The National PTA started Take Your Family to School Week over 120 years ago. Celebrated February 13-17, 2023, the goal is to encourage guardians to become more involved in their child’s school.
Building strong bonds with your volunteer community can help you recruit and retain school volunteers.
We all know how important volunteers are. Whether they’re helping with fundraising, mentoring, or administrative tasks, each volunteer has a direct impact on the schools, students, and staff they serve.
It’s one thing to find the right volunteers. It’s another challenge to make sure volunteers stay engaged. One way to promote continued engagement—and help recruit new volunteers—is by maintaining strong relationships with your volunteer community.
Chris Robinson, the Volunteer Program Supervisor for the Lake Washington School District, recently shared her strategies on School Safety Today. The conversation is summarized below. You can listen to the full podcast episode here.
1. Communicate Your Volunteer Needs
A school volunteer program details how you will recruit, screen, approve, and manage volunteers and events. You’ll need to define how you will communicate with your volunteer community. At the school level, teachers and parent-teacher groups, like the PTA, can directly let guardians and other volunteers know when they need assistance.
“At the district level,” Chris begins, “Sometimes we have programs that are districtwide. That’s where I come in and communicate with our volunteers to make sure we recruit enough for the events.”
2. Make Registration Easy
“Once we get the information out [about a new event], we need the volunteers to be able to sign up,” Chris says. Complicated registration processes push volunteers away. Schools need to make it easy for volunteers to find and register for events.
It’s also important that registrant information is readily available to the school volunteer coordinators. “We need to know who can come at what time and to make sure that we have enough people covering all the shifts.”
3. Have Clear Guidelines and Goals
Once volunteers have registered and/or are at the event, they’ll need clear directions on their specific roles. “Providing clear goals and understanding helps the volunteers be set up for success,” Chris says. The school also needs to be organized and ready to welcome the volunteers and thank them for their help. Volunteers need to know how much they’re appreciated and how their involvement positively impacts the schools and students.
Learn More School Volunteer Management Best Practices
Listen to our full conversation with Chris to learn more strategies, including how to:
- Create an interactive school volunteer program
- Build better school volunteer recruitment practices
- Maximize your volunteer initiatives with tools and technology
Gain complete control over your volunteer process; contact us today to see how.
