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VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT |
Screening and Intake“I need something worthwhile
to do - and what better than helping someone else
learn?” (A
literacy volunteer)
Volunteer ScreeningScreening and intake refer to the range of activities that your organization should use to help it find the appropriate volunteers. It is about so much more than police checks! Volunteer Canada defines screening as an on-going process designed to protect the organization and all people involved with it, particularly children or vulnerable adults. Screening will help you to create and maintain a safe environment for students, staff and volunteers. It will also go a long way toward ensuring an appropriate match between volunteers and their duties. A thorough screening process will allow you and your volunteers to have a high level of confidence in their ability to do their work. Good screening and intake processes will also help to ensure that volunteers are placed in positions that best suit their abilities and interests. It also helps volunteers to understand their rights and responsibilities. The function of screening should be both implicit and explicit in everything that you do in your search for volunteers. It may be implicit in the wording of your promotional materials and explicit in questions that you ask potential volunteers during a telephone interview or on the application form. Some materials that you produce can allow potential volunteers to self-screen. For example, if you are looking for someone to maintain your website and have posted a notice at the post office, many people may read your poster, but those who do not have the appropriate skills will probably not contact you. Or, if you need volunteer tutors who can work during the day, your information should state the required timeframes so people not available during that particular time will know this before applying. Also keep in mind that screening should focus on the task involved, not the individual. Screening is about identifying the level of risk attached to each volunteer task (for example, there is a much higher level of risk attached to working with children or vulnerable adults than writing a newsletter). Screening is about helping you ensure that the right people are carrying out a clearly defined job. Volunteer screening is important for the protection of everyone involved with the literacy agency. Your organization is responsible legally, morally and ethically to protect people involved in your organization from harm. Literacy agencies need to ask themselves questions like:
Screening is so important in fact, that over 98% of Ontario's literacy agencies screen their volunteers! (CLO's Volunteer Survey, 2005). Here are the ways that literacy agencies typically screen volunteers:
Volunteer Canada's Safe Steps Screening ProgramVolunteer Canada has developed a Safe Steps Screening Program. The program has 10 potential steps. Which steps you choose should be based on the level of risk associated with a particular task or position. For example, applicants for low risk positions may not need police checks but all ten steps should be applied to positions or tasks where the level of risk is high. This means that a volunteer who maintains your website and a volunteer who runs a family reading circle could be subjected to a different level of screening, based on the risks involved with each position. Here are Volunteer Canada's 10 Safe Steps:
You may find that you are already doing quite a few of the above steps in your agency. Many of the steps are sound volunteer management practices: recruitment, screening, training, supervision and support. You can learn more about Volunteer Canada's Safe Steps Screening Program by visiting: http://volunteer.ca/resource-centre/screening/10-steps-screening. The Ontario Screening InitiativeThe Government of Ontario also developed the Ontario Screening Initiative. Resources produced from this initiative include information on determining the risk, position design and description, reference checks, police checks, etc. You can find out more about the Ontario Screening Initiative and download information and resources by visiting http://volunteer.ca/resource-centre/screening/ontario-screening-initiative |
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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.
