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services that rely solely on volunteer home visitors, and indeed, is a common concern
across all sectors that rely on volunteers (Volunteer Canada, 2010).
This challenge is worthy of note here because of an additional impact that was
unique to these mixed-delivery programs: when there were not enough volunteers,
both the staff members who did in-home work, and the families who were being served
by those staff members at that time, were directly affected. Staff members must have
either increased their caseload, or prioritized families to receive the service. The former
option left staff members with increased workloads, which could be difficult for both
staff and the families who were already being served; the latter option left some
families with no service. Staff participants shared several examples of the dilemmas
caused by these situations.
Study participants also stressed that recruitment and retention of volunteers
required a significant investment of staff time. As one manager described, staff
members were “always recruiting, training, monitoring and supporting .... there’s a lot
of energy in that.” Successful recruitment and retention also required staff to have a
great deal of skill in working with volunteers; both volunteers and staff members who
took part in this study raised this point many times during the interviews.
Heavy Workload for Managers
At the time of this study, all three program managers were working long hours,
with their time split between several divergent roles. They each carried a small caseload
of families, on top of extensive program management, program development, and
supervisory (staff and volunteers) responsibilities. However, in the interviews, no
manager stated that the workload was too much for one person. Instead, they accepted
the heavy workload; indeed, one manager seemed to see it as a natural consequence of
being dedicated to the program: “If I had to do 5 jobs, I'd do it, or 6 jobs to keep it going,
regardless.” Moreover, all three valued the home visiting aspect of their role. As
another manager said, “I love visiting families.”
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