Volunteer Management Training Series

DANBURY — The Volunteer Center serving Western Connecticut, a member of the Points of Light Foundation, offers a volunteer management training series to help community-based organizations recruit, train, manage, and engage more volunteers to aid in delivering social services in Western Connecticut.

The series will begin on April 12.

The training series consists of six courses in volunteer management designed for those running volunteer programs at the community level: Understanding Volunteering, Planning a Volunteer Program, Recruiting and Placing Volunteers, Orienting and Training Volunteers, Supervising Volunteers, and Evaluating Your Volunteer Program.

The curriculum is interactive and is based on research and effective practices in volunteer management.

Registration is limited to 20 participants.

The results of recent studies underscore the urgency of volunteer management training. According to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor, nearly, 64 million people volunteered an average of 52 hours over a 12-month period ending September 2003. The Urban Institute’s Volunteer Management Capacity Study revealed most charities and congregations utilize volunteers, and greatly value the contributions those volunteers make to in improving services in a cost-effective manner, have established volunteer management practices at a minimum, and want to take on more volunteers.

Organizations that invest in volunteer management capacity have fewer problems in recruitment, receive benefits from volunteers and have the greater capability to involve more volunteers without increasing their staff, according to the recent Urban Institute study.

For more information about the volunteer management training series, contact The Volunteer Center at 797-1154.