Effective Community Partnerships: The Role of Volunteers and Volunteer Administrators in Community P

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Effective Community Partnerships The Role of
Volunteers andVolunteer Administrators in
Community Planned Change Efforts

• Presented by
• www.VolunteerLEON.org

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Session Objectives

• Identify at least six responsibilities of the
  Volunteer Administrator in a community-based
  planned change effort.
• Identify the first four stages of a planned
  change effort.
• List ten elements of diversity and possible
  organizations that represent the identified
  elements.
• List ten challenge or barriers and their possible
  solutions in working with diverse collaborations.
• List five approaches that increase building
  diverse collaborations.
• List two ways to sustain the involvement of
  diverse individuals and community in planned
  change efforts.

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Pre-test
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Volunteer Roles in Social Service Agencies

• Founder
• Governance
• Extend Services

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Volunteers as Change Agents

• Organizations are dependent on volunteers to
  extend services to meet the needs of the
  community.
• In some situations, before services can be
  extended or accepted, volunteers may have to work
  toward changing individual or community values.
  In this role, volunteers are change agents
  representing the organization.
• Volunteer Change Agent Example The Community
  Education Volunteer will work with members of the
  Canonoville community to provide community-based
  HIV/AIDS education so the individuals will adopt
  safe sex practices
• Volunteer Change Agent Non-example At the Nicole
  Hargraves Center for Community Greatness, the
  volunteer receptionist will provide support
  services to staff such as answering phones,
  greeting clients, and making copies.

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Your Example

• Provide one example of an activity performed by a
  volunteer(s) within your agency that involves
  community-based work to create planned change.
• Planned Change Effort
• Volunteer Activity
• Volunteer Position Title
• (Is there consistency?)

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Volunteers Working towards Planned Change

• They must believe in the planned change.
• They must understand the purpose of their
  service.
• They must believe in the approaches used by the
  agency and agree to use them.
• They must be respected by the community members
  in which they are assigned.

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Role of the Volunteer Administrator

• To initiate and facilitate the planned change
  process which involves working directly with
  community members, partners and organization
  staff
• To assign volunteers to work with other staff
  members on the planned change
• It is imperative that the volunteer administrator
  be involved, to some degree, in the entire
  process from creating the vision to evaluating
  the service/program.

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Role of the Volunteer Administrator in the
Planned Change Process

• Understand the value, vision and purpose of the
  planned change process
• Understand the urgency of the planned change
  effort
• Understand and identify who may be critical
  people to include in the planned change efforts
• Understand and identify the role of the
  volunteers in the planned change effort
• Clearly communicate the planned change effort and
  the role of volunteers in the effort
• Identify and recruit volunteers who are committed
  to working towards the planned change and
• Manage the volunteers.

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Eight Stages of Planned Change

• 1) Establish a Sense of Urgency
• 2) Form a Diverse Collaboration
• 3) Create a Shared Vision
• 4) Communicate the vision
• 5) Empower Others to Act on the Vision
• 6) Plan for and create short term wins
• 7) Consolidate improvements and produce still
  more changes
• 8) Institutionalize new approaches

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Purpose of the Stages

• The first four stages defrost a hardened status
  quo.
• Stages Fives to Seven introduce new practices.
• Stage Eight grounds the change in the community
  culture.

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Stage 1 Establish a Sense of Urgency

• To create change in any community, there must be
  a sense of urgency.

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Sense of Urgency Examples

• Hurricane season starts June 1 of every year.
  Each household in Hagenville should have at least
  one disaster kit that contains a specific set of
  items. (This is not urgent in November at the
  end of hurricane season but it is relevant and
  important in May.)
• In April 2004, Hinterlong Elementary was graded
  as an F school for the third consecutive year
  and over 70 of the students failed the FCAT.
  (Although school starts in August, the community
  cannot wait until the next school year to address
  this problem.)

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Whose Urgency?Write a sense of urgency
description for one of your agencys programs or
services.
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Key QuestionsAnswer these questions about your
agency

• What is your organizations sense of urgency
  that is important to the community?
• Describe the broadness of this urgency.
• (Who does this urgency impact now?)
• What other individuals or organizations within
  the community share this sense of urgency now?
• How are these individuals and agencies included
  in the planned change process now?
• In what ways are volunteers included now? In
  what other ways could they be included?

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Stage Two Form a Diverse Collaboration

• To create change in any community, there must be
  individuals who share the sense of urgency and
  who are willing to develop a collaboration which
  shares different 1) perspectives, 2) resources,
  3) networks, 4) problem-solving strategies,
  5) experiences and 6) levels and types
  of commitments.

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Collaborations are more Powerful when they are
diverse

• Diversity is not a EEO classification.
• Too often, we view diversity from a limited
  perspective what is visible. However, there is
  incredible depth of diversity in all individuals
  and communities that we often unintentionally
  ignore.

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Stage 3 Create a Shared Vision

• To create change in any community, there must be
  individuals who understand the urgency and are
  willing to develop a collaboration which shares
  different 1) perspectives, 2) resources, 3)
  access to established networks, 4)
  problem-solving strategies, 5) experiences and 6)
  levels and types of commitments as a
  collaborative and then collectively
• create a shared vision.

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Create a Shared Vision

• A vision is an image of the mission accomplished,
  the ideal future state.
• All members of the Weirdleville community are
  physically fit.

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Stage 4 Communicate the Vision

• To be continued next week with Amanda Phillips

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What to evaluate?

• Process versus Outcome
• Volunteers as your product
• Volunteerism as your product
• Progress toward Mission objectives as product
• Beware of the Magic Mirror
• Ultimately, you are evaluating yourself

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Unit of Analysis

• Sampling frame Whom to include?
• What level of precision is needed?

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"What to Track?" Grid
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"What to Track?" Grid Neighborhood Watch
Volunteer Program Example
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Select Methods
Existing Records (e.g. data alreadycollected)
Portfolio/JournalAssessment
Focus Groups
Observation
Interviews
Written Surveys
Tests
Advantages
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Collecting Data

• Think multiple methods/sources
• Existing Probably have significant amounts on
  hand
• New data
• Qualitative Methods
• Focus groups
• Interviews
• Anecdotes
• Quantitative Methods
• Financial and time data
• Counts
• Other numerical data

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Data Collection Concerns

• Validity. What you collect is what you purport
  to collect.
• Reliability. Related to validity and refers to
  the consistency of the collection method.
• Feasibility. Your evaluation plan can be
  accomplished with your resource constraints.

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Break
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Creating good indicators

• An indicator is a specific item that will
  represent the level or degree to which a process
  measure, output, outcome, or impact occurred.

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Types of Indicators

• Levels of measurement
• Focus on Ordinal
• Open- versus Closed-ended

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Exercise Creating Measures

• Purpose
• Question of Interest
• Items
• Existing Information
• Survey
• Focus Group

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Consider the following issues when you develop
your evaluation instrument.
Instrument Development Checklist

• Instrument Title  
• Use clear and concise words.
• State the program name.
• Indicate the type of service provided (e.g.,
  tutoring, mentoring).
• Reflect the instrument method and content (e.g.,
  survey, checklist).
• Make sure the instrument type is identical to the
  one listed in the Evaluation Plan.

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• Introductory Statement
• Include information about the instruments
  purpose.
• Include information about how the data will be
  used.
• Include information abut the level of
  confidentiality that will be arranged (e.g., who
  will se their responses, how responses will be
  reported). Always provide the confidentiality
  you promise.
• Demographics
• Include questions that ask respondents for
  relevant information about themselves and their
  background (e.g., students name, grade, age).
• If necessary, include questions that ask about
  the person administering the instrument (e.g.,
  teachers name, observers name).
• If appropriate, identify the length of respondent
  participation in the program.

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• Directions
• Include general directions on how to complete the
  instrument itself (e.g., when, where, and how to
  return the instrument).
• Include specific directions on how to complete
  each section of the instrument.
• Make sure specific directions appear before each
  appropriate section.
• Questions
• Use language that respondents understand (e.g.,
  pedagogical vs. way to teach).
• Avoid double-barreled questions (e.g., Have
  your students classroom behavior and homework
  habits improved?).
• Allow enough space for participants to write when
  using open-ended questions.
• Avoid biases and value-laden words or phrases.
• Include only questions asking for needed
  information.
• Keep question and answer options on the same
  page.
• Allow space for comments, concerns, or suggestions

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• Format
• Use icons or graphics as clarifiers (e.g., Please
  place a check ? in the appropriate box.).
• Use a clearly legible font (e.g., Arial, Comic
  Sans, Courier).
• Lay out text and graphics using an entire page.
• Allow enough space between questions.
• Develop an instrument that is pleasing to the eye
  (e.g., not busy)
• Indicate the date of test administration.
• Identify whether it is a pre, post, or ongoing
  survey.
• Note the name of the program/organization that
  developed the instrument in the footer (at the
  bottom of the page).
• Include a computer file location path of where to
  find a copy of the instrument in the footer
  (e.g., C\My Documents\STAR\survey).
• Include the date of each new version in the
  header/footer.

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• Pilot Testing
• Clearly label a draft instrument DRAFT.
• Be mindful that advanced permission to conduct
  the pilot test may be necessary.
• Arrange for the pilot test participants and
  conditions to be as close to the actual
  administration conditions as possible (e.g., time
  of day, location, methods, respondents).

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Transform Data into Information
Aggregate Data Excel and Access SPSS  Analyze
Data Analyzing Quantitative Data Analyzing
Qualitative Data Think about INTERNS (Program
Eval.)
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So what?

• Evaluation is hard work.
• Make it count!
• Good evaluations are gold.
• Sell it! Spin it! Air it! Use it.
• for better or for worse

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Use Findings

• Report Findings
• 1) Select the best format for audience message.
• 2) Provide basic information on how data
  were collected.
• 3) Express only one idea per graph (if used).
• 4) Use both qualitative and quantitative data.
• 5) Do not over-interpret results.
• Apply Findings

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Evaluation as Organizational Culture

• Moving beyond evaluation as event

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Developing an Evaluation Culture
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Principles for Evaluation

• Systematic inquiry
• Competence
• Integrity/Honesty
• Respect for people

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Evaluation Culture Action Oriented.

• Actively seek solutions to problems
• Experimental -- willing to try new approaches to
  problems
• Positivistic
• Meaningful/Intentional assess effects of actions

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Evaluation CultureTeaching Oriented.

• Emphasizes the unity of formal evaluation and
  everyday thought
• Understandable to nontechnicians
• Encourages involvement from all participants
• The learning organization
• Encourages experts to teach us about their
  technical side

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Evaluation Culture Diverse and Inclusive.

• Problems are systemic, interconnected, and linked
  to social issues. (see Good research question)
• Recognizes that all stakeholders are needed to
  achieve solutions to complex problems.

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Evaluation Culture Participatory and Responsive.

• Methods for involving stakeholders
• Problems and their definitions not defined by an
  exclusive elite
• Recognizing participation makes sense and why

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Evaluation Culture Reflective

• Recognizing limitations of individual studies
• Placing the evaluator in facilitative role -- the
  cowardly approach
• Recognizing that decisions require more input
  than just fallible evaluation
• Recognizing who has responsibility for decisions
  in democratic societies

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Evaluation Culture Interdisciplinary.

• Consciously nondisciplinary -- moving beyond the
  blinders of disciplines
• Learning from the lessons of various disciplines
• Moving away from the mystification of
  disciplinary language/theory -- translating to
  broader audience

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Evaluation Culture Integrity.

• Stresses accountability
• Stresses scientific credibility
• Holds to the goal of trying to get it right,
  unreachable as that is

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Evaluation Culture Prospective.

• Anticipating where information will be needed
• Initiating low-cost monitoring information
  systems when we initiate programs, not later

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Evaluation Culture Fair, Open, Ethical, and
Democratic.

• Move away from private ownership and exclusive
  access to data
• Encourage open commentary and debate on the
  results of evaluations
• Provide formal opportunities for competitive
  review and response

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Summary What is good evaluation?

• Fits the circumstances while yielding credible
  findings.
• Useful answers to the questions that motivate it.
• Has no hard and fast guidelines to direct the
  evaluation process.
• Is a creative and collaborative process.

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Post Test
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Thank You for Coming!

• Please complete an evaluation of the workshop.
• Contact us at
• VolunteerLEON Leon County Volunteer Center
• VolunteerLEON_at_mail.co.leon.fl.us
• [phone]