, nor are endorsed by the Community Care Corps partner organizations, ACL/HHS or the U.S. Government. Individuals and organizations viewing this information will need to research and evaluate each resource to determine its appropriateness for their programs.

Meaning and Hope Hub: https://meaningandhope.org/

The Sibling Leadership Network Podcast: https://siblingleadership.org/

Bystander Intervention Training: https://bit.ly/3U7J2lS

Respite for All Foundation: https://respiteforall.org/

Oasis technology and online safety trainings: https://www.oasisondemand.org/

Accessible Chef: https://accessiblechef.com/

HIPAA Training: https://www.hipaatraining.com/

Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging: https://benrose.academy.reliaslearning.com/

Mandated Reporter Training: Active in the field since the 1970's, the Elder Justice research team at Benjamin Rose has emerged as a leader in addressing issues associated with abuse, neglect and exploitation among older adults. Through a number of significant collaborations across the country, Benjamin Rose researchers have successfully developed tools and training programs that aid individuals in identifying and reporting instances of adult abuse.

Transportation Webinars: https://www.usaging.org/content.asp?admin=Y&contentid=1308

USAging

Aging and Disability Business Institute: https://www.aginganddisabilitybusinessinstitute.org/

USAging

Coaching Systems: https://coachingsystems.com/

Vehicle-Specific Defensive Driving Courses and Safety Training

Alzheimer's Association: https://www.alz.org/

American Parkinson Disease Association: https://www.apdaparkinson.org/

Aging and Disability Resource Center: https://acl.gov/programs/aging-and-disability-networks/aging-and-disability-resource-centers

No Wrong Door System: https://acl.gov/programs/connecting-people-services/aging-and-disability-resource-centers-programno-wrong-door

Administration for Community Living

Powerful Tools for Caregivers: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/humansciences/ptc

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach

WHV, We Honor Veterans: https://www.wehonorveterans.org/

A Positive Approach to Care: https://teepasnow.com/

Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress: https://mdsc.org/

The Learning Program of Orange County: https://www.dsfoc.org/learning-program-orange-county/

Down Syndrome Foundation of Orange County

Elder abuse: https://bit.ly/48DSLEZ

The Administration for Community Living National Center on Elder Abuse

LeadingAge Learning Hub-Person Centered Dementia Care Training: https://bit.ly/3Ua3z9K

LeadingAge Learning Hub
Free to non-members

Mental Health First Aid: https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/

Mental Health First Aid is a skills-based training course that teaches participants about mental health and substance-use issues.

LivingWorks safeTalk: https://livingworks.net/

LivingWorks Education
Learn to talk openly about suicide, reach out to someone with thoughts of suicide, and connect them with further support in a half-day, face-to-face workshop. This more in-depth training also allows you to practice your skills and helps you to address myths and barriers around suicide.

LivingWorks Start: https://livingworks.net/

LivingWorks Education
A 90 minute, online training that helps learners develop foundational skills to recognize when someone may be thinking of suicide and connect them to further help.

The Safe Zone Project: https://thesafezoneproject.com/

This site provides a Foundational Safe Zone workshop curriculum to help you facilitate a meaningful, effective, enjoyable training; a library of activities designed to help expand understanding of gender and sexuality issues; and a series of articles to help you expand your skills and become an all-star facilitator and social justice educator. It can help you deepen your own personal understanding of LGBTQ, gender, and sexuality; teach others about LGBTQ, gender, and sexuality issues; get your safe zone or LGBTQ-inclusive educational program up and running.

Person Centered Trauma Informed Care: https://holocaustsurvivorcare.jewishfederations.org/

The Center on Holocaust Survivor Care and Institute on Aging and Trauma-The PCTI approach infuses knowledge about trauma into organization programs, policies, and procedures to promote the safety and well-being of clients, visitors, staff, and volunteers.

National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems: https://ncapps.acl.gov/about-ncapps.html

The National Center on Advancing Person- Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) is an initiative from the Administration for Community Living and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that helps States, Tribes, and Territories implement person-centered thinking, planning, and practice in line with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy. The goal of NCAPPS is to promote systems change that makes person-centered principles not just an aspiration but a reality in the lives of people who require services and supports across the lifespan. NCAPPS will assist States, Tribes, and Territories to transform their service and support systems to implement U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy on person-centered thinking, planning, and practices. It will support a range of person-centered thinking, planning, and practices, regardless of funding source.
Introducing the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems
Person-Centered Planning: Choosing the Approach that Works for the Person

TrustedRiders: https://www.trustedriders.org/

TrustedRiders is an innovative, low-cost service solution using Volunteer Chaperones to make any form of transportation accessible and safe, door-to/through-door for vulnerable individuals, run by locally trusted organizations and supported by TrustedRiders Chaperone online training and certification, expert consulting by qualified service professionals, and an integrated online scheduling and communications system.

Language Link: https://language.link/

A language services provider offering translation and interpretation services.

Story Corps: https://storycorps.org/

Record and share your volunteer, care recipient and family caregiver stories.

AARP Driver Safety: https://www.aarp.org/auto/driver-safety/

2022 Dementia Training Resources

National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center
Downloadable pdf

Home Modification Resources: https://toolkit.homemods.org/how-to-use-the-toolkit/

University of Southern California Fall Prevention Center of Excellence

Volunteer Background Checks, Fingerprinting, Insurance

Diverse Community Engagement Resources

National Aging and Disability Resources

The resources provided are those of current and past Community Care Corps grantees and do not necessarily reflect the official views or, nor are endorsed by the Community Care Corps partner organizations, ACL/HHS or the U.S. Government. Individuals and organizations viewing this information will need to research and evaluate each resource to determine its appropriateness for their programs.

Eldercare Locator: eldercare.acl.gov

Launched in 1991, the Eldercare Locator is the only national information and referral resource to provide support to consumers across the spectrum of issues affecting older Americans. The Locator was established and is funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging, part of the Administration for Community Living, and is administered by USAging. Call 1 (800) 677-1116 or visit eldercare.acl.gov to find aging services near you.

Disability Information and Access Line (DIAL): dial.acl.gov

The Disability Information and Access Line (DIAL) helps people with disabilities get connected to information about local community resources that support independent living. Launched in 2021 to help disabled people access COVID-19 vaccinations, DIAL also provides information about essential services such as transportation, housing support, disability rights and more. To access DIAL, users can call 888-677-1199, start an online chat at dial.acl.gov or email DIAL@usaginganddisability.org. DIAL Specialists are also trained to work with deaf callers using American Sign Language and video relay service (VRS).

National Aging and Disability Transportation Center (NADTC): www.nadtc.org

Established in 2015, the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center (NADTC) is a federally funded technical assistance center administered by Easterseals and USAging based in Washington, DC. The NADTC is funded through a cooperative agreement of Easterseals, USAging, and the U.S Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, with guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living.

Family Caregiver Toolbox: https://www.caregiveraction.org/family-caregiver-toolbox

The Family Caregiver Toolbox is a hub of resources provided by Caregiver Action Network designed to help family caregivers navigate the day-to-day challenges of caregiving. Caregivers can navigate the toolbox by clicking on the categories that speak to their caregiving situation to find a listing of relevant resources.

Caregiver Help Desk: https://www.caregiveraction.org/helpdesk

Caregiver Help Desk offers free support to family caregivers across the country. It is staffed by caregiving experts who can help you find the information you need to navigate your caregiving challenges and support you on your caregiving journey. With Caregiver Help Desk you can have confidential conversations with caregiving experts about your caregiving questions; reach out by phone, email, and live chat—whatever is most convenient for you; access experts Monday through Friday, from 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM Eastern time. Caregiver Action Network Help Desk provides information for general educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical, legal, investment, tax, or other professional advice.

ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center: https://archrespite.org/

ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center assists and promotes the development of quality respite and crisis care programs, helps families locate respite and crisis care services, and serves as a strong voice for respite in all forums.

Health & Caregiving Research and Reports

Recruitment

Start recruiting program participants from within your organization. You likely already engage many individuals who will benefit from the type of assistance your new program will provide. When you meet these individuals' needs, expand your recruiting efforts to external organizations.
If utilizing a new system to receive participant referrals from community organizations, test the system before ‘going live’ to ensure all glitches are resolved and no individual is lost in the system.
Develop a list of inclusion and exclusion criteria for care recipients and family caregivers to participate in your program. Provide this list to all individuals who will be referring community members to your program. This will help ensure consistency across all referral sources in determining who to refer to your program. Examples of inclusion criteria for a transportation and/or volunteer chaperone program might include that the recipients must be ambulatory and able to transfer themselves to and from a vehicle. The recipients must be alert and oriented. The recipient must be able to provide the contact information for a primary caregiver in case of emergency. One example of exclusion criteria for a transportation and/or volunteer chaperone program may be that the recipient requires transportation of a full-sized wheelchair or a scooter.
Recruiting both participants and volunteers is necessary for a successful model. Plan more time than expected for recruitment. Do not expect that recruiting for a new program will be as easy as recruiting for a program that has been around for some time.
Before engaging new participants make sure you have an established group of volunteers, and that the organization is prepared to handle an influx of both participants and volunteers. Keep the number of participants at a level your volunteers can effectively respond to.
You may wish to avoid onboarding more care recipients than your volunteers have the capacity to support. It can be frustrating for both parties. In the same way, avoid onboarding more volunteers than you can match. The volunteers may lose interest while waiting to step into their role and look elsewhere to volunteer.
When recruiting new program participants fully explaining the program and the volunteer and participant role is valuable. It is important that the participant buys into the program and having a volunteer and that it is not the desire of someone else.
Knowing your community well helps in identifying appropriate outreach methods for participant and family caregiver recruitment. In some communities going door to door, talking to people, providing culturally sensitive flyers is a better outreach method than use of social media while the opposite is true for other communities.

Engagement

Retention

Management

Support

Direct services to care recipients often yield an indirect benefit to caregivers, and vice versa. Repairing a broken porch step into care recipient’s home improves their ability to safely enter and exit their home while also improving accessibility to the caregiver who comes to assist them. Providing respite care allows the caregiver to socialize with friends or attend scheduled appointments while the care recipient safely enjoys socialization, companionship and engagement with others.
Identify needed wraparound supports and resources available through your organization or other partnering community organizations. Issues or concerns may be raised by care recipients and/or family caregivers, as well as those identified by volunteers who engage with participants regularly. These volunteers are the eyes and ears of your organization and can provide you with insight that you may not have gathered during the intake process. Once additional needs are identified, provide a warm referral of the individual(s) to the appropriate community supports and resources. Be sure to follow up with the care recipient and family caregiver to ensure that the referral provided what was necessary to meet their needs.
Providing care recipients and caregivers with additional resources outside your local model is critical to their ability to maintain independence in the community, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Develop a list of local resources that you can provide to individuals either as needed or in an onboarding packet. Update the list regularly. Provide training to your volunteers on the types of resources offered by organizations in your community to assist them in identifying additional recipient needs.
Self-care is valuable to caregivers, care recipients and volunteers. One method of self-care is the identification of four pleasant activities to perform every day for yourself that ‘fill you up.’ Maybe it is taking ten minutes for meditation or meeting a friend for a cheerful conversation. Once you identify activities ‘fill you up,’ then identify the barriers that might prevent engagement in those activities and implement strategies to remove those barriers. If you can’t find time to meditate during the day, maybe try to do it first thing in the morning. If your friend is not free for lunch to talk, maybe you can meet for a quick cup of coffee.
Respite care is often an invaluable support to family caregivers as it can help relieve stress, restore energy, and promote balance. Offering respite services in coordination with other caregiver supports such as coaching and consultation, support groups, caregiver education, dementia screening and social engagement can make a positive difference for caregivers and care recipients. This kind of service offering provides caregivers with an opportunity to participate in programming while their loved one is engaged in activities with other volunteers. Ongoing coaching visits with social workers can help caregivers determine what additional support services may be needed. Participation in peer support groups allows caregivers to share valuable resources with others and talk about what has worked for them and what hasn’t.
When providing mentor/mentee programs in which the volunteers are current experienced caregivers supporting less experienced caregivers, monitoring the volunteer to ensure that their mentoring duties do not become too much to manage in addition to providing care to their loved one may be necessary.
Caregivers cannot always leave their loved one to attend programs. Consider offering hybrid/virtual/asynchronous opportunities for those who can only attend virtually as well as in person respite if they choose to bring their family member with them.
Volunteers are your eyes and ears in the community. Encourage them to notify you if they observe that additional support services are needed for their family caregiver and care recipient. This will help you meet the needs of your participants more effectively.
Having the care recipient’s emergency documentation in one place can be helpful to the volunteer and the family caregiver. Consider assisting the family caregiver and care recipient in developing a binder which can be updated as needed with new information that is valuable to those providing care and assistance.
Family members and family caregivers are often seeking social outlets themselves. They may arrive early to pick up their family member from a group activity, simply to connect with others and perhaps catch a glimpse of the activities the group is enjoying. Consider designing programs in which the caregiver is fully included.
Family caregivers seldom need only one method of support or assistance. They often can benefit from peer support, education, and/or individual caregiver counseling as well. Organizations offering a variety of programming that meets multiple needs of the caregiver become familiar and trusted partners in their caregiving experience.
Many older adults miss medical appointments even with assistance from a curb-to-curb transportation model. Providing that extra level of individualized support through door through door volunteer chaperone assistance can make a dramatic difference. When the volunteer is providing a phone call the day before the appointment, arriving prior to the transportation provider and supporting the individual from inside their home to the waiting area for the medical visit they make a tremendous difference to those care recipients and family caregivers participating in this type of model.
In some communities and cultures, multigenerational households are very common. When assisting an individual in a multigenerational household, it is also important to anticipate the needs of the other household members as well.

Matching

Creating Quality Matches

Matching volunteers with participants in the same community may help keep the participant and their caregiver active, engaged and immersed in the community.
Generating quality matches between volunteers, care recipients and family caregivers takes significant time. Incorporate an efficient and effective method to gather necessary information into your onboarding process for both participants and volunteers. This information should assist you in making high quality matches that will bring enjoyment to all impacted. Ask questions that will help you develop a short bio on the volunteer and participant with information about their history. For example, where they have worked, what type of work they have done, information about their families, current and past interests, past travels, music preference, what their expectation of program participation is, etc. Use this information to match the experiences, interests and expectations of those who will be part of the match. Also consider the types, distance, and duration of the assistance and ensure it is aligned with the volunteer and participant expectations. To foster a successful match, everyone included must have their needs met.
After identifying a match, provide a warm hand off by gathering organization staff, the program participant, and volunteer in person or on Zoom to welcome all parties to the program, have introductions and discuss next steps.
A good volunteer match is a key component to a successful volunteer-based model. Organizations must understand each individual’s expectations, experiences and interests to make an effective match between volunteers and participants.
Generating quality matches between volunteers, care recipients and family caregivers takes significant time. Your onboarding process for both participants and volunteers, should incorporate efficient and effective methods to gather pertinent information that will allow you to establish high quality matches that will deliver maximum benefit and impact.
A quality connection between the volunteer and the care recipient and/or caregiver can happen naturally without intervention. On other occasions it may need cultivating to ensure participant satisfaction. A quality connection may not always come naturally, to foster a connection between volunteer and program participant, provide opportunities for the program participant and volunteer to spend time together with a staff member to help facilitate conversation. Encourage both individuals to share their interests and what activities they enjoy. When necessary, provide a virtual introduction facilitated by staff members for every volunteer and program participant match. Host a volunteer and program participant match meeting with staff before any assistance starts. As well as improving the comfort level of participants and volunteers, these meetings can improve the comfort level between participants and volunteers as well as providing you with the opportunity to observe the interactions and evaluate the match. Meeting with the volunteer and the participants separately later to discuss the quality and success of the match in a judgement-free environment will also help to determine if changes are needed.
Matching is complex and can be time consuming but there is immense value in personalized matches. Time availability and core preferences should come first. Next think about hobbies (past and present), personality, desired support from the family, ways volunteers enjoy providing support, etc. Volunteers can be asked for this information in their application and during the interview process. Program participants and their caregivers can document their preferences as part of the intake process. Discussing these responses in person may give you a better understanding and feel for how you will establish a match.

Alternative Volunteer Match Approaches

Because not all volunteers can provide recurring services, offer opportunities for episodic volunteerism. This can work well for individuals and groups such as community organizations, businesses, faith-based groups and schools.
Consider matching new program participants and their caregivers with a volunteer pair. This can provide a sense of safety for all participating in the match as there will always be another person present observing interactions.
It is often easier to recruit a care recipient or family caregiver than to recruit a volunteer. To avoid placing prospective participants on a lengthy waitlist, consider short-term surrogate matches who keep in contact with the participant(s) until the long-term match is secured.
At the beginning of a new match, monthly check-ins are beneficial. Once a match is established, you may start checking in once every few months. For volunteers, regular follow-up fosters a sense of purpose, recognition, and support. As for program participants and their caregivers, these check ins can be used to evaluate the impact the assistance is having on them and potentially providing additional resources referrals and engagement.

Recruitment

Administration of Recruitment

You are competing with many other organizations for volunteers. Volunteer recruitment is a full-time job. If possible, budget for a full-time position dedicated specifically to volunteer recruitment.
Volunteer recruitment and retention is a challenge. It may be beneficial to create an in-depth tracking system to follow your recruitment efforts and analyze what changes must occur for success.

Broad/General Recruitment Marketing and Communications

Providing a complete job/role description helps potential volunteers determine whether your program is appropriate for them. When writing the volunteer description, ask current volunteers to help. Gather information about what the volunteers like about your organization and why they chose to volunteer with you. Ask what words and phrases are appropriate for your organization and would entice someone to volunteer. Rewrite the role description and include some of those phrases
Many volunteers are looking for organizations with flexible time commitments, training and reporting. As an organization utilizing volunteers to implement programs, be as flexible as possible in what you offer and how it’s implemented. In some communities, potential volunteers may work atypical hours or have limited ability to commit to long term activities.
Offer mileage reimbursement, when possible, especially for volunteers in rural areas who travel significant distances to provide volunteer services to outlying areas.
Encourage individuals you talk to regularly about your program to become Volunteer Ambassadors for your local model.
Volunteer Ambassadors can recruit additional volunteers in the community. Volunteer Ambassadors are the volunteers and community advocates who support your mission. These professional and friendly ambassadors represent your organization in the community by speaking about the impact of their role and what it is like to volunteer for your organization. To assist Volunteer Ambassadors, develop a toolkit with messaging that can be used when speaking in the community and used in flyers and/or other promotional materials. A messaging toolkit ensures that the volunteer ambassadors are using messaging that meets the organization’s standards of practice.
Word of mouth is a great marketing and recruitment tool. Ask your current volunteers to talk about your program to friends and family and encourage them to volunteer with your organization as well. Also, ask your volunteers to connect you with other organizations they interact with as this could lead to a very fruitful partnership.
You may find it beneficial to recruit two groups of volunteers. Recruit one group who will provide consistent volunteer time and another group to provide episodic group opportunities. Those volunteers providing episodic group opportunities may come from corporations, faith-based groups or schools.
Looking Inward to Recruit Volunteers.  
- It is always a good practice to look inside your current volunteer base, both active and previously active, when recruiting volunteers to a new program. If the number of volunteers you are reaching out to is manageable, a physical letter with a handwritten signature received in the mail might be more effective than a less personal email.
- Start volunteer recruitment by looking internally. Do you already engage volunteers who may be looking for new opportunities? Can you contact past volunteers interested in returning to volunteer with your organization doing something new? Do you have AmeriCorps alumni who have met the four-year requirement, but want to remain involved with your organization? Do you have any board members or advisory board members who would be great volunteers? Tap into these pools to get started. Offer an opportunity to educate current organizational volunteers about the new model and the volunteer role.
- Consider opportunities where program participants could also serve as program volunteers. For example, someone who does not drive and receives transportation assistance from your organization could volunteer to make social calls to individuals who are homebound and experiencing social isolation.
Intergenerational and College Student Volunteers
- Intergenerational programming is highly effective. It does not have to be limited to college age and older adult pairings. Recruit volunteers of all age ranges. Volunteerism at an early age can instill a lifelong desire to volunteer.
- Intergenerational programs provide opportunities for building strong relationships between volunteers and care recipients and caregivers. Connecting with specific college departments or professors can be difficult, time consuming and inefficient. Consider tapping into extracurricular activity groups, professional groups and culturally based groups. The students participating in these programs are looking for ways to engage outside the classroom. Your program may be just what they are looking for. Another way to reach college students is to post volunteer opportunities on various platforms, such as Indeed, LinkedIn and Handshake.
- Not all college students are 18-24 years of age. Consider the ages of your volunteers when developing training programs and incentives.
- College students make excellent volunteers. Utilization of college age volunteers has many benefits including providing a continuous volunteer pool for continued program implementation. During breaks and exam periods they may not be available to volunteer. Consider using volunteers of all ages to fill gaps when your college age volunteers may not be available.
- Recruiting student volunteers who come from urban or suburban areas to participate as volunteers in rural areas helps them learn about the needs of rural communities and what types of supports and resources may be available or lacking in those areas.
- Some benefits to recruiting college students as volunteers include:  
  - College students often are looking for opportunities that provide experiential learning that boosts their resumes.
  - Shared experience and wisdom across intergenerational dyads can lead to unique friendships and learning opportunities.
  - College students often have unconventional schedules that can meet the needs of the working family caregiver.
  - If a student is considering a career in life sciences, participation in volunteerism with older adults, adults with disabilities and family caregivers can better prepare them for that role.
  - College students may be better equipped to provide instructions to care recipients and family caregivers in how to use technology.
- Some considerations to take when recruiting college students as volunteers include:  
  - College students can have competing priorities.
  - It may be difficult to get a long-term commitment from students due to course load and other commitments.
  - Students can live in concentrated areas which are generally not in the same space as older adults.
  - Students with vehicles may need additional funds to maintain the vehicle and cover the costs when volunteering.
  - Many students leave campus during summer and winter break which can result in a gap in assistance for the care recipient or family caregiver.

Maximizing Partnerships and Available Resources

Consider opportunities where program participants could also serve as program volunteers. For example, someone who does not drive and receives transportation assistance from your organization could volunteer to make social calls to individuals who are homebound and experiencing social isolation.
If an organization in your community offers the Give 5 program, a no-cost “civic matchmaking” program that connects soon-to-be-retirees and retirees with meaningful volunteer opportunities that best fit their skill sets and passions, request to be a participating organization.
Meet with other community organizations to talk about strategies for volunteer recruitment. This is a great opportunity to learn from each other while assessing the potential for collaborations and partnerships.
Connect with organizations that specialize in volunteer recruitment and matching volunteers with opportunities in the community. Examples include:
- VolunteerMatch: https://www.volunteermatch.org/
- AmeriCorps: https://americorps.gov/
- Catchafire: https://www.catchafire.org/
- United Way: https://www.unitedway.org/
- VolunteerHub: https://volunteerhub.com/
- Idealist: https://www.idealist.org/en

Ongoing Communication/Pre-Onboarding

Peer mentor programs for caregivers can be a highly effective method for new caregivers to learn from experienced peers. It is important for mentors to be in a healthy emotional place when they begin mentoring. To ensure the mentor/mentee relationship is mutually beneficial, confirm whether new mentors have had enough time to grieve/rest before volunteering and check in with them regularly throughout their tenure.
Volunteers often prefer close proximity to their assignments while others are willing or capable of traveling further distances. During the onboarding process, it is good practice to gather information about volunteer preferences or capabilities to inform volunteers and care recipient matches.
When potential volunteers reach out for additional information about your program, respond with engaging email or phones responses to capture their attention while providing a realistic expectation of the onboarding process and volunteer experience.

Training

Training Development

Look within your organization for staff members who would make great presenters for your volunteer trainings. Many individuals on staff are likely experts in a variety of areas in which you plan to train volunteers. Utilize their knowledge and expertise before going outside your organization. They may also have training materials already developed that can be tailored to meet your specific needs.
When creating a training manual for volunteers, start with information universally essential for them, regardless of their specific roles. Then, develop separate handbooks tailored to each distinct volunteer role. For instance, if your organization’s program includes a social connection program, a lawn care program, and a transportation program, develop a comprehensive volunteer manual and then create three distinct handbooks—one for each program Develop a targeted approach in training, emphasizing the specific skills and knowledge required for each individual role.
When developing a volunteer’s training and onboarding, consider if the training is appropriate for the type of assistance the volunteer will be providing, ensure the training is comprehensive enough to set your volunteer up for success.
Scripts provide consistency for both trainers and volunteers across various training sessions, so try to write scripts whenever possible.
Develop an abbreviated “pocket guide” for volunteers including quick tips, the role of the volunteer, emergency plan, important contact numbers, and any other important information that they can carry with them when performing their volunteer duties.
High quality volunteer training is important in setting up both your volunteer and program participant for success. Providing consistent training across all volunteers results in consistent service delivery. Offering a general training session ensures all volunteers learn the standard information to volunteer for the organization. Try to include information for all volunteers about topics such as how to build rapport with a care recipient, how to be an effective listener and facilitator and how to use open-ended questions to generate conversation.
Experiential training methods provide an opportunity for volunteers to practice providing assistance before interacting with a program participant. Offering training to volunteers grouped by area of service provides an opportunity to role play potential challenges that may occur in a safe space, to navigate how to approach them and learn strategizes to overcome these challenges when providing assistance.
Consider these things when planning training sessions for university and college students: what is the ideal timing for student training each semester, avoid scheduling orientations too close to the start or end of college break periods, and engage students with consistent communication to keep continued interest.
Consideration of the volunteer’s demographic and skillset is imperative during the training process. Younger volunteers and volunteers living in urban and suburban areas with internet access may prefer the flexibility of asynchronous trainings, while those volunteers with limited internet access or limited computer access/skills may require in person trainings at a variety of locations. During the ramp up process, determine which method you will be using for trainings, in person, virtual, online or all and develop your training curriculum to meet each method of implementation.
Utilization of asynchronous training provides volunteers the opportunity to learn at their own pace, access and complete modules at any time convenient to them and review materials for clarity. This methodology allows volunteers to start training immediately while they are eager to volunteer which helps you to avoid attrition while they wait for the next training. It also allows you to engage volunteers outside your community who are interested in volunteering for you virtually or in person in their own community. This training approach may be especially beneficial to student volunteers with complicated or demanding class schedules.
Develop training materials that can be viewed or shared online or as a handout, utilizing language understandable at all reading levels.
Consider offering a post- training quiz to determine understanding and competency. This will help you to evaluate the skill levels of your volunteers.
Offer training in modules as each type of volunteer may not need to be competent in every training module. This also provides the opportunity to complete the training at the volunteer's availability, as some may not be able to attend an all-day event but could participate an hour at a time.
Training volunteers to serve as program facilitators for group activities can be highly successful. This frees up time for staff to focus on other priorities such as participant and volunteer recruitment, community outreach and sustainability while the volunteers lead the programs. Consider building an infrastructure that includes this component.
When establishing a transportation program or recruiting volunteer chaperones for transportation, ensure that each driver is equipped with a first aid kit and emergency contact information for the individuals they are transporting. Provide training opportunities in first aid and CPR, with a particular focus on volunteers who are transporting care recipients and family caregivers to and from outpatient procedures
Developing a structured training process for volunteers complemented by a comprehensive volunteer manual ensures the program's fidelity resulting in a consistent, high-quality experience for family caregivers and care recipients.
Develop policies guiding volunteer and client relationships. This can be a critical element of the education and training process for older adults and volunteers. It is essential to help volunteers and older adults set boundaries to protect privacy and ensure that volunteers do not take on responsibilities that are better left to trained staff.

Onboarding and Orientation

Minimize the time between potential volunteers expressing interest and the time they begin their volunteer assignments. Usually, volunteers are interested in starting immediately, not three months in the future. Offer trainings at a frequency that is manageable for staff and keeps pace with prospective volunteer interest.
Providing a comprehensive orientation packet is critical to training a successful volunteer. In addition to information specific to volunteering at your organization, consider including the some of the following components:
- A volunteer job description
- A volunteer application
- A waiver of compliance
- The importance of volunteering
- How to develop relationships and build rapport with care recipients and family caregivers
- How to communicate with older adults
- How to be non-judgmental
- Unconscious bias
- Ageism
- How to demonstrate effective listening skills and facilitate conversation with open ended questions
- Information about dementia or other disease specific information the volunteers may need
- Overall program goals
- Steps and requirements for completing a background check
- Safety and emergency protocols
- HIPAA compliance if appropriate
- Appropriate use of social media
- A list of community-based resources the volunteer can share with community members
- A list of acronyms commonly used in your organization
- How to set boundaries with care recipients and family caregivers
- How to report back to family caregivers when appropriate
- Who and how to report back to the organization’s staff about issues
- How to select volunteer opportunities
- How to report volunteer hours
- Samples of all required documentation
- How to collect stories for use in marketing
- A list of conversations starters or scripting for those volunteers who are unsure how to start the relationship with the participant.

Training Process

Ensure your volunteers are respectful of the religious and cultural beliefs of the family caregivers and care recipients with whom they are matched. During trainings, teach volunteers to listen, provide support and be encouraging while avoiding judgment and influencing decision making.
During volunteer trainings, demonstrate the value of long-term relationships between volunteers and care recipients/family caregivers. Share the benefits of volunteering with new volunteers. Explain that long-term relationships with participants decrease social isolation, provide a sense of purpose and connection, and build trust.
Provide new volunteers the opportunity to shadow experienced volunteers to gain better confidence and insight into the volunteer role.
Using online forms, such as Microsoft Forms or Google Forms, for gathering onboarding information can be helpful. These platforms transfer the information provided into an Excel sheet or Google Sheet for easy access by you. Depending on formatting, this method can help flag potential issues for you.
Consider collaborating with other departments within your organization or other organizations within the community when providing volunteer trainings. Others may already have developed components that would fit perfectly into your training program and be willing to share. This can save you a significant amount of time and help build those community relationships.
Strive to connect personally with each volunteer applicant to get to know their interests, motivation, personality, and circumstances. In doing so, you model the kind of relationships you hope volunteers will develop with clients which includes listening to understand a person’s needs, strengths, and goals.

Training Resources

Meaning and Hope Hub: https://meaningandhope.org/
The Sibling Leadership Network Podcast: https://siblingleadership.org/
Bystander Intervention Training: https://bit.ly/3U7J2lS
Respite for All Foundation: https://respiteforall.org/
Oasis technology and online safety trainings: https://www.oasisondemand.org/
Elder abuse: https://bit.ly/48DSLEZ
- The Administration for Community Living National Center on Elder Abuse
LeadingAge Learning Hub-Person Centered Dementia Care Training: https://bit.ly/3Ua3z9K
- Free to non-members
The Safe Zone Project: https://thesafezoneproject.com/
- This site provides a Foundational Safe Zone workshop curriculum to help you facilitate a meaningful, effective, enjoyable training; a library of activities designed to help expand understanding of gender and sexuality issues; and a series of articles to help you expand your skills and become an all-star facilitator and social justice educator. It can help you deepen your own personal understanding of LGBTQ, gender, and sexuality; teach others about LGBTQ, gender, and sexuality issues; get your safe zone or LGBTQ-inclusive educational program up and running.

Engagement

Retention

Acknowledging Volunteer Needs

Think about how to best balance meeting your volunteer needs and your care recipient needs. Think about flexibility and expectations. Do you talk about these areas during onboarding? Do you reevaluate the care recipient and volunteer needs regularly? What can you change to ensure the volunteer and care recipient relationship is thriving?
Volunteer attrition can occur at any point in the volunteer’s life cycle with your organization be it through self-selection to exit the program or life events. Stay in touch with exiting volunteers. Share program success stories and plans. Keeping them engaged may bring them back into the fold.
It is important for volunteers to set clear boundaries with care recipients. When care recipients over ask of their volunteer it can lead to burnout, which results in attrition. Teach volunteers how to set and maintain clear boundaries. Educate care recipients on what volunteers are allowed and not allowed to do. Check in regularly with volunteers and care recipients to ensure needs are being met on both sides of the relationship.
Provide volunteers with the opportunity to share thoughts, ideas, concerns, feedback and brainstorm solutions. This builds community between volunteers while offering supports to assist them in managing new or difficult situations and improve their volunteer skills.
An essential part of retaining volunteers and continued successful recruitment is to ensure volunteers feel valued as part of the organization and program team. Getting to know the volunteers one-on-one will help build strong relationships that can also strengthen connections during onboarding/training. Supervisors who treat volunteers with the same respect and courtesy of any new employee and implement regular check-ins with the volunteer to assist with any difficulties they may be experiencing also promote volunteer retention.
Volunteers want to understand their role and how it fits into the plan to meet the organization's mission. Having this information provides value and purpose to their engagement, increasing the likelihood that they will continue to volunteer for your organization.
Offer volunteers the opportunity to attend trainings and programs offered to caregivers. This will help them gain insight into the caregiver experience.
Volunteers may have set ideas and expectations about your program prior to training. Try to honor their wishes and create situations that benefit them. It is important to realize that volunteer expectations and desires often evolve over time. Needs, interests and skills change. Often, more seasoned volunteers gain confidence over time and become ready to take on larger projects. Having other volunteer opportunities available will keep them engaged in your organization instead of moving on to find other opportunities that better meet their needs, interests and skill set.
During the volunteer recruitment process, you will likely identify individuals who have high-level skills who could assist you in program development and implementation. To capitalize on their skills and abilities and offer a fulfilling volunteer role, consider whether they can assist with curriculum development, marketing materials development, community outreach, partnership building or sustainability. To what other areas could they provide insight that would help your program run more efficiently and effectively?

Embracing Flexibility

Try to offer a variety of volunteer options at your organization and cross-train your volunteers so that they can partake in various volunteer opportunities.
Cross training volunteers across programs allows you to be flexible, nimble and access a larger pool of volunteers quickly without having to provide training. Community needs often pivot quickly. Having a cross-trained work force can be highly effective and efficient.
Volunteers want flexible volunteering opportunities. Organizations can address this challenge by offering volunteer opportunities that require different levels of time commitment and contact.
To meet the needs of the volunteers, consider allowing them to set their own hours. This allows flexibility, decreases volunteer burden and increases the volunteer pool.
Create flexibility with paperwork and timesheets. Volunteers are the lifeblood of the work. Make the documentation as easy as possible. This may mean offering fillable PDFs, printed materials, online documentation options, etc. Use whatever method the volunteers prefer to get necessary documents completed.
One challenge you may face when developing a volunteer program that offers in-home support is a lack of volunteer interest in the significant time commitment required (typically weekly visits for possibly several hours at a time). To address this, consider structuring the volunteer opportunity as something small groups, or even families, could do together and share the responsibility.

Showing Appreciation

Volunteers that feel appreciated and valued for their work are more likely to serve as ambassadors and can assist in recruiting more volunteers.
Incentives are another way to make sure volunteers feel valued and appreciated. These can have monetary value, such as gift cards to assist with transportation expenses or gift cards to local businesses for food, etc. Other incentives can be team/staff events, like lunches, personal tokens of appreciation, like thank you notes or notes expressing sympathy if they have experienced a loss, can have a huge impact as well.
Acknowledge and thank volunteers regularly. Their participation is essential to your program. It can be something as simple as a quick email, text, phone call or letter. Telling them you appreciate them can be more valuable to the volunteer than receiving gifts.
You may find that not all volunteers require much recognition. They simply enjoy giving back to the community and meeting new people. Offering social events for the volunteers may meet the needs of this type of volunteer.
When planning volunteer appreciation opportunities consider the following
- Try something different. Don’t repeat the same thing every year.
- Different people like to be appreciated in different ways. What can you do to meet the individual needs of your volunteers?
- How can you show appreciation to your volunteers every day?
- Use volunteer appreciation events to stay in touch with current and former volunteers. Share new opportunities, successes, volunteer and organizational news.
- Offer milestone bonuses to volunteers who meet pre-established expectations.
Recruiting and training volunteers at the same pace as recruiting care recipients and family caregivers helps to prevent attrition. Having enough individuals to fulfill program matches prevents long waitlists for care recipients and caregivers and ensures that volunteers are engaged promptly.

Matching

Creating Quality Matches

Matching volunteers with participants in the same community may help keep the participant and their caregiver active, engaged and immersed in the community.
Generating quality matches between volunteers, care recipients and family caregivers takes significant time. Incorporate an efficient and effective method to gather necessary information into your onboarding process for both participants and volunteers. This information should assist you in making high quality matches that will bring enjoyment to all impacted. Ask questions that will help you develop a short bio on the volunteer and participant with information about their history. For example, where they have worked, what type of work they have done, information about their families, current and past interests, past travels, music preference, what their expectation of program participation is, etc. Use this information to match the experiences, interests and expectations of those who will be part of the match. Also consider the types, distance, and duration of the assistance and ensure it is aligned with the volunteer and participant expectations. To foster a successful match, everyone included must have their needs met.
After identifying a match, provide a warm hand off by gathering organization staff, the program participant, and volunteer in person or on Zoom to welcome all parties to the program, have introductions and discuss next steps.
A good volunteer match is a key component to a successful volunteer-based model. Organizations must understand each individual’s expectations, experiences and interests to make an effective match between volunteers and participants.
Generating quality matches between volunteers, care recipients and family caregivers takes significant time. Your onboarding process for both participants and volunteers, should incorporate efficient and effective methods to gather pertinent information that will allow you to establish high quality matches that will deliver maximum benefit and impact.
A quality connection between the volunteer and the care recipient and/or caregiver can happen naturally without intervention. On other occasions it may need cultivating to ensure participant satisfaction. A quality connection may not always come naturally, to foster a connection between volunteer and program participant, provide opportunities for the program participant and volunteer to spend time together with a staff member to help facilitate conversation. Encourage both individuals to share their interests and what activities they enjoy. When necessary, provide a virtual introduction facilitated by staff members for every volunteer and program participant match. Host a volunteer and program participant match meeting with staff before any assistance starts. As well as improving the comfort level of participants and volunteers, these meetings can improve the comfort level between participants and volunteers as well as providing you with the opportunity to observe the interactions and evaluate the match. Meeting with the volunteer and the participants separately later to discuss the quality and success of the match in a judgement-free environment will also help to determine if changes are needed.
Matching is complex and can be time consuming but there is immense value in personalized matches. Time availability and core preferences should come first. Next think about hobbies (past and present), personality, desired support from the family, ways volunteers enjoy providing support, etc. Volunteers can be asked for this information in their application and during the interview process. Program participants and their caregivers can document their preferences as part of the intake process. Discussing these responses in person may give you a better understanding and feel for how you will establish a match.

Alternative Volunteer Match Approaches

Because not all volunteers can provide recurring services, offer opportunities for episodic volunteerism. This can work well for individuals and groups such as community organizations, businesses, faith-based groups and schools.
Consider matching new program participants and their caregivers with a volunteer pair. This can provide a sense of safety for all participating in the match as there will always be another person present observing interactions.
It is often easier to recruit a care recipient or family caregiver than to recruit a volunteer. To avoid placing prospective participants on a lengthy waitlist, consider short-term surrogate matches who keep in contact with the participant(s) until the long-term match is secured.
At the beginning of a new match, monthly check-ins are beneficial. Once a match is established, you may start checking in once every few months. For volunteers, regular follow-up fosters a sense of purpose, recognition, and support. As for program participants and their caregivers, these check ins can be used to evaluate the impact the assistance is having on them and potentially providing additional resources referrals and engagement.

Management

Volunteer management software can streamline and organize many aspects of a volunteer’s work while also identifying potential issues and addressing any gaps in service. A variety of methods and tools exist to help in the management of volunteers. Volunteer management platforms can offer texting, emailing, scheduling and hour tracking making communication and verification of task completion much easier. Some platforms offer e-learning opportunities for asynchronous training sessions and systems for volunteers to document what happened during the visit and/or leave notes for staff. Consider the specific needs you want the software to address before making a purchase and ensure it is a justifiable expense within your operating budget.
Utilization of a database that keeps all participant and volunteer information fully integrated is highly beneficial but can be expensive. Consider securing an outside funder.
Having a background check process in place is critical in ensuring the safety of program participants. At a minimum, meet your state’s standards, which will vary. A gold standard is the background check requirement established by AmeriCorps which consists of a National Sex Offender Public Website nationwide check, state of residence and state of service criminal history check(s) and an FBI fingerprint-based check.
If you offer several volunteer opportunities within your organization, keep the background check requirements across all programs consistent. This will allow volunteers to serve across programs without additional screening requirements.
Consider requiring all staff involved in volunteer management to participate as a volunteer at least once. This will help staff members understand the volunteer experience and identify or address potential challenges.
Collecting volunteer hours is an essential element in a volunteer model, especially when demonstrating the value of your model. Providing a variety of options for volunteers to log those hours can help ensure they are recorded. Some potential ways are using written time sheets, calling in or emailing hours, logging hours into an online platform or app, or the use of a QR code to lead them to a site to log hours. Having options for collection will increase the volume of data received.
There are many options for volunteer management tools, but determining which option to choose and when to implement use can be complicated. Consider the number of volunteers and program participants in your program, their comfort level and accessibility to technology, as well as the program’s growth potential. Use of a well-developed Excel spreadsheet and phone contact may be the best option until you establish what you need from a management tool.
Some of the volunteer management options used successfully by previous Community Care Corps grantees can be found when you click the Resources button on the home page.

Volunteer Management Platforms

CiviCRM: https://civicrm.org/
- CiviCRM-CiviCRM is a cloud-based, open-source constituent relationship management (CRM) system developed specifically to address the needs of nonprofit, civic sector and association-based organizations. Because CiviCRM is open source, it’s highly customizable and free to use and develop. CiviCRM offers a variety of tools such as online and offline fundraising, grant tracking, event planning, donor and member management, advocacy campaigns, case management, communications and bulk email and more. CiviCRM stores all data, contact information and event history at one central place. Individuals can sign up for their membership, renew subscriptions, make donations, receive notifications and more. CiviCRM offers 40+ reporting templates to create custom reports.
Civic Champs: https://www.civicchamps.com/
- On this site, volunteers can complete applications which your organization can then review. Volunteers can log hours and provide status updates using the app on their phones. Your organization can also use this platform to send text messages to volunteers. This site syncs with a variety of customer relationship management software systems.
Assisted Rides: https://assistedrides.com/
Better Impact: https://www.betterimpact.com/
Excel:
- How to Use Excel for Project Management
  - com: https://bit.ly/49204WQ
- How to Use Excel for Project Management in 2024
  - the ascent, A Motley Fool Service: https://bit.ly/47GcLph
- Using Excel for Project Management
  - Office Timeline: https://bit.ly/428HsT6
Google Sheets:
- How to use Google Sheets for project management
  - Computerworld: https://bit.ly/3vInCSj
MS Forms:
- Microsoft Forms cheat sheet: How to get started
  - Computerworld: https://bit.ly/3Oa71gD
SurveyMonkey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/
Google Forms:
- The Beginner’s Guide to Google Forms
  - How-To-Geek: https://bit.ly/48Gj3qn
Mon Ami: https://www.monami.io/
- This platform allows your organization to tailor an embedded application to meet your specific needs. It provides a centralized phone number for volunteers and care recipients who do not wish to use their own phone number during interactions. Use of this app provides you with information to get a sense of how long volunteers and care recipients are interacting by phone. It is recommended that you identify a customer service representative who will be invested in you to help you get the most from the software.
Spedsta: https://spedsta.com/
- A web-based transportation scheduling, dispatch and routing software that does not require a phone app.

Support

General Support

Create a detailed Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document tailored for volunteers that addresses common questions and concerns. This resource empowers volunteers to find solutions to their inquiries promptly, minimizing the need for staff intervention and reducing response time spent on recurring requests.
If you notice that volunteers are being inconsistent with logging their hours, consider developing a process in which volunteers can use a QR code to log hours and occurrences.
Consider including support opportunities for volunteers like reimbursement for mileage and cost of activities they engage in with their program participant when generating your budget.
Prior to a volunteer’s first visit to the program participant’s home, consider completing an in-home visit to complete a safety assessment. This can be a formal or informal assessment to ensure that the home does not contain any dangerous animals or any significant hazards to volunteers' health such as mold, unsafe structure, pest infestation, etc. You may choose to have the program participant or their caregiver agree to maintain a safe, healthy and comfortable environment for visiting volunteers.
Your volunteers may need to leave contact information with the program participant or family caregiver for scheduling purposes, but the volunteer may not feel comfortable with the program participants having their contact information. Consider options such as Google Voice to allow volunteers to set up their own Google Voice phone number they can give out. This number can be consistently used by the volunteer and recognized by the program participant who will then feel more comfortable answering the call instead of sending it to voicemail. Another option is to use the organization's contact information until trust is built and the program participant and volunteer feel comfortable sharing their contact information. If a volunteer is providing a direct number for the program participant to connect with them, particularly as it relates to scheduling purposes, set expectations with the volunteer and participant on when calls may be received and returned.
- Google Voice: https://voice.google.com/
Provide the volunteer with verified emergency contact information. Because many program participants live alone and can be geographically isolated from family members, having contact information for a neighbor or someone who has regular contact with the person can help alleviate a volunteer’s concern when a participant is not answering their phone.
Self-care and rejuvenation are important for staff and volunteers in a fast-paced, demanding environment. It is important to provide support in terms of mental and overall health. This will have an all-round positive impact on the volunteers and staff along with the type, level and quality of services being offered.

Onboarding

To facilitate ease of volunteerism, have a process in place to walk volunteers through the background check process, simplify reporting as much as possible while ensuring you have all the information you need to manage and maintain the program and, if technology is needed to complete a task, provide a lending library with hotspot Wi-Fi access if necessary. Make program supply acquisition quick and straightforward, especially for those volunteers with limited transportation access. Also, provide opportunities for new volunteers to shadow more experienced volunteers to remove the stress and uncertainty felt when starting a new endeavor.
Investigate getting staff members trained and certified in fingerprinting and provide in-house notarization or find a mobile fingerprinting service that can come to volunteer trainings. This could remove the need for volunteers to travel to various locations to complete the required background check and speed up the onboarding process. An example would be delivering program materials and providing background checks on campus for college student volunteers.

Volunteer Meetings

Support your volunteers with opportunities to come together to share success, discuss challenges, provide feedback to the organization about their role and obtain additional training to support their work as a volunteer. These meetings can also be an opportunity to ‘spotlight’ a volunteer as well as ensure fidelity in program implementation.
Consider creating a private volunteer Facebook page where volunteers can engage with each other regularly. You can also post volunteer updates, meetings times/dates, and recognition here.

Mentorship

Volunteers benefit from mentorship. Having a mentorship component incorporated into the program provides social and educational opportunities. This peer-to-peer interaction facilitates sharing through teaching and learning opportunities. It also offers continuous communication for a personalized fit meeting the needs of the mentee and the mentor.
Being a caregiver and volunteering to be a caregiver mentor can be stressful. When you have volunteers with these circumstances, try to monitor the mentor to ensure that their mentoring duties do not become overwhelming in addition to being a caregiver. Prioritize these individuals to periodically role play conversations with their mentee to ensure they can ask the right questions comfortably and have challenging and comfortable discussions.
Starting a new volunteer opportunity may be frightening for a new volunteer. Being ready with answers to their questions can help ease some of that anxiety. Encourage the volunteer to talk with and shadow experienced volunteers until they feel comfortable on their own.

Managing Transition

Volunteers and program participants often develop relationships. Offering support services to the volunteers can help them manage life transitions that occur within those volunteer relationships. This may include training in boundary setting or grief support services.
Volunteers and the program participant often become very close. It is important to offer support services to volunteers who experience the decline or death of their care recipient. Offer opportunities for them to talk to someone who can help them process their feelings and/or grief. This is also a time to share any affirming messages the family or care recipient may have shared with you about the volunteer.
Volunteers who lose their care recipient due to death may not be ready to volunteer right away. Be sure to check in with them regularly to provide support and be available to them when they are ready to volunteer again.

Program Development

Work Plan

At the start of program development, establish a clear program scope and set boundaries for what will be included in the program. Refer to the program scope and boundaries as you progress through the development stage to keep track. Be honest and thoughtful about how long each step of the development stage will take and build time into the schedule to handle unexpected barriers. Be comprehensive in developing your work plan to include plans for volunteer/participant/staff recruitment, partnership building, etc.
Utilize your existing knowledge and experiences as a foundation for the development of new programs and leverage the lessons you have learned from participation in other initiatives. These lessons serve as valuable resources for constructing a successful program. Incorporate your expertise and consider the wants and needs of the stakeholders when expanding and enhancing current programs.

Incremental Development of New Programs

When developing new programs, consider whether it would be easier for your organization to build incrementally when generating a new program or whether it would be more effective and efficient to implement the entire program all at once. For example, if you want to add a volunteer chaperone transportation program to assist care recipients to non-emergency medical appointments, do you start by adding an opportunity for a volunteer to meet a care recipient at the doctor’s office building to escort them to the waiting room and progressively add additional components until you have a door through door model developed and implemented or do you develop the entire door through door model and implement it all at once. Your organization may be able to identify benefits to either option which may identify which method would work best.
Build new programs in iterations. Don’t try to do more than you can at any one point and focus on establishing one foundational component at a time. Progressively adding new components to your program will allow you to incorporate modifications based on outcomes and feedback. If you generate the entire final product without phased implementation, you may find it is not the best fit to meet your community’s need.
Development of an effective community program requires a lot of time and commitment. Consider starting with a small pilot program. Identify what supports are required for full-scale implementation, including what gaps need to be filled and how, what components are working well and those that need modification. Progressively expand the pilot model as the program implementation solidifies.
When implementing a new program in the community, assess if implementation of the program as a pilot with fewer participants is important. Can you use this pilot project to collect feedback on what is working and what isn’t; identify, plan and implement needed modifications to the program before it goes out for community access; and develop valuable community partnerships to ensure meeting participant needs without duplicating services? Would a smaller scale soft launch allow you to focus on onboarding and training new volunteers while providing assistance to care recipients on a smaller scale?

Program Team

When determining staffing levels demanded by program implementation, consider a full-time staff position to manage all the moving program parts. That staff member should be highly organized and skilled in collecting, processing and storing information. They should also have strong communication skills for sharing and explaining information in a clear, understandable way. These skills will be beneficial when training volunteers to implement your program and when understanding what motivates community members to participate in the program. This staff member will be well-positioned to continuously evaluate program fit for your participants and maintain relationships for other opportunities of support.
Consider hiring Community Health Works to assist in program implementation. Community Health Workers, trusted members of the community with lived experience who understand the culture of the areas in which they serve, can act as a connection between the community and your organization. Their awareness of resources and how to guide clients to access them make Community Health Workers valuable to the community.
Build relationships with colleges offering Community Health Worker programs and consider being a Community Health Worker fieldwork site. Join the local Community Health Worker Alliance.
In the ramp up period, accurately evaluate the staffing needed to achieve the program goals. In some situations, having multiple part-time staff working together is highly effective, whereas, in other situations, it is more effective and efficient to have one or two full-time focused staff members coordinating the program. Providing flexible work hours for outreach coordinators may also require consideration. Outreach opportunities do not always occur during standard work hours. Outreach coordinators may need to attend tabling events, provide presentations, attend committee meetings and other opportunities on weekends or in the evenings.
When developing a volunteer chaperone transportation program consider locating a medical doctor who will be a program champion. This person can directly reach out to medical offices and determine if the physicians in your area will support having a volunteer attend appointments and procedures with their patients and if not what they will support. This information will be very helpful in the development stages.

Partnerships

Developing a new program can be overwhelming. Consider reaching out to organizations that can help you through the development process. One example might include reaching out to an organization such as Respite for All when building a new respite program.
When offering transportation to nonemergency medical appointments, consider partnering with a local transportation organization that can assist in picking up multiple individuals at once. Picking up 2-3 care recipients and their volunteer chaperone at once decreases the number of drivers needed and potentially increases access to more participants.
A Hub and Spoke model is a consideration as an option for program implementation. This model can:
- Develop new and foster old partnerships with community organizations who can implement your program in their community.
- Identify new and existing care recipients and caregivers who may benefit from program implementation in new areas.
- Identify and train volunteers in new service areas to expand your reach.
Neighbor-helping-neighbor models bring the community together, building a stronger environment.

Budget

Be thoughtful when developing your program budget. Are you including travel reimbursement for staff and volunteers? Are you including funding to cover background checks? Have you planned for volunteer recognition activities? Have you anticipated an annual raise for staff members?
When budgeting, consider leveraging other funds to cover volunteer costs such as background checks.
When developing your background check process, consider including opportunities for the volunteer to pay for the background check. Often, potential volunteers are willing to do so as a way to contribute to the organization.

Intergenerational Programs

If you’re building a program that will utilize university and college students as volunteers, consider that many are required or choose to obtain service-learning credits prior to graduation. For example, nursing programs may be looking for organizations to provide opportunities for students to meet requirements for their community health rotation. Could your program be a source for those credits? During program development, be sure to include components that meet the service-learning requirements of the local universities or colleges with which you intend to partner. Ask champions from each of those entities to assist you in developing the service-learning curriculum. Do you need class materials for one semester or many semesters? Can you support the students with transportation funds or activity funds to encourage participation?
Intentionally developing the program to be intergenerational allows younger adult and older adult volunteers to support older adults. This approach also introduces volunteers to the program who may potentially become care recipients in the future.

Program Management

Program Implementation

General Implementation

Plan out, schedule, and document all elements of the program including client identification, engagement, and screening; volunteer recruitment, screening, onboarding, and training; matching clients and volunteers; and procedures for obtaining ongoing feedback and pre- and post- program survey participation. This will help keep you on track and ensure all steps are completed with all volunteers and participants.
Include multiple and frequent touchpoints for volunteers and older adults and key contacts for both. Dedicated, hands-on staff and/or highly trained senior volunteers or interns are important. Concerns will arise and staff need to respond quickly to allay volunteer anxieties. Human services programming of this sort cannot run on “autopilot.”
It can be challenging to build trust and credibility by phone, especially with older adults who are vulnerable and often underserved. Use of culturally sensitive volunteers who are bilingual and come from the communities in which they are serving can help to build that trust and credibility. Use your organization as the pass through for contacts until this trust is built.
If possible, separate the roles of the volunteer coordinator from the implementation staff. This will help the implementation staff to focus on keeping the program moving forward while the volunteer coordinator focuses on volunteer recruitment, onboarding and retention.
Consider the value of offering both in-person and virtual volunteering opportunities. Is the intention to bring individuals into the community? If so, virtual programming may not meet your needs. But if the intention is to minimize social isolation, weekly phone calls may work perfectly well. Does in person only programming limit participation? Does virtual only programming limit participation? You need to assess the impact of both opportunities on the community along with the availability of and skills to use technology. If the capacity and interest is there, maybe technology training, support and access should be part of your regular program services.

Use of Technology

Be open to implementing programs in new and different ways such as virtually, asynchronously, in person or a hybrid of all the options. Assist your volunteers, recipients and caregivers by removing barriers to technology. For example, offer a lending library for tables or laptops. Also, try to provide instructions for utilization of technology to anyone interested in learning; self-sufficiency will lead to increased participation.
Technology training and access to tech devices are critical in today’s world. When issuing devices to community members, consider using a device management tool that provides remote access to devices addressing issues that otherwise require volunteer intervention to correct. This access is particularly valuable when working in remote areas. One way to do this is using Microsoft Intune. https://bit.ly/426XqwT
When implementing a technology literacy program, it is important to assess the recipients access to the internet and their level of computer literacy. Administering a technology proficiency questionnaire during the intake process can help you gather that information. You can then follow up with a post survey at a time you specify to determine the impact of your volunteer led training and support on the care recipient.
When offering a technology loan program to community members be sure to create and have signed loan agreements which documents, at minimum, your expectations for how the device will be handled, when returned and to whom, and the condition it should be in upon return. Provide the recipient with a copy of the signed agreement for their records.

Group Activities

Consider offering program activities that include both the care recipient and family caregiver together. This allows the family caregiver to step out of the caregiving role temporarily and enjoy participation in activities with their loved one.
When determining the ‘magic number’ that will optimize participation in and effectiveness of a group event, consider topic sensitivity, desired individual/small group engagement, capacity of facilitators, and the defined goals of the session. Keep in mind, determining magic numbers can also require trial and error. Pay attention to what you learn during the trial phase. If providing interactive groups, it is important to consider the ideal group size or magic number of participants to ensure the level of participant engagement you are looking for. Some participants will find participation in group discussion comes easily while others experience discomfort when speaking up in a group. Small groups help alleviate some of the discomfort of group participation by allowing opportunities for participants to get to know each other as individuals and become a community. These community members then genuinely support each other during group discussions. Small group sizes ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak and feel as if they are heard. Small groups also are easier for moderators/facilitators to manage while encouraging shy participants to speak and monitoring the input of more confident participants. The type of program delivery will also determine the group size. In person programs benefit from eight to 12 participants while virtual/phone programs benefit from fewer participants, four to six participants per group.
Tips for workshop implementation:
- Expect to experience some attrition in each workshop. If the ideal number of participants is eight to ten, expecting to lose as many as five participants, consider registering 15.
- When determining group size for a workshop/class/program some considerations to take might include the number of facilitators for the event, the level of interaction expected from participants, the sensitivity of the topic being presented, the goals set for the workshop/class/program, and whether the workshop/class/program is presented virtually or in person.
- Send reminder calls to participants the day before the group is to meet.
- Add new programming regularly to keep returning participants engaged.

Evaluation Strategies

Start thinking about program evaluation from the onset of program development. Identify the path you want the program to take and how data collection can support a path toward your goals. Do you need to consult others to determine what data to collect, how to collect it and how to leverage it once you have it? Program evaluation and data collection should be embedded into your program from the very beginning.
When collecting data from care recipients, family caregivers and volunteers be sure to ask how they learned about your program. This will help you gauge which outreach strategies are most effective for certain groups and determine whether you need to change your marketing approach.
Data collection through participant and volunteer surveys is often a grant funding requirement. Often, participants are required to complete both surveys generated by the organization and surveys required by grant funders. If you have access to a data analyst provided by your funder, discuss potential strategies that can help decrease survey fatigue. This may include integrating survey questions into enrollment forms or the intake process.
Establishing feedback mechanisms with program partners, care recipients and family caregivers, including surveys and learning collaboratives to continuously assess the program’s effectiveness and identify areas for improvement, can be essential to your model’s development. Employing data-driven decision-making, based upon the feedback from all stakeholders to refine the program, ensures that it remains responsive to the evolving needs of the community.
Collect pre- and post- survey responses as timely as possible. Once volunteer assistance concludes and the volunteer or care recipient is no longer actively engaged with the organization, it is much harder to secure post- survey data. To achieve buy-in from volunteers, care recipients or family caregivers to complete the pre- and post- surveys, try to frame data collection as a method to ensure program quality and continuation. To facilitate survey completion, bring a tablet or laptop to volunteer and care recipient orientation and collect the data immediately. Using a tablet or laptop is much easier than a phone.
Incorporate survey data collection into the intake and exit processes. If done by phone or in person, this can be done as a natural flow of the conversation.
It is important to develop and use good messaging when collecting data. Survey completers should understand why the data is being collected, how it will be used and if the data they are provided is confidential and/or anonymous. You can explain that their survey responses will help improve volunteer assistance for older adults, people with disabilities, and their caregivers. Their honest answers and feedback help your organization make evidence-based decisions, stay accountable to the goals you have set, as well as demonstrate the impact of the program to the funder.

Advisory Board

Advisory boards offer a valuable knowledge base from experts in the field providing support to older adults, adults with disabilities and family caregivers. Choose members across the demographic and experience spectrum. Look for equity and lived experience when identifying members. Consider empowering everyone participating in the program to be an advisor and to share input and program advancement. This may provide a sense of motivation and purpose, especially for volunteers.
An advisory board or stakeholder group can be extremely beneficial during program creation. They can assist in identifying community needs and potential solutions, developing volunteer training, aiding in achieving cultural sensitivity, and providing access to community resources. Advisory board members can assist with fundraising, community marketing and be the boots on the ground at community events.
Advisory board members may participate in the daily activities of your organization’s program until it is managed and implemented by staff members and volunteers. Then, they may transition to other roles in your organization such as program governance if that is appropriate.
Once the model is in full implementation, keep the advisory board or stakeholder group informed of program successes, barriers, risks and outcomes. This can be done in various ways depending on the board or group's preference for communication.
Advisory boards can provide guidance on how to move programs forward, how to overcome barriers, give feedback on program progress, assist in strategic planning and help to identify and select contractors when needed.
Establish a diverse group of community stakeholders reflective of individuals that would benefit from your program and provide guidance and oversight of various programmatic and organizational components. This may include helping your organization and staff get connected to other volunteer programs/directors for collaboration and information sharing, recruitment of community volunteers and program participant referral.
Utilization of monthly meetings with your advisory board can ensure your program is truly meeting the needs of your community.
Be sure to include care recipients, family caregivers and volunteers on your advisory board.
Access to technology may be a barrier to potential members of your advisory board. Brainstorm ideas to overcome these barriers like hosting in person advisory meetings, having hard copies of notes available, and finding various ways for the board to correspond with one another.
Some organizations may find it beneficial to take a multi-tiered approach with your advisory board. This may include a large group that provides feedback and high-level program planning while a smaller subcommittee focuses on specific program(s) within your organization and provides feedback, programmatic, marketing, and fundraising assistance specific to the program(s) assigned to that subcommittee.

Needs Assessment

A community needs assessment will help you determine if the model you are considering is truly a community need. Check with your local community health department, hospital system or Area Agency on Aging and ask if you can view the results of their community needs assessment and build from there.
If your community is small, community needs can be identified during meetings and community events followed by information gathering and data collection.
Once you have identified your community's needs, you will need to identify if other community organizations are addressing that need. If so, determine how your organizations can collaborate to meet those needs without duplicating services.
A community need may be identified based on the frequency in which a request for a specific type of service is made. Track the frequency of requests that come into your organization via phone, online registration, email and other referral sources.
Needs assessments often take a lot of time, energy and resources. Consider looking for funding to hire a firm that can assist with completing your assessment including developing and managing focus groups, identifying key questions, and managing data collection.
To avoid duplication, organizations can often use the data collected from larger partners to determine community needs. Look to your local Area Agency on Aging, hospitals, county and state health departments for assessment data that has already been collected.
Consider the target populations you intend to engage and whether outreach to these groups would benefit from evening and weekend engagement. Be sure to account for this in program planning.
When creating educational components for program participants and volunteers, develop programs based on conversations with care recipients and volunteers. This keeps your educational components new and fresh, brings in new participants and volunteers, demonstrates your responsiveness to community needs and ensures participants feel seen.
The types of assistance your model provides need to match the needs, culture and values of the community you are serving, as well as the functional levels of community members. Design opportunities to engage recipients and volunteers of different functional levels
At the very start of program development, determine if there are existing programs in the area addressing the needs you seek to address. It is often difficult to find funding to develop a new program if other programs already exist to meet a specific need. If other programs do exist, consider whether you can partner with those organizations and meet that need together. Helpful questions to consider include: At what capacity is the need being met? If others lack capacity, does another program need to be developed to help? Lastly, how deep is the community need if similar programs at other organizations are not functioning at capacity?
Listen to the needs of the family caregivers and care recipients as you complete the intake process and during check in discussions. This may lead you to additional programs that need to be integrated into your new or existing model.
Be willing to let a program go if there is not enough community interest even if the concept seems important. What your organization thinks is a great idea may not be of interest to the community. Trying again at a later date may be more appropriate.

Referrals

Partnerships

Benefits of Partnerships

Partnerships with other organizations provide opportunities for both you and your partner to expand your scope of work. Sharing your experience and expertise with each other may help you to think more broadly about how to serve your community.
Establish effective partnerships by learning what other organizations in the community are doing and find ways to collaborate and share resources. This will reduce unnecessary duplication and work, while ensuring clients are getting connected to services and resources in the most efficient manner.
Building strong relationships throughout the community with various organizations provides many benefits to your program. These partners can generate referrals, fill service gaps, raise awareness of your program, provide opportunities for volunteer recruitment, sharing, cross-training and offer in-kind support.
Bringing in partners with knowledge and experience in strategic areas outside of your scope and utilizing their expertise can greatly enhance the project’s impact on the community and across the partnership.
Having a variety of community partnerships can offer beneficial volunteer recruitment opportunities. Bring community-based organizations together and introduce them to each other and your volunteer model. During these discussions, organizations can brainstorm ways that they can help recruit both volunteers and participants to engage in your model.

Identifying Potential Partners

Consider these entities for partnership: faith-based communities, food banks/programs, Chamber of Commerce, Area Agency on Aging, Veterans programs, community/senior centers, cultural centers, universities/colleges, corporations, Easter Seals and community businesses.
Identify prospective partners with whom a mutually beneficial relationship can be forged. For example, partnerships with colleges and universities can offer students valuable experiential learning opportunities by serving as volunteers assisting care recipients.
When considering building a respite program, partnering with an adult education provider allows the care recipient to attend the respite program while their caregiver attends an adult education program.
Recognize that both internal and external partnerships can be utilized in building trusting relationships with community members and other potential partners.
It may be beneficial to seek out partnerships with organizations using similar methods of volunteer recruitment, training, onboarding, engagement. To expand the reach of both organizations, try to share volunteers when possible. When developing relationships with potential partners, get to know multiple people within the organization. That way, if your primary contact should leave the partner organization, you still have an internal contact.
When reaching out to new areas, you may have greater success when you focus on a single area/community spending significant time making connections, learning where the informal and formal networks are, meeting with potential partners multiple times and finding out how these communities communicate with one another.
When meeting with community organizations for outreach and partnership, always ask, “Who else should we be meeting with?” They may have ideas for additional outreach and referral resources you haven’t thought about and could direct you to some amazing champions for your program.
Focus on a single area/community and spend 10-12 weeks making connections, learning where the informal and formal networks are and meet with potential partners multiple times. If you try to do this process in several communities at once, you can’t be present often enough in any one place to build those much-needed strong connections.
After you identify the potential support needs of your participants and volunteers, find community organizations to be a part of your resource sharing network. If you offer transportation and your care recipient reports food insecurity, partner with an organization that can accept a referral from you to potentially address it. That organization should also be able to refer one of their program participants to your organization for transportation needs.

Establishing Partnerships

Help your partners identify populations they have not previously engaged and work together to build a diverse client base.
Forming successful partnerships can be achieved by fostering a collaborative environment during meetings and decision-making processes. If you are the lead on the project, consider adopting an inclusive approach, avoiding a top-down directive and promoting inclusion and collaboration with partner organizations.
When building new partnerships give first to the organization with which you hope to partner with no expectation of reciprocity. Providing that organization support with no strings attached may lead to both organizations gaining insight into a service gap that your organization can fill, resulting in a program partnership.
Developing solid relationships with community partners takes time, be sure to allocate enough time for this when developing your work plan.
It may require the effort of more than one organization to identify and meet the needs of community members so consider developing a coalition of community organizations to address and meet community needs.
There may be other organizations in your community providing the same or similar services as your organization. Consider organizing regularly scheduled meet ups with these organizations. Discuss current issues and how you can work together to meet community needs without overstepping boundaries. Establish a referral system within the group to meet community needs.
When leveraging partnerships with other community organizations to gain referrals for family caregivers and care recipients, be mindful of staff attrition. Consistently reach out to ‘partners’ to ensure a warm handoff to replacement staff. Offer training to new staff members about how to refer individuals to your programs. At minimum, schedule quarterly check-ins with the appropriate members of each organization.

Partnership Engagement

Frequent communication with partners can help facilitate meaningful engagement and interest in your program.
To initiate and or sustain relationships with potential community partners, create a distribution list of all potential stakeholders and send out regular updates on program activities to keep all members informed and engaged.
Offering partner meetings remotely instead of in person allows program partners to meet more frequently, reduces travel expenses and can increase availability and attendance.

Social Media

In Person Events

Marketing

Word of mouth networking and marketing are crucial when serving a rural area where internet access may be more limited. Do outreach where people are, such as grocery stores and pharmacies. Build connections with local communities of faith and other community organizations so they can introduce you to other potential clients, volunteers, and partners.
Build relationships with local media outlets, like newspapers, TV and radio stations. If your organization or program has an advisory board or community partner group established, invite them to take part. They can assist in raising awareness about your program, events and volunteer opportunities.
When recruiting volunteers and participants, consider marketing and outreach campaigns in newspapers and publications that have significant readership among your target populations.
Google Ad Grants is an opportunity for consideration to market your organization and programs. Google Ad Grants offer eligible nonprofits $10,000 each month to spend on Google search ads. The goal of these ads is to increase the number of targeted visitors to your website every year. You can utilize Google's Keyword Research Tool to identify the keywords that would most effectively connect community members to your organization through a google search. You can also use Google Analytics to monitor total website traffic and topic pages.
Marketing to rural areas may require very different methods than marketing to urban or suburban areas. Consider contacting the Chamber of Commerce and the Visitor’s Center of the area you plan to serve to find out how community members receive information. Once you determine the most frequently used source of information, you can focus your attention there.
In some areas, phone calls directly to potential program participants, family caregivers and volunteers generate more connections and provide more feedback. This often takes more time yet can garner better results. Knowing how your community members communicate most effectively will be helpful to determine if this is a good approach for you.
Meet with program participants, caregivers and volunteers and find out what attracted them to your organization. Use that information when marketing for new participants and volunteers.
Participating in national trainings, webinars, and conference presentations bring awareness to what your organization is doing outside of your area.
Be sure to include marketing in your overall budget. This will help cover the costs of developing and printing materials, postage, ads and other methods you choose to implement.
At times, program participants associate receiving assistance as a detriment to their independence. Other times, a family member or caregiver may initiate participation in the volunteer program, but the program participant is not interested in participating. To navigate this, make a practice out of promoting the fact that your volunteer assistance serves to increase the participant’s and family caregiver’s independence and ability to safely stay in their homes.

Materials

Funding Sources

Strategies

Utilization of a database that keeps all program participant and volunteer information fully integrated is highly beneficial but also expensive. Consider finding a separate entity to fund this component or disperse costs across all organization departments that can benefit from its use.
When reaching out to future funders, be aware of what they will fund and be sure your program meets those requirements. If possible, schedule a meeting with a representative from the funding organization and discuss your program with them. This may determine if it meets their requirements and if you should apply.
Consider offering assistance using a ‘Pay What You Can’ model to encourage participation. This allows participants the opportunity to have a personal investment in the program without excluding individuals with a minimum payment requirement. Some participants are reluctant to participate in free programs, feeling as if they should pay for the assistance provided to them. This model gives them the opportunity to decide the dollar value of their assistance.
Knowledge sharing between nonprofit organizations can be a revenue generating opportunity. If you have developed a presentation or training that is highly valued by other organizations, you can charge a fee to present it. These additional funds should at minimum offset the cost of travel and your time to develop and present the program in person or explore virtual presentation options.
Evaluate if your organization or one of your partner organizations can use support from AmeriCorps programs such as RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) or the Senior Companion Program.
Philanthropy and private donations should be a major source of revenue. Clients and volunteers can be program donors, board members, advisory committee members and local community leaders.
Collecting volunteer outputs such as monthly hours of volunteer service can be very useful data when demonstrating community impact for other grant applications. Be diligent and consistent with data collection to ensure your records are accurate and reflective of your overall program.
Build connections and partnerships with state agencies and managed care organizations that can potentially provide funding for your programs. Research to determine if your organization and program are eligible for Title III funding.

Representation

General Representation and Access

A key part of recruiting program participants is ensuring that both staff and volunteers represent the community being served. Representing the community being served builds trust, makes community members participating in the program feel safe and welcome through shared lived experiences.
Engaging volunteers, staff members and Community Health Workers who understand the local culture is extremely important. Staff members who are bilingual can support onboarding volunteers and participants in a culturally sensitive manner. Offer programs in the communities' primary language as well as in English.
The types of assistance provided should align with the community's culture and the functional levels of community members. Offer opportunities for high, middle and low functioning participants and volunteers.

Connecting with the Community

Community churches can be a great source of volunteers with various interests and cultural knowledge.
Research the needs of each population you intend to serve. Consider developing an advisory council or focus groups to ensure your program identifies the community's need, provides necessary supports, and is indeed culturally sensitive.
When creating your work plan, be as inclusive as possible, for example: include bilingual programming to support non-English speaking community members and provide sliding scale payment plans for individuals with varying income levels.
Find opportunities to connect and collaborate with key community members and leaders. When offering a new program to a new community, these leaders can provide recommendations on how to make the program more meaningful, attractive and accessible to their community members.
Be present at different cultural events. Bring a bilingual volunteer or staff member to these events who can act as a program ambassador. Provide culturally sensitive materials to those in attendance.
Be aware of national and community wide culturally recognized celebrations when scheduling. Some examples include Martin Luther King Day, Ramadan, Jewish holidays, etc.

DEI and Cultural Sensitivity Training

To ensure your volunteers are educated and respectful of different religious and cultural beliefs, offer sensitivity and educational training. Consider hiring or consulting with an expert.
When recruiting participants and volunteers of diverse backgrounds and cultures, ensure they feel welcomed. Consider hosting a luncheon to promote your program offering traditional foods appropriate for their background and culture.
Training in diversity, equity and inclusion should not be limited to staff members and volunteers. Program participants and caregivers can also benefit from additional information on DEI to help ensure both volunteers and staff members are treated with respect.

Materials

Consider working with a consultant to ensure your organization is culturally sensitive. Some potential evaluation areas include the organization website, participant and volunteer applications, participant and volunteer intake processes, advisory council members, and staff and volunteer training.
When developing public facing materials, find a translator or community partner who can help translate materials for diverse populations in the community you wish to serve. Attend different cultural events in your community and produce flyers in the languages spoken by attendees. Offer luncheons to promote your program with food from cultures represented in your community.
In addition to adapting programming and materials to be culturally sensitive, be sure that the program, program materials and marketing materials are at an appropriate reading level for the intended audience.
When including photos on public facing materials, be sure to include diverse individuals who are representative of your community in the photos you plan to use.
Consider the language and accessibility needs of your community. This includes offering programming and materials in non-English languages and accounting for disabilities where adaptive resources are necessary (deaf/hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, etc.)
Utilize the expertise of other organizations, specifically ones that are working with the populations you intend to serve. Share your materials with these community organizations and ask them to evaluate them and provide recommendations for improvements in cultural sensitivity and accessibility.
Translation of materials is often required for program implementation, which can be very costly. When translating program materials to other languages, be aware that not all words translate directly. For example, there is no direct translation for ‘caregiver’ in Spanish. Interpreters may not always be able to translate exactly what you say. Be aware that concepts can get lost in translation which may lead to mistrust.
When generating public facing materials for volunteers, participants and community organizations, consider the literacy level of your reader as well as their preferred language. Ensure that translated materials not only are properly translated but have the proper meaning. If your target audience does not read or write, identify ways to reach this audience as well.

Increasing Access

It is important for all volunteers, care recipients and family caregivers to feel safe. Offering or participating in a Safe Zone program might be crucial for the populations you are planning to serve. Safe Zone programs are designed to foster environments where LGBTQ+ individuals are safe, welcomed and supported. To learn more about Safe Zone programs, a free online resource for powerful, effective LGBTQ+ awareness and ally training workshops, look here: https://thesafezoneproject.com/
Create an intake process for your program that is inclusive and fosters a welcoming atmosphere. This intake process should be informed by listening to community needs, educating yourself, and providing education to those within your organization.
Train your volunteers in appropriate language to use with your diverse target populations and ensure they are trained to treat all program participants and caregivers with respect regardless of cultural or physical differences.
Be aware of national and community wide culturally recognized celebrations when scheduling program events and trainings. Some examples of these include Martin Luther King Day, Ramadan, Jewish holidays, etc.
Encourage program participants and family caregivers to use their voices to provide appropriate feedback to the organization about their needs. Your organization can provide multiple avenues for all volunteers and program participants to provide feedback to the organization.
Be flexible when setting up locations for volunteers and program participants to meet. This helps to remove transportation barriers and helps both individuals establish and maintain privacy should, for example, the care recipient not wish to have nonfamily members in their home.
Offering both virtual and in-person options addresses the unique circumstances and limitations family caregivers might face due to socioeconomic or geographic factors. This hybrid model fosters inclusivity, ensuring that all caregivers can access the program's benefits.
When implementing a community respite program, offer caregivers a variety of alternatives that can be helpful and relevant over their caregiving journey. Being able to transition their family members from one respite service to another within one organization as their needs change is an enormous relief to caregivers. Family caregivers can experience a decline in options for socialization and support as their care receiver’s abilities and interests shift, which can be an added source of stress and worry. Having the capacity to transition a care recipient and their family caregiver from one format to another while maintaining the familiarity of the program staff and location can help reduce that stress.
When developing a lending library of tech devices, include accessories that meet the functional needs of those participating such as audio enhancement devices for those who are hard of hearing or a large stylus for those with arthritic changes.
The ability to pay for participation in programs can be a significant barrier for some community members. Consider offering scholarships, using the honor system, with each program offering. Posting a scholarship code stating, ‘Click this code to attend this program for free’, empowers the potential participant to attend regardless of income. Encourage program participants to share scholarship information with others.

Community Care Corps Effective Elements Library

Resources

Grantee Snapshots

Examples of Volunteer Nonmedical Assistance

Volunteer Management Platforms

Volunteer Trainings

Volunteer Background Checks, Fingerprinting, Insurance

Background check and fingerprinting

Volunteer Insurance

Diverse Community Engagement Resources

National Aging and Disability Resources

Health & Caregiving Research and Reports

Family Caregivers and Care Recipients

Recruitment

Engagement

Retention

Management

Support

Matching

Creating Quality Matches

Alternative Volunteer Match Approaches

Volunteers

Recruitment

Administration of Recruitment

Broad/General Recruitment Marketing and Communications

Maximizing Partnerships and Available Resources

Ongoing Communication/Pre-Onboarding

Training

Training Development

Onboarding and Orientation

Training Process

Training Resources

Engagement

Retention

Acknowledging Volunteer Needs

Embracing Flexibility

Showing Appreciation

Matching

Creating Quality Matches

Alternative Volunteer Match Approaches

Management

Volunteer Management Platforms

Support

General Support

Onboarding

Volunteer Meetings

Mentorship

Managing Transition

Program Administration

Program Development

Work Plan

Incremental Development of New Programs

Program Team

Partnerships

Budget

Intergenerational Programs

Program Management

Program Implementation

General Implementation

Use of Technology

Group Activities

Evaluation Strategies

Community Engagement and Partnerships

Advisory Board

Needs Assessment

Referrals

Partnerships

Benefits of Partnerships

Identifying Potential Partners

Establishing Partnerships

Partnership Engagement

Outreach and Marketing

Social Media

In Person Events

Marketing

Materials

Sustainability

Funding Sources

Strategies

Inclusivity and Access