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Keeping Volunteers Safe: Restarting your Volunteer Programme

4. Adapting to Change: Roles and Responsibilities

Diverse hands

Figure 8: Diverse Hands (Public Domain)

The previous section highlighted that volunteering is a choice, and people choose to volunteer for different reasons. In the course “Involving Volunteers,” we emphasised the idea that choices ought to be real, and that choice is informed by openness and transparency. Being open and transparent is not easy when things are changing quickly. Rather than focus directly on the changes this section shares questions and concerns about how to adapt to those changes and highlights areas to focus on:

 The structures you might need to adapt or change to support the involvement of volunteers during the COVID 19 situation and recovery phases. This might include training and support, changes to leadership structures, reviews of formal guidance on safe working and volunteering practices, the opportunity to review progress and change as the situation evolves.

  • Developing an awareness of the individual, collective and group or organisational responsibilities around health and safety, legislation and insurance and what action you must take before your programme restarts or scales up during the COVID-19 situation and recovery phases