WHY VOLUNTEERS?

By Jack Newell,
Literacy Center Project Manager

Volunteers have played an important part in building literacy services throughout Florida's Panhandle. More often than not volunteer efforts have originated in public libraries that have a history of using volunteers in many roles. At least ten of the fifteen county library systems in this region are currently providing literacy services, and most of these are using volunteers.

We should recognize the value that volunteers bring to a program. In addition to increased literacy levels, there are other important effects which volunteers bring. First, after the learners, volunteers are the most credible and effective connection that most programs have to the community. Each volunteer has a circle of friends and acquaintances who are community members. This is so much more powerful than a message carried by any "one way" media such as radio and television. This is a network of community members who see "first hand" the problems and what it takes to solve them.

In my ten years of experience with recruiting and managing volunteers, I learned the hard way the wisdom of my predecessors. Establishing a volunteer program is a long-term and constant effort.

Managing and supporting ten active volunteers requires about twenty hours a week. This estimate prorates training, maintaining contact, advertising and recruiting, record keeping, and resource development (fund raising and grant writing). In many communities a "volunteer" program manager is responsible for these functions. The number of volunteers that can be managed increases geometrically with each additional day of staff time. One full-time (40-hour) manager can effectively and efficiently manage up to sixty volunteers. Even if managing volunteers is the responsibility of a paid staff person it is a small investment for such a large return. The resulting public relations for a sponsoring organization would cost thousands of dollars if purchased.

The good news is that successful volunteer programming is not the exclusive domain of large communities with well-funded organizations.

There are many variables involved in the recruitment, training, placement and support of literacy volunteers but the payback is immense for clients, sponsoring organizations and communities. In the coming months, this column will deal with these variables and many of the tasks surrounding the development of an effective volunteer literacy program.