How to find, support, retain volunteers in your organisation

Free Bite-Size Training Series – May to June 2023

Galway City Community Network, in collaboration with Galway Volunteer Centre, would like to invite you to join a series of four bite-size workshops open to all who want to learn more about how to find, support and retain volunteers in their organisation.

Whether you have been managing volunteers for years and need a refresher, or this is a new area of work and you are planning to involve volunteers in the future, this lunch time bite-size workshop series will support you.

The fours sessions will cover the essential volunteer management topics and will be delivered by Helen Ogbu – Galway Volunteer Centre. The sessions include three online workshops and one in person (evening) meeting as follows:

Workshop 1
Finding & Keeping Volunteers
11th May | 1-2pm | Zoom

  • Practice guidance and benchmarks to help organisations clear on expectations and motivations of both their organisations and volunteers.
  • How to attract volunteers through designing clear, inviting role descriptions.
  • Screening volunteers – what’s needed?
  • Managing the volunteer relationship including recognition and resolving difficulties.
  • Help manage risk and safety in their work with volunteers.
  • They help improve the volunteer experience.

The workshop will be delivered via Zoom in a hands-on, participative style and is designed to provide you with a best practice volunteer management framework for involving volunteers in your organisation.

Register below:

Team of Volunteers

Workshop 2
The Fundamentals of Volunteer Engagement
18th May | 6.30-8.30pm | In person at Westside Resource Centre

This is an abridged version of the two module course offered by Galway Volunteer Centre.
It is for those who are new to the topic of volunteer management and leadership or who wish to improve their skill set.
The session will explore the following topics:

  • Planning for volunteer involvement
  • Changes in volunteering
  • Diversity and inclusion in volunteering
  • Volunteer motivations
  • Volunteer and organisation expectations
  • Barriers to volunteering
  • Volunteer engagement
  • Screening and selection
  • Day to day engagement of volunteers

By the end of this course you should be able to:

  • Be clear about how volunteering fits into your context and the opportunity it provides
  • Understand the importance of volunteers and be able to communicate this to volunteers and other stakeholders
  • Understand that volunteering is a two way process with gains for all involved

The workshop will be delivered in person and in a participative style which is designed to provide you with a best practice volunteer management framework for involving volunteers in your organisation. All registered trainees will be sent the link after registering.

Once you register for this course you will receive an email from Eventbrite which will contain the training details, please retain these.
Applicant organisations must be volunteer led projects and based in Galway. A maximum of two participants from one organisation can attend this course, this is to ensure fairness and as many organisations as possible are able to avail of this free training. If you aren’t currently registered with Galway Volunteer Centre or the GCCN please get in contact with us prior to registration.
If for some reason you can’t attend please cancel your booking via Eventbrite so other organisations can attend.

Team of volunteers

Workshop 3
Writing an Effective Volunteer Role Description
25th May | 1-2pm | Zoom

A well written role description forms the basis of your recruitment process and enables you to manage your volunteers effectively – so that both you and they have a positive experience of their involvement with your organisation.

This lunch time workshop offers time to look at your organisation’s volunteer role descriptions and check whether they could be more effective in terms of enabling you to:

  • Recruit volunteers in the first place
  • Ensure that they know exactly what is expected of them
  • Deal with any challenging behaviour once they have started volunteering with you.

This workshop will be very practical so that you will leave knowing that your role descriptions are as good as they could possibly be and they form a sound basis for managing your volunteers.

The workshop will be delivered via Zoom in a hands-on, participative style and is designed to provide you with a best practice volunteer management framework for involving volunteers in your organisation.

Person taking notes at a desk

Workshop 4
Support & Supervision of Volunteers
1st June | 1-2pm | Zoom

Support and supervision is key in retaining volunteers. But how do you get it right? What are the essentials?
Bring your lunch and join Galway Volunteer Centre and the GCCN for this hour long, interactive lunchtime session.

You will join other volunteer managers to discuss the basics of Volunteer Support & Supervision such as:

  • The importance of supporting our volunteers
  • The principles of volunteer support
  • The difference between Support and Supervision
  • Different ways of supporting our volunteers

The workshop will be very practical so that you will leave knowing that you are doing the right thing or get tips on how to support and supervise your volunteers.

The workshop will be delivered via Zoom in a hands-on, participative style and is designed to provide you with a best practice volunteer management framework for involving volunteers in your organisation.

Manager and volunteer