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another, allowing for visitors in both roles to accomplish things for and with families
that each could not achieve alone.
II. These complementary strengths allowed mixed-delivery programs to avoid or
address some of the challenges commonly faced by each type of home visiting
program.
The previous section outlined the ways in which the complementary strengths of
paid and volunteer visitors supported and enhanced one another’s work. In doing so,
these visitors also overcame or minimized some of the common challenges faced by
programs that make use of only volunteer, or only paid, visitors. As outlined below,
human resource challenges were a key illustration of this phenomenon.
Section 7.2.4, Availability, highlighted the belief – shared by participants from all
three study programs – that having both paid and volunteer visitors has provided
flexibility and options when assigning home visitors to families. For example, in
programs where all home visitors are paid staff, all families must be assigned to a paid
visitor; this is an expensive proposition, and can significantly restrict the number of
families who can be served by a program. Volunteer visitors help address this gap
through their larger numbers and greater affordability; sometimes they also bring
relevant life experiences or skills that members of the staff team may not possess, such
as speaking the same language as a family.
As a workforce, however, volunteers present challenges that are beyond the
control of the program, such as needing to resign or go ‘on leave’ suddenly because of
other commitments; further, it is unethical to rely on volunteers to do work that is
stressful, potentially dangerous, or beyond their skills and knowledge. When these
situations arose in study programs, paid visitors could be assigned, and as one manager
described, staff could also “jump in” and take on families when no volunteers were
available. Thus, while the introduction of either paid or volunteer visitors to a preexisting
home visiting program may serve to meet a specific program goal (for example,
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