Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant Communities - ILRC

• Agency policies that pertain to volunteers• Nametags and business cards for the volunteersInspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003§ 11.3 Recruiting VolunteersRecruiting means finding the right person for the right job at the right time. There is no rightplace to look for volunteers—it depends on the job for which a volunteer is needed.Recruiting should start with a written volunteer job description that identifies the skills andknowledge needed to fill the position. The organization should then think creatively about wheresomeone with the appropriate skills might be found. For example, if a volunteer carpenter isneeded for helping to rehab houses, the organization might look for a volunteer through acarpenters union, a men’s group in a local church or a lumberyard that might donate itsemployees’ time.There are limitless methods to recruit volunteers, including asking current staff or volunteers toask their friends. There are organizations that help locate and place volunteers, such as AARP,United Way, university volunteer bureaus, and Vista. Local university or school programs, suchas such as ROTC, sororities and fraternities, and service-learning groups, might be interested incommunity service opportunities. There may be low- or no-cost media advertising availablethrough news releases, cable TV spots, free “Can You Help” columns in the newspaper, or evenjournalism students who need to write articles for school papers.§ 11.4 Interviewing and Screening VolunteersOnce a pool of volunteer applicants has been recruited, it is time to identify the right person forthe volunteer slot. This step involves interviewing, checking references and possibly conductingcriminal background checks. The interviewing step also allows the volunteer to determinewhether the opportunity is a good fit.As with hiring paid staff, there should be consistency in interviewing for volunteer staff. Thesame person or team of people should interview each applicant and a list of questions that willhelp ascertain a candidate’s capabilities, interests, commitment, time availability, and generalattitude or approach to life should be developed and used for each applicant. The interview andscreening process should eliminate the bad apples and protect the agency from liability. If the jobrequires working one-on-one with children, for example, a criminal background check should beconducted and past references checked. Notes from the interview and from the reference checksshould be kept on file.The interview process should foster a true discussion so that the volunteer and the agency canboth make a decision about whether this is the right opportunity for the volunteer. It is muchbetter to determine during the interview process that the job is not a good fit for the potentialvolunteer rather than embark on a partnership that is likely to fail.11-3