Part V. Applicability to Neighboring
III. Plan and Activities
In April, the Volunteer Center developed a plan of action to assess the applicability of the Neighboring Model and its concepts to mobilize volunteers. The Volunteer Center focused on three areas: capacity building, targeted recruitment, and partnership development
Capacity Building
• Facilitate discussions (formal and informal) with volunteers and organizations to gain a better understanding of what volunteers are currently doing and challenges to mobilize more volunteers. Actual Activity: In June, the Volunteer Center convened a meeting of Southern Humboldt to discuss results from the Points of Light Foundation’s survey to better understand existing challenges and strategies used to mobilize lower income community members in rural areas. By consensus, the meeting participants identified three priority areas to increase promotion of volunteer opportunities and enhance communication between organizations:
1) Establish a community calendar – Organizations felt if they could better
coordinate special events in the community, it would help increase their ability to recruit volunteers and attendance at the events. Currently, organizations often schedule multiple events on the same weekend. The Garberville-Redway
Chamber of Commerce is hosting the community calendar on their website. The Volunteer Center assists in promoting the community calendar through its newsletter, radio talk show, and ongoing contact with Southern Humboldt organizations.
2) Centralized location for volunteer resources – Organizations emphasized that Southern Humboldt residents are not likely to call Eureka to find out what volunteer opportunities are available in their communities. Having a central location in Southern Humboldt where volunteers could access information about service opportunities would be beneficial. As mentioned above, the Internet is not always a viable option.
The Volunteer Center compiled two volunteer binders that included information about current volunteer opportunities, benefits of RSVP, and how to request volunteers. The binders are located at the Garberville Chamber of Commerce and the Mary Bendle Health Resource Center in Garberville. Staff at the Resource Center often assists residents in connecting with volunteer opportunities in the community.
3) Establish a volunteer festival to promote opportunities to serve – Ideas were discussed to plan a volunteer fair in conjunction with an existing event such as the local Farmer’s Market. The Volunteer Center indicated it would help support and coordinate a volunteer fair; however, the group deferred the discussion to the fall indicating their preference for a community calendar and establishing volunteer binders.
An informal focus group was planned in Southern Humboldt during a site visit by a Points of Light Foundation consultant. Due to communication issues, the event was neither well advertised nor attended. However, the few people that did attend provided an informative look of their community. A radio talk show later the same day was well received and numerous people called in to share how they help in the community or the challenges that kept them from volunteering.
• Provide consultation or trainings focusing on Neighboring concepts. Actual Activity: At the June meeting, organizations expressed interest and identified a convenient time for staff to attend trainings is in January or later in the winter. Conversations with
organization staff and community members provided venues to informally discuss Neighboring concepts and volunteer management issues.
• Explore ways to coordinate the publicizing of volunteer opportunities. Actual Activity:
Organizations emphasized the reluctance of Southern Humboldt residents to call a Eureka telephone number to find out information about their community. Websites were
discussed as a possibility; however, there are many areas where telephone and Internet service is not available or cost prohibitive. Establishing a location in Garberville to provide information about volunteer opportunities would increase outreach.
The Volunteer Center currently sends regular information to the Humboldt County paper about volunteer opportunities. Southern Humboldt organizations agreed to send
information to the Volunteer Center to be published in the newspaper and incorporated into the Volunteer Binders. To date, response has been minimal from Southern
Humboldt organizations.
Targeted Recruitment
• In coordination with SHEPC, identify communities to plan CERT trainings. Actual Activity: The Volunteer Center partnered with the American Red Cross Humboldt Chapter to conduct outreach to establish CERT Teams. Working with SHEPC, the Volunteer Center identified communities interested in CERT trainings and organizations
or individuals available to coordinate CERT volunteers. Shelter Cove and Beginnings were two communities heavily impacted by last year’s wildfires and had existing infrastructure in place to support CERTs. The Volunteer Center is doing on-going outreach through SHEPC and other community venues.
• Assist communities to integrate CERT volunteers into existing activities. Actual Activities: Shelter Cove, a small coastal community located 45 minutes west of
Garberville, hosted the only CERT training in Southern Humboldt during the timeframe of the case study. Volunteer Center staff attended the final CERT training class and discussed with volunteers ideas of how to use their newly gained skills in non-disaster times. Several of the CERT volunteers expressed a desire to volunteer more in their community. Their interests and skills were noted and made available to organizations matching their interests.
The Shelter Cove CERT expressed that they will continue to fine-tune their community’s disaster plan using lessons learned last year. The Volunteer Center offered to assist as needed to develop effective volunteer plans. To date, the Shelter Cove CERT has not requested assistance of the Volunteer Center.
• Assist with coordination of an annual Safety Fair to provide volunteer opportunities for individuals and families. Actual Activity: The SHEPC deferred the planning of this event and the actual event to an undetermined future date.
Partnership Development
• Participate in monthly meetings of SHFPC and SHEPC. Actual Activity: Volunteer Center staff attended monthly meetings for both networks. The meetings provided insight into activities in the community and offered a venue to remind organizations of the resources the Volunteer Center has to offer.
• Develop a system to increase accessibility to volunteer opportunities. Actual Activity:
The Volunteer Binders system was implemented in August. Staff at the Mary Bendle Resource Center stated the binder has been helpful when receiving calls from people wanting to volunteer.
• Educate organizations on how to utilize the new volunteer opportunities system. Actual Activity: The Volunteer Center continues outreach to organizations to encourage them to include information in the binder. With input from organizations, the Volunteer Center is refining the format of information to make it easier to read and easier for organizations to provide the needed information.
Neighboring Concepts
The Points of Light Foundation has identified seven core strategies in building effective
partnerships between traditional volunteer organizations and low-income communities to engage
and empower low-income resident volunteers. The Volunteer Center applied these strategies in Southern Humboldt.
1. Understand the nature of volunteering in the community.
Informal discussions with volunteers and organization staff, completed surveys, and focus groups (including radio talk show) gave insight to how people of Southern Humboldt were helping in their communities, formally and informally. Specifically, the Volunteer Center hoped to learn how Southern Humboldt residents described “informal” (for example “helping out” or
“taking care of”) volunteering activities and the language they used to identify informal volunteering.
Most of the individuals interviewed spoke of helping out neighbors as just part of living in a rural community. There is an expectation that you will help. When questioned about how he knew whom and how to help, one interviewee responded, “You just know and you do it!”
2. Overcome barriers to community involvement.
Survey responses and conversations with organizations established common barriers to engaging individuals in rural, under-resourced communities into service. Recruiting volunteers is a crucial ongoing task for most organizations in Southern Humboldt. Dependability and volunteer
management issues, including supervision and recruitment, were identified as main barriers.
Volunteers and organizations also identified the need to locally publicize volunteer opportunities.
Southern Humboldt residents are reluctant to call a Eureka telephone number to get information about their community.
3. Empower the community.
At SHEPC and SHFPC meetings, the Volunteer Center presented itself as a resource for the networks and the community. Due to significant wildfires last summer, SHEPC has been working to establish Fire Safety Councils and increase awareness in communities of how to be fire safe. The Volunteer Center discussed with SHEPC ways in which CERT training provided by the Red Cross could enhance their work with Fire Safety Councils.
At a community meeting facilitated by the Volunteer Center, organizations identified a desire for a community calendar to help coordinate community events. The Chamber of Commerce
offered to maintain the calendar on their website. The Volunteer Center assisted in publicizing the new community calendar and gather information about events.
4. Cultivate community members’ skills and talents.
The Volunteer Center encourages both organizations and individuals to focus on strengthening and expanding resources and skills that already exist in the community. The Volunteer Center helps identify resources outside the community that can be leveraged to augment local resources.
5. Strengthen existing community leadership.
The Volunteer Center approaches and acknowledges Southern Humboldt residents and
organizations as experts in their own communities. They are the ones who will create systems and solutions to issues in their communities. The Volunteer Center’s role is to help coordinate their efforts and assist in leveraging outside resources.
6. Acknowledge that volunteering is an exchange.
Many organizations in Southern Humboldt acknowledged that one way to get volunteers to attend events was to offer food. The Volunteer Center acknowledged to organizations that this was a valid, and effective, example of offering something in exchange for a person’s volunteer time. Most of the organizations in Southern Humboldt are small with limited resources. The Volunteer Center helped organizations brainstorm what might be within their capacity to offer volunteers, such as training to build job skills, child care, and free services offered by the organization.
7. Ensure community readiness.
For action to happen and be sustained, the community must have stewardship in the idea. As an outside agency, the Volunteer Center is perceived as neutral and can have a role as facilitator to bring communities together to identify and prioritize their needs.