Trained volunteers are also very helpful with early socialization. If you already have volunteer help at your organization, selecting the best candidates for helping with early socialization is imperative to ensure the consistency with early socialization protocols and procedures. Below are a few desired qualities of volunteers when selecting help with early socialization:
When first starting, it is best to select a small number of volunteers to begin your program and then increase your number of volunteers in the future. Once a small number of volunteers have been selected, an interest meeting or email that explains the goal behind the implementation of the early socialization program should take place. During this meeting, explain the expectations of the volunteer role as well as shift details.
Once interested volunteers are identified, an orientation can be held to review protocols and procedures as well as additional training. Below are suggested topics to discuss during the orientation:
After the orientation, volunteers are prepared for their first shift to assist with early socialization.
Below is an example of the first and second shift objectives when training new volunteers.
First Shift
Second Shift
One way to track your early socialization volunteer’s progress with learning protocols is to create a skills checklist. This way, after you have trained the volunteer, you can record that and easily look back to the document in the future when assigning duties to volunteers. If you have different volunteers with different levels of experience, having different levels to signify their experience and training can be helpful. An example of levels and corresponding skills are demonstrated in the Level 1 and Level 2 checklists below:
Click Here to Download: Level 1 Early Socialization Volunteer Checklist – Sheet1
Click here to Download: Level 2 Early Socialization Volunteer Checklist.xlsx – Sheet1
After completing the level 2 checklist, volunteers can be then used to help train other volunteers and to assist with other socialization tasks as needed.