View the recorded webinar

Download Presentation of Dummerston Cares and N4A Peter Lane

Download Volunteer Organizations and Liability presentation by Jackie Sartoris

Download Building Volunteer Networks presentation by Carol Stamatakis

Additional Materials:

Handout: Dummerston Cares Program Description

Handout: Dummerston Cares Survey

Handout: Dummerston Cares Volunteer Driver Welcome Letter

Handout: Dummerston Cares Friendly Visitor Application

Your age friendly committee has completed an assessment and written an action plan that identified the need to create a volunteer program to fill a gap in what is available in your community for older people. The committee can’t do all the work themselves so you decide it is time to develop a volunteer program. Now what?

This webinar shared some ideas about developing a volunteer program. We covered the following topics:

• Determining what volunteers will and will not do. Will people who volunteer to snow shovel be discouraged from entering homes and helping with light maintenance? Will drivers in a transportation program be expected to transfer someone from a wheelchair to their car?
• Background checks–when are they necessary? If so, what kind of background checks will you do? How will you pay for them?
• Liability–Is your organization liable if a volunteer is in a car accident or steals from someone they are supposed to be helping? Is liability insurance necessary?
• Policies that you can create to safeguard volunteers and service recipients. How do you know if the volunteers you are sending into homes are providing the services you expect them to provide? How can you be sure that the volunteers giving rides are treating service recipients with respect and compassion? How do you know that a volunteer isn’t being put in a situation that makes them uncomfortable or is burned out by the needs of a service recipient?