Helping develop the volunteer workforce

One of the greatest strengths of our sector is the dedication and diversity of its workforce. We know that it is extremely varied; full of people with unique personal stories and individual experiences and it includes both volunteers and paid staff. Some people may volunteer because they have personal experience of drug and alcohol use, some may have experienced substance use in their families and some may, initially, have no direct experience of it at all. Volunteering can provide a path for anyone who wishes to help their local community. What unites all these people, as well as their paid colleagues, is a desire to help and support people made vulnerable through their own substance use or that of a family member.

But volunteers don’t come for free. They need to be supervised, supported and monitored just like paid staff. Services need to develop support and supervision processes which ensure that volunteers possess the competencies they need to do a good job and that they have the necessary channels for seeking support and feedback when needed. Without proper management and support volunteers can be exploited or left to deal with situations they are not comfortable or trained to deal with.

Helping build support for volunteers is a key part of Adfam’s Drug Sector Partnership’s work. As part of the partnership Adfam has carried out a multistage workforce development project, which started by looking at resources for all practitioners working with families and has now moved towards a focus on volunteering. In the first stage consultation and research was carried out to map the make-up of the workforce. You can read the results of the survey (pdf) on our website. Using this evidence role profiles were then written for use by services supporting families affected by substances use, both paid staff and volunteers. You can read the role profiles (pdf) as well as an explanatory briefing (pdf) online also.

In the current stage of the project Adfam is working on a Volunteering Toolkit. The toolkit will be a resource for volunteers, both current and potential, as well as organisations both inside and outside the sector. It will include all the important background legislation and policy and explain how volunteering impacts on benefits and claiming expenses. It will also contain a series of downloadable information sheets and generic forms for use in supervisions and recruitment.

Lastly, the toolkit will contain case studies and good practice from both volunteers themselves and the services where they work. If you would like to appear as a case study in the Toolkit please get in touch with Oliver Standing. A consultation event will be held on 7 September 2011 in London - if you would like to attend to contribute your experiences and help develop good practice guidelines for the toolkit please do get in touch!