Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

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VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT

Orientation and training

You should take the time to give training and orientation to all volunteers (tutors, board and committee members and administrative volunteers). All agencies have a structured process for training tutors but may not have the same type of process in place for other volunteer positions.

When asked in CLO's survey how satisfied they were with the training they received, here is what literacy volunteers had to say:

  • 44% of volunteers were very satisfied
  • 28% were mostly satisfied
  • 20% were satisfied
  • 6% were somewhat satisfied
  • 2% were very unsatisfied

How satisfied do you think your volunteers are with the training they have received?

While volunteer training is extremely important, it is a sizable topic that cannot be covered in sufficient detail in this module. However, Community Literacy of Ontario has done considerable research in this area. For example, CLO has developed a "Provincial Standard for the Training of Volunteer Tutors". It is CLO's hope that this standard will set the bar and increase recognition of the professionalism and skill of those involved in Ontario's community literacy agencies. The complete standard can be found at: www.nald.ca/clo/pratrain/provstan/tutors.htm.

You can also view two CLO research reports, "Skills for the Future, Phases One and Two" at: www.nald.ca/clo/publications.htm. These two reports provide a variety of research information about tutor training in Ontario.

In addition, here are some great online sources of information on tutor training:

The Ottawa-Carleton Coalition for Literacy has produced a series of valuable resources for tutor training. They can be found through the NALD library.

One of the best sources of information on board training is hosted by United Way Canada and can be found at: www.boarddevelopment.org.

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Literacy agencies and retention

We have heard what the volunteers had to say about retention, now you might be interested in hearing from your fellow literacy agencies!

According to CLO's volunteer survey, literacy agencies offer the following supports to help retain volunteers:

  • 92% offer ongoing support from agency staff
  • 81% provide opportunities to meet with other volunteers
  • 79% offer training to strengthen volunteer skills
  • 74% hold regular meetings in person or over the telephone
  • 68% provide opportunities to learn new skills
  • 53% offer new opportunities and tasks to challenge and encourage growth
  • 49% provide employment experience
  • 49% survey their needs

We will end this section on volunteer retention where we began. The number one reason literacy volunteers chose to give their time to literacy is to make a difference in another person's life. Does your agency provide volunteers with the information, training and supports that encourage this to happen?

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Questions for Reflection

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  1. What effective strategies does your agency use to retain volunteers?
  2. What additional support could your organization provide to increase volunteer retention?
  3. Ask five volunteers to tell you what they like best about volunteering with your organization and what they like the least. What do their answers tell you?
  4. What additional training would you like to provide to your volunteers?
  5. Do you think that your volunteers would say that your agency is making the most of their time and skills? If not, why not? How could you change this?

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CLO gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided by the National Literacy Secretariat (HRSDC) and the technical support provided by the National Adult Literacy Database in developing this web site.

All external links within this website were valid at the time of publication.
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