Answer the following questions -
(a) What kind of work is included in voluntriesm?
Answers
Answer:
Formal
Formal volunteering programs are structured and supervised. These are long term programs that also involve long term, regular attendance from the volunteers. Formal volunteering programs usually have managers or coordinators that recruit, train, supervise, and check volunteers’ work outcomes. These programs have a strong emphasis on policies, procedures, and quality management of services being delivered.
Example positions: Tour guide or docent, hospital volunteer, or fundraiser for large charities.
Sample activities: Greeting visitors, giving directions, serving meals to patients, printing out and mailing letters.
See current volunteer opportunities at the Manitoba Museum.
Governance
Volunteers in governance work provide leadership and direction to an organization. They help in the planning and decision-making involved in various aspects of an organization’s operations. Those who fit in this type of work usually have career experience or advocacy related to the organization’s main focus.
Example positions: Member of the Board of Directors of a not-for-profit, member of a parish administration board, treasurer for the PTA
Sample activities: attending regular meetings, taking minutes of the meeting, basic accounting.
Interested in serving as a Board Member of a not-for-profit? Check volunteer opportunities in the settlement sector at Manitoba Association of Newcomer Serving Organizations (MANSO).
Non-formal
Non-formal volunteer work is different from informal volunteer work. Non-formal volunteer work is usually done in local communities in unfunded and unstructured settings. Informal volunteer work, on the other hand, are voluntary acts of helping and kindness (like buying an elderly lady neighbour’s groceries or babysitting for a friend). Those who join non-formal programs often think of themselves as members or friends rather than volunteers.
Example positions: Guest instructor, member of a neighbourhood safety patrol or street clean-up.
Sample activities: Teaching arts and crafts, going with a group around the neighbourhood to keep it safe, picking up trash.
Social action
Social action volunteers are joined together by common advocacy or goal. And like non-formal volunteers, they regard each other as friends or comrades. A social action volunteer program can have structure, for example having a coordinator or leader, but some do not. Volunteers do not usually have regular hours of volunteer time. But volunteers make up for it since they are usually very passionate and motivated about the cause and work hard towards achieving specific social change.
Example positions: : lobbyist for political groups, campaigner for environmentalism, advocate for research/studies on a certain illness or disease.
Sample activities: Attending rallies, talking to people about issues, making placards, gathering signatures, making phone calls.
Check out Greenpeace Winnipeg’s activities and sign up to volunteer.
Project based
In this type of volunteer work, volunteers provide their services for projects that have defined time frames. This requires volunteers to have specific skills to contribute to clearly defined goals to be delivered at defined schedules. Project-based work can exist within a formal program or can be a standalone project. It can have leaders or coordinators but they are not expected to manage the volunteers but work with them.
Example positions:Folklorama volunteer, member of a committee planning the anniversary of your town
Sample activities: Welcoming visitors, drafting a communications plan, soliciting advertisers for a commemorative book.
Ask about year-round volunteering at Folklorama.