5.3 Take action to be ready to build on success

In this section you have considered two key areas related to building on success: ‘Enjoy it, love it, be happy!’ and ‘Don’t make me feel guilty, let me go!’ 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:

  • planning how you will make sure you listen to volunteers and learn from their experience
  • being prepared to act on suggestions for development made by volunteers
  • planning how you will support volunteers to ensure that their volunteering meets their expectations
  • identifying how you can support volunteers in their personal development, either within the role, or when they decide to move on
  • deciding how you will celebrate the contributions made by volunteers when they decide to move on
  • planning to ensure that you continue to have enough volunteers in the future.

Activity 12

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.

‘Don’t make me feel guilty, let me go!’ activity

5.4 Further resources