Thoughts on Volunteers

Over the past couple of weeks we have been talking about how to get our volunteers more involved in our ministry. We have been throwing ideas around and talking about how to make them feel more comfortable with each other and with the kids. How do we make our volunteers feel more wanted and needed? How do we get them to be more involved with the students than just being chaperons? Here are a few of our thought, or what we are thinking of doing.

Volunteer Meetings
We have decided to have monthly volunteer meetings. What do these meetings look like? Well, we are thinking of more of a community time, not a teaching time. I think so many times when we are thinking of volunteers we think that we need to train them in how to handle kids, what to say in situations and and how to be a part of their world. People know how to relate to other people. We don't need to train them all the time. I think that making the volunteers feel like a wanted group of people will hopefully make them feel more like coming around and spending time with the students. Creating a tight knit group of people that know each other and care about each other is the key.

I think that also in these meetings we need to make sure that our volunteers realize that they are capable. They are capable of relating to the students just as much as we, the staff, are. We need to make sure that they realize that as long as they are real with the students the students will be real with them.

These are just some random thoughts. What do you think? Any thoughts on volunteers?