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All study participants expressed that the expertise and availability of program
staff members was essential in supporting and guiding volunteers in their in-home work.
As outlined throughout the present chapter, this staff support was seen as being
particularly important in enhancing volunteers’ ability to work successfully with
vulnerable families.
7.7.2 Staff Availability Reduced Barriers for Vulnerable Families
As outlined below, participants gave several reasons as to why it was helpful to
have a staff member within the same program who could become involved for a period,
or take over for a volunteer, rather than having to refer ‘out’ to other organizations.
First, some programs and services are specialized, and their role is narrow; while
they may help a family address one specific concern, they may not deal with other
issues. One manager gave the following example of this problem: “Child Protection and
say, [a local organisation that focuses on a specific dis(Ability)] and so on, would tend to
deal directly with the issue that’s presenting, as they call it” but not with other issues
faced by a family. Thus in these situations, even if a family is able to be transferred
successfully to such a program, there may still be significant gaps in the services they
receive. This participant expressed that in comparison, home visiting programs tend to
be broader, and they interact with the family from a “holistic” perspective, working with
all identified needs and strengths.
Second, switching agencies can introduce barriers to service, as it presents both
an additional demand and a new level of vulnerability. As one manager expressed,
when families are already feeling vulnerable, exposed, or overburdened, “you can't play
with people like that and shift them about, and to get to know another person again, tell
their story again.” Another manager explained how stigma and fear can create barriers
to services: because one local family support organization was seen as being connected
to the local child protection agency, families frequently rejected the suggestion of
receiving services from that particular organization. For these reasons, when programs
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