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Thank you for you interest in the WorldService Corps program. We are excited
about sending volunteers out into the world to serve and develop as leaders, and
we look forward to partnering with you in creating these opportunities. We have
developed these guidelines to help you to develop and refine your ideas about
how a volunteer can be of service to you, and what will help make the experience
positive for everyone.
The following areas should be carefully examined to determine what will work
best:
1. Local leadership involvement:
- Volunteer activities beginning with and growing out of what is already
happening in the community
- Volunteer activities conducted in partnership with someone from the
community (local counterpart)
- Local leaders involved in the planning and organization of the experience
(Ideally, this person will complete and submit the Volunteer Request Form.)
- Local leaders need to have a clear understanding of the WorldService
Corps--its purpose and mission and responsibilities involved.
- Someone (preferably more than one person) who is involved intimately in
the program must be able to communicate effectively in the volunteer's
language.
2. Activity planning and programming:
- Planned activities to provide structure, but flexibility and free time to
allow space for reflection, assimilation, and processing
- Having a home base allows time for deeper relationships and some stability
in an unfamiliar environment. Too much traveling inhibits the
development of relationships.
- Flexibility in dealing with unique gifts and skills of individual
volunteers, especially to ensure reasonable and realistic expectations
3. Living situation:
- Adequate privacy so volunteers are not continually “on display” or “integrating”
- Adequate comfort so that they can concentrate on things other than
physical
- Opportunities to participate in and observe local life; avoid isolation
- Availability of phone/e-mail communication on a fairly regular basis (at
least every 2 weeks) to allow for staff support of volunteers and contact in
case of emergency
The SINGLE most important factor in a successful program is the presence of
someone at the site that takes on the responsibility for the volunteers, as if
they were their own family members.
We hope that these guidelines have given you ideas about how you can make a
volunteer’s experience a positive one, and invite dialogue about any of these
issues. To help us in organizing sites, please complete the
Volunteer
Request Form and e-mail it to WorldService@CofChrist.org,
or mail to The Temple, 1001 W. Walnut, Independence, MO 64050, Attn:
WorldService Corps.
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