Rewarding Volunteers

In an article written by Susan Ellis she write the two reasons why the employees are resistant to the volunteers “First, whether conscious or not, too many staff have low expectations of the skills or qualifications of potential volunteers, and so design work posing minimal risk if not done properly. Second, volunteer projects are most often carved out of the daily (or periodic) activities of the paid staff, defining volunteers as “assistants” focused on the same goals and strategies as the employees” (Ellis). Both of the claims are flawed since they both lead to conflictions on both parties. The staff don’t want the volunteers to do all the little tasks because they seem to think that the volunteers will do it with a careless fashion. This is all connected because the work the volunteers do is somehow connected to the employees

1. The two most important things I learned from my volunteering experience are that all kids need attention and positive support. Whether they effectively seek it out or not and that kids comprehend significantly more about what is going on than they can express in words and therefore the environment provided at child care centers can have a big impact on the child’s early development. While working with the kids I thought that it was anything but difficult to pay attention to the cutest kids who were continually smiling and needing my attention. The children who were the trouble makers, and the initial few times I volunteered, these were the children who got the majority of my time. For the shyer, less vocal kids I discovered I needed to try to collaborate with them and once they got more comfortable around me, they were more likely to need me to lift them up when they got hurt or scared or play with them. Through this experience I understood that the greater part of the kids required a lots of attention, even the ones who did not want it at consistently. I understood the significance of making each kid feel vital and cared for by adults. I discovered that the kids could see a great deal more about what was going ahead around them then I foresee. They knew a wide assortment of commands and phrases and could make wide associations between past encounters and their present surroundings. One funny example of this happened when I was reading a

Volunteering is often seen as free labor. However, there is a significant cost associated with the recruitment, training, and maintenance of the volunteer force. A full-time staff to oversee the volunteer program is necessary as well to ensure volunteers are being used effectively. The recruitment process varies from advertising to speaking at schools to

Overstaff/Understaff: Overstaffing can cause a much less stressful environment and can be cheaper. If you are understaffing then you will have to be paying a lot of overtime for the employees. Understaffing the employees will cause them to be in a much more stressful environment and could cause them to be less motived to work.

. The article name is Mandated Volunteerism: Is It Right? Do we Want It? Written by Christine Morris.

The other team members are part-time, and hold full time secular jobs. The majority of the staff are volunteers. In my opinion this is one of the weak points of the ministry. We are expecting a volunteer staff to accomplish what a full time staff accomplishes at other ministries. They do a great job, but I am concerned that this will lead to burnout. We are treating volunteers like staff members and we do not know how to differentiate the two.

Currently, the IRS does not allow you to assign a value to your time for charitable donation purposes. The reason why the IRS does not allow volunteer time to be deductible is because volunteering does not increase one’s income. If there is no monetary value tied to volunteer work there is no need to interpret how much ones volunteer time is worth, implement controls to keep track of volunteer hours, or a need to create regulations and policies to implement volunteer work. If all of the sudden the IRS decided to implement a way to make volunteer hours deductible, the cost to keep track of the value of volunteers hours will be greater than the benefit that the organization would receive from volunteers.

I have only had two different jobs in my life. Both required much of my time and caused me to be exhausted at the end of the day. As a student in high school, I knew that volunteering and having a job would help build my resume. I knew that that would help put me in a better position to get a job and start my career. Volunteering and working are both very different experiences but cost lots of time and effort.

Over the course of my high school career, I have volunteered in a variety of roles. For example, I have been an active member of my church, volunteering in the nursery or teaching Sunday school every week. In addition to these weekly commitments, my church has also provided me with the opportunity to volunteer at the Maryland food bank and in a program called "Rebuilding Together", through which my church helped rebuild multiple houses in the Frederick area.

understaffed and the nurses overworked. Nurse understaffing is a problem that cannot be solved by simply just adding more nurses to the profession. In order to solve the problem, you have to look at the reasoning for it. By looking at how one can make nursing more cost effective, finding areas of the hospital that need more intensive care than others, and working with nurses on the best way to do scheduling, the problem that arises because of lack of staff can be solved. These proposed ideas offer individualized solutions to nurse staffing as opposed to mandatory staffing ratios.

Over Spring Break, I spent my week in Dallas, Texas with my youth group. I volunteered at an organization called The Cliffhouse, which resulted in a home being built in the "food desert" or Dallas. A young man, Kenny, was called by God to help the youth of Dallas. He is building a house (by himself!) in the most dangerous neighborhood of Dallas. If a child in being abused, possibly entering a gang, needs emotional assistance, etc, Kenny houses them in his home. I had the pleasure of helping him build this house. I also volunteered at Crossroads Community Services- this is a food packing warehouse that send meals to families in need. Many of my volunteer opprotunities are funded through my church, including my time at Newman Park Christian Center,

Weeping sounds from babies are the first thing I heard when I stepped foot into my volunteering site. The weeping sounded as if the babies were hopeless, lonely, and in pain. Everybody around seemed so busy or just didn’t want be bother with a crying baby. I couldn’t just stand there and let the baby cry. I had to do something. But what?

Volunteerism positively reflects an individual's character, showing others of their benevolence and compassion. Organizations such as Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) as a whole is very community based, meaning we partake in and organize activities that positively affect the school, its students, and the rest of the community. As President of FCCLA, I participate in numerous community service and community awareness activities. FCCLA has done numerous community projects, such as food drives, coat drives, and toiletry drives, and eventually all of these items were given to the homeless whom we have also volunteered to feed. Moreover, the numerous volunteer opportunities that I have grasped have helped me to establish what career path I want to take in the future, nursing. Doing community service helped me realize that I want to spend my life helping others, doing things that could make a sick person’s day better and help them to stay positive as they heal.

Do you ever think of you could help your community? Are you ever bored in the summertime? Then, you should volunteer.

One particular outstanding achievement I have received is the recognition of my volunteer work at my local Vietnamese church. Starting in fourth grade, I would volunteer weekly at my church, usually playing for 1-3 hours (this included weddings and funerals). I affected the lives of those I played the piano for since I put out time to practice and attend extra masses on my own time. I soon felt a connection to the people I helped, and I very am thankful that my love of music has helped