“I Wished I Had this Kind of Training” ~ a Veteran Volunteer Manager

The Volunteer Management Circuit returned for its 3rd run. In the first 2 runs, we were privileged to help 47 social service agencies level up both their practitioners’ volunteer management capabilities and also their organizations’ volunteer programmes.

On the 4 Oct 2019, we successfully kicked off Generation 3 of the circuit with another batch of participants from 13 social service agencies. Day 1 started off with helping practitioners understand the fundamentals of strategic volunteer partnerships and the strategic role the volunteer programme plays in helping social purpose entities grow their mission.

Volunteer Management Professionals studying and discussing the volunteerism rates and trends and the implication on volunteer partnerships.

Speaking about the Volunteer Management Circuit, James, Lead Thrive-Synergist and Founder of Emmaus Strategies (the social enterprise which runs the circuit), shares:

Having myself been a volunteer management professional, I understand the challenges and learning gaps volunteer managers face on the ground.

With this deep appreciation, we set out with a common goal to design a capacity building training programme to, on one hand, help professionals be holistically equipped with the needed knowledge, skills and perspectives for their volunteer programmes to be effective, and on the other hand, value add to the strategic positions their programmes play in resourcing social purpose entities.

It is our way of “fueling good” and ploughing back to the not-for-profit sector.”

He goes on to explain what the circuit hopes to achieve:

What the circuit hopes to achieve is really very simple. We hope to provide a platform for the professionals to (i) gain the fundamental principles and perspectives for them to run an effective volunteer programme, (ii) have the bandwidth to process through strategic matters with other professionals and learn from one another, while at the same time (iii) building a community which they can belong to and get support from. These are the very things that I wished I had when I was starting off as a volunteer management professional and I hope these will go on to grow the professionals trained by the circuit.”

Over the remaining 3 days, the participants will learn fundamentals in topics such as designing volunteer roles for success, risk management, volunteer recruitment and screening, volunteer engagement and performance management. The circuit will facilitate learning through innovative methodologies for applied and community learning and will also present participants the opportunities to have an in-depth dialogue with invited practitioners.

Want to equip your volunteer management professionals? Contact us for more information or visit emmaus.sg for more information.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019Some Rights Reserved

James Lim

James is the Lead Thrive-Synergist & Founder of Emmaus Strategies; a social enterprise that “fuels good”. It does this through Mental Well-Being programmes for individuals and organizations, as well as Strategic Volunteer Partnerships consultancy and training for non-profits.