Recruiting college students as volunteer leaders
Abstract
College students often have a variety of activities and responsibilities competing for their attention, and engaging them in service takes a well-conceived strategy. This effective practice was developed and tested by Hands On Network’s Citizen Action AmeriCorps members in Seattle, Boston, and Atlanta. Lori Jean Mantooth of the Hands On Network shared this effective practice in August 2007.Issue
How best to engage college and university students as volunteer leaders.Action
As part of the Hands On Campus Initiative, Citizen Action AmeriCorps members in Atlanta, Seattle, and Boston identified these recommendations for recruiting student volunteer leaders:
Determine your program's need for student volunteer leaders.
As you define your volunteer engagement goals and objectives, consider your current program, how you want to expand your work, and how you can utilize student volunteers in leadership positions.
Outline clear roles for student volunteer leaders.
Once you know your program's needs in terms of student volunteer leaders, clearly outline what student volunteer leaders will do, what skills are required, and the support/benefits they will receive.
Determine the types of students you want to recruit.
Think about the students at the local college or university where you plan to recruit volunteer leaders. Who would be interested in the position? Since these volunteer positions involve greater responsibility and ownership, consider how to recruit people with the necessary leadership potential.
Create a solid recruitment plan.
Working with your partners on campus, identify ways to reach the students you want to volunteer. Be as visible and make the information as accessible as possible. Many groups and organizations are advertising and recruiting on campus, thus any recruitment efforts should be engaging, well organized, and professionally presented. This assures students that your program and recruitment efforts are legitimate.
Understand your target audience.
College and university students have the ability to become quickly engaged in an issue once they have enough information to fully understand it. Be able to explain to them why the service they will be doing is important and be prepared with facts and research. In addition, be ready to help them recognize skill sets they may not have previously thought appropriate for application in service initiatives.
Help college students connect their service to something larger.
Make available as much information and research as possible about the issue their service will be addressing, and ensure that it covers how the issue is pertinent locally as well as on a larger, broader scale. Connect with appropriate departments and professors on campus and work with them on how to make the service philosophy relevant in the academic setting.
Context
The mission of the Hands On Network Citizen Action AmeriCorps Program is to build communities by creating stable supportive relationships between community members, service organizations, AmeriCorps members, and service recipients. These constructed social networks increase social capital and build a solid foundation of engaged community networks that affect change both on a short-term and long-term basis. CAAC members create solid community infrastructure for volunteer participation.This mission is achieved through two unique capacity building program delivery models. In the first program model-Affiliate Based Capacity Building-AmeriCorps members are placed at a local Hands On Network affiliate to support volunteer recruitment, training, and leadership development for a strategic portfolio of partnering community and faith-based organizations.
In the second program model-Community Based Capacity Building-affiliates serve as intermediary organizations, placing AmeriCorps members individually or as teams within community-based organizations that have been determined to have limited internal capacity to manage volunteers or have determined that targeted infrastructure improvements will result in improved volunteer engagement thus building their capacity to fulfill their mission.
The activities of members in this model fall into four categories: indirect service, capacity building, direct service, and sustainable endeavors.
Outcome
Programs that follow these steps will:- Identify a need for and clear roles for student volunteer leaders
- Create solid plans to recruit college students
- Help college students connect their service to something larger
Posted On
September 14, 2007For More Information