Senior Safety ServicesDAVID CORDERCONCORDIA UNIVERSITY, NEBRASKAHS 570: WORKING WITH VOLUNTEERSPROF. WILLIAM SANDERSDECEMBER 17, 2015

Who are we? •Senior Safety Services is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to the safety and peaceful enjoyment of all seniors in the Boulder County community. •We dedicate our time to help end elder abuse within our community.

(Senior Safety Net, 2015)

Dance of the Caution Cones•Senior Safety Services is proud to put on the Dance of the Caution Cones• This event is put on to bring awareness to the safety of the seniors in our community and to introduce

Senior Safety Services to the community.• It is open to all who would like to join and is a free event. Donations are accepted and appreciated to

help ensure the safety of our seniors. There will be a cash bar in which all proceeds benefit our organization.

• This event will take place on Saturday, January 2, 2016 from 7pm to 11pm at the Boulder Community Center.

• We are requesting volunteers to help with all processes of the event from set-up to managing the event, and to help cleanup afterwards.

Why we need volunteers•Volunteers are the backbones of any nonprofit organization (Connors, 2012).• Volunteers provide many services that nonprofits would not be able to afford such as office

management, counseling, and many others.

•Social services would be cut without volunteers. They keep the agencies running and assist with the overall structure and morale of the organization (Wallace, Debicki, Vander Vennen, & de Visch Eybergen, 2014).

•Our volunteers would also have their needs met, including physically, spiritually, socially, and psychologically. This is important to ensure volunteers are taking are of their selves as well (Liu, 2014).

•Volunteers like to be treated like paid staff and recognized as such too (Vecina, Chacón, Marzana, & Marta, 2013). At Senior Safety Services, our volunteers will be treated like staff, recognized for their accomplishments, and be held responsible like paid staff would.

Volunteer Positions•For the Dance of the Caution Cones event, there will be many areas in which volunteers will be needed. These include:• Set-up Volunteers• There people will set-up the stage, lights, sound equipment, tables, and chairs.

• Donation Volunteers• These people will be at the entrance and around the building collecting donations for Senior Safety Services.

• Catering Volunteers• These people will help bring the food around to the guests, they will deliver drinks and dessert, and they will help to ensure the

kitchen staff is doing alright.

• Security Volunteers• These volunteers will help to ensure everyone attending the event is safe and enjoying themselves.

• Clean-up Volunteers• These volunteers will help clean up the event center after everyone starts leaving.

Volunteer Demographics•Anyone can volunteer as long as they can pass a basic background check. Because our organization deals directly with older adults, a person cannot have a record of assault or violence.

•Volunteers will come from all generations. This is needed for balance (Connors, 2012).

•The set-up and clean-up crews will require physical strength; therefore, most of these volunteers will be younger generations.

•The donation volunteers will most likely come from the older generations such as the silent generation and the baby boomers. This position requires good money handling skills, accountability, and is the least physical of all jobs.

•The catering volunteers should be people who have done some sort of food work before. These individuals can come from any generation as long as they can carry food and drinks.

•The Security volunteers should have prior experience in maintaing safety. Most likely, these will be volunteers from older generations that have retired from the police/army/fire departments.

The Generations•The Silent generation are those born between 1926 and 1945; while the baby boomers were 1946 to 1964 (Connors, 2012).

•These generations are very frugal and watch their money, and both of these generations are very good at putting their professions or volunteer experience first (Connors, 2012).

•The next generation, Generation X, are people who grew up with technology and can be very adaptable (Connors, 2012).

•The Millennials follow the Genereation Xers. This generation is very confident, team players, and conventional (Howe & Stauss, 2003).

Training of Volunteers•All volunteers will be required to attend an orientation/training. This will provide each volunteer with the necessary information about the organization, what it does, and will also provide each volunteer with the correct training to do their job successfully.

•Volunteers will be trained by someone in the area they will be working. This will be beneficial as it will provide volunteers with the right knowledge without overloading them with too much (Connors, 2012). For example, all catering volunteers will be trained by the kitchen manager and staff, donation staff will be trained by the Director of Fundraising, and the set-up and cleaning crews will be trained by the janitorial staff.

•The training will also provide the necessary cultural competence to work with people from very different backgrounds and cultures (Farr & Sulivan Jr., 1996).

Risk Management•Nothing is free from risks. However, what agencies and people can do is be prepared in case something happens or help to prevent something from happening (Connors, 2012).

•There will be some risks involved with volunteering at the Dance with the Caution Cones event. • Safety Risks, Financial Risks, Security Risks, and Accountability Risks.

(NK Sharma Group, 2015)

Safety and Security Risks•Safety risks at the dance will be physical harm done to the volunteers, staff, and guests. This risk is associated with the heavy lifting of setting up and tearing down the event. • All staff and volunteers will work together to get everything in place. No one will be lifting anything by

themselves. This will help to reduce the risk of an injury. • If something were to happen, that person needs to report it to management within an hour of the

occurrence or the volunteer/staff will be liable.

•The world is filling with more crime. Because of this, many public places are upping their security to protect their staff and guests. The dance will be the same way, as we want to help give off the message that Senior Safety Services is truly about the safety of everyone. • All people will be screened before entering the dance, and security volunteers will roam the event to

ensure everyone is staying safe.

Financial and Accountability Risks•Financial risk can be brought up through fraud, theft, or bad records (Connors, 2012). We want to ensure that all donations accepted during the night event will be used to help Senior Safety Services support older adults. • To ensure donations are not disappearing, once someone receives a donation, they will give it to the

volunteer or staff person who has the lockbox. Only two people, one volunteer and one staff, will have access to the lockbox. This will help minimize the likelihood of money disappearing.

•Accountability can be a huge risk factor for agencies when working with volunteers (Connors, 2012). • Because volunteers are not paid, they are more likely to not show up to an event. With this in mind, the

Senior Safety Services event will have extra volunteers than what is needed. This will ensure that everything is taken care of if someone fails to show up.

• This will also gauge the volunteer to determine if they will remain with Senior Safety Services.

Evaluation•To evaluate the volunteers, the staff will look at the volunteers accountability, their willingness to work, and what they did throughout the event. • This will help Senior Safety Services to determine whether or not volunteerism is something the

organization should develop more, or forget about until they are more established.

•After the event, Senior Safety Services will evaluate the cost of the event versus the amount of donations that were received. This is when the nonprofit would need to benefit to make a difference in their programs (Connors, 2012). If no money was made, the only thing that could have happened was the name of the organization getting out.

•Senior Safety Services will evaluate the number of volunteers this event actually took. This will help to gauge what future events will look like.

•Evaluating the number of new employees/volunteers will also help determine whether the event was successful or not.

References•Connors, T. D. (2012). The Volunteer Management Handbook: Leadership Strategies for Success

(2nd ed). [Kindle Version]. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

•Farr, J. V. & Sullivan Jr., J. F. (1996) Rethinking Training in the 1990s. Journal of Management in Engineering, 12(3), 29.

•Howe, N. & Strauss, W. (2003). Millennials go to College. Retrieved from https://students.rice.edu/images/students/AADV/Oweek2008AADVResources/Characteristics%20of%20the%20Millenial%20Generation.pdf.

•Liu, Y. (2014). A proposal for a spiritual care assessment toolkit for religious volunteers and volunteer service users. Journal of Religion and Health, 53(3), 1414-1426.

doi:10.1007/s10943-013-9860-8.

•Senior Home Safety Network. (2015). Home. What we do. Retrieved from http://www.seniorhomesafetynetwork.com/.

References, cont.•Vecina, M. L., Chacón, F., Marzana, D., & Marta, E. (2013). Volunteer engagement and organizational commitment in nonprofit organizations: What makes volunteers remain within organizations and feel happy?. Journal of Community Psychology, 41(3), 291-302. doi:10.1002/jcop.21530.

•Wallace, L., Debicki, A., Vander Vennen, M., & de Visch Eybergen, E. (2014). Canadian WrapAround: A Case Study of a Volunteer-Driving, Community-Based Approach for Families, Children, and Youth with Complex Needs in Hamilton, Ontario. Relational Child & Youth Care Practice, 27(4), 53-66.