2.3 Take action and be ready for volunteers

So far you have considered two key areas related to ‘thinking about volunteering’: ‘Be ready’ and ‘Is this right for me?’ The next step, having reflected on what is proportionate for your context, is to develop an action plan to help you make positive changes.

Actions you might want to take could include:

  • ensuring you can communicate why your organisation or group involves volunteers
  • being able to communicate what the benefits of involving volunteers will be, for both the individual and the organisation
  • having identified how volunteers will be involved, drafting role descriptions that will help to make expectations clear
  • being ready to share the group’s or the organisation’s expectations of volunteers, so potential volunteers can make an informed choice about whether to get started
  • understanding what volunteers will be considering when deciding if your opportunities and group or organisation are right for them
  • making a decision on which structures are needed to support the involvement of volunteers, such as a volunteer policy or volunteer agreement.

Activity 3

In your learning journal, note three actions that you want to take from the learning in this section. Prioritise these and write the most important one into your final action plan at the end of the journal.

You might have thought of something that wasn’t significant enough to write in your action plan, which you could do easily and would improve the experience for volunteers. Just do it now.

‘Is this right for me?’ activity

2.4 Further resources