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The CommunityCheck Team
Types of Volunteers
There were two main volunteer roles within the
CommunityCheck project run by StudentForce. However, as
is the case with much of this toolkit, the tools and
guidance materials are meant to be flexible and
adaptable to your needs.
The main volunteer roles were:
1. Checkers: who were responsible for carrying out
checks, scoring, report writing and sometimes the
marketing of the project to organisations. Both types of
volunteers received the basic CommunityCheck training
which covered the basics of sustainability, the
Checklist, scoring, report writing and sometimes
marketing of the project.
2. Champions: who were usually experienced Checkers
or resource management professionals that had
received additional training regarding the monitoring of
resource use within the organisations and in the
development of action plans.
More detailed role profiles for each of theses positions
including aims and responsibilities are included in the
tools section of this page in the panel to the right.
Who are your
Volunteers?
Volunteers on StudentForce's CommunityCheck project came
from a variety of backgrounds. Below are some volunteer
profiles written by the volunteers themselves when they
were working on the CommunityCheck project.
Training Programme for
Checkers and Champions
Below is a suggested outline for the training of
Checkers for your project.
Session One:
-
Detailed introduction to the CommunityCheck project
-
Sustainability Discussion
-
Introduction to the Checklist
-
Checklist Role Play
-
Conclusion, what happens next and questions.
Session
Two:
-
Shadowing on a CommunityCheck
-
Reviewing the scoring and report writing of the
above Check
Session
Three:
-
Carrying out a Check
-
Scoring and Report Writing
Session
Four (Optional Marketing)
-
Door
stepping and cold calling training
-
Carrying out door stepping and cold calling
In
addition to this basic programme for all volunteers on
the project, Champions received further training
in the following areas:
-
Meter
reading
-
Action plan development and implementation
-
Environmental/Sustainability Policy
Carrying Out Training
It is strongly recommended
that core members of your management team be experienced
in the relevant areas of sustainability. If this is not
possible we recommended that those responsible for the
training of volunteers undergo sustainability training
before themselves beginning to train the volunteers. In
the pane on the right we provide links to potential
sources of training for these persons.
Much of the material needed
for training your volunteers is already included on
other pages of this website. These are again linked to
in the pane on the right along with additional materials
needed to complete the programme outlined above.
Volunteer Development
Part of running a
successful project includes providing opportunities for
volunteers to grow within the role. At StudentForce this
was done in several ways, some of which include:
Learning visits are a
particularly good way to show appreciation for the work
of volunteers while providing an opportunity for them to
enhance their knowledge of environmental issues. Below
is an extract from a CommunityCheck newsletter which
covers one such learning visit.
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