So, you have your policies and procedures in place, all of your staff are on board and you have been out and proactively recruited volunteers with additional support needs.

So what next?

This may be where you need to get creative.

Each volunteer with additional needs is different. Just because two volunteers may share the same difficulties, it does not mean that they will choose to deal with those difficulties in the same way. As an example, you may recruit 2 volunteers with visual impairments. One may prefer documentation in braille whilst the other may prefer to have information electronically.

Being flexible and prepared to adjust your procedures for maximum accessibility is something you may need to think about before recruiting your volunteers. You, as a Volunteer Manager, will never know the specific requirements of each person with an additional support need. Supported Volunteering is just as much a learning process for the Volunteer Manager as it is for the Volunteer. Do not panic if you come across a support need that you have previously had no experience of. The best place to learn is from your Volunteer.

Some things to think about once you have recruited your Volunteer:

1. Supervision

Supervision is a process which is invaluable to any Volunteer Manager. You may use a different term; support meetings, catch ups, chats, support sessions. All of these are fine as long as you are actually carrying out supervision! Regular and quality supervision will enable a Volunteer Manager to effectively support their Volunteers, ensure quality of service / performance and allow Volunteers to feel valued and important to the organization. When it comes to supervising volunteers with additional support needs, you may need to carry out this supervision a little more often than usual. This is to ensure that you are offering the right level of support for each individual and that your Volunteer knows that additional support is very easy to access. Again, the Golden Rule is to ask your Volunteer how much additional support they would like to have. Some may prefer to have little contact with the Volunteer Manager and some will require frequent support and supervision in order to allay anxieties about their role and communicate any extra support needs.

Ensure that you schedule your supervisions at a convenient time for your Volunteer. You should find a venue which is private and quiet and is fully accessible to your Volunteer.

Make sure you allocate enough time for your supervisions. A good amount of time for an average supervision would be around an hour. However, volunteers with additional support needs may benefit from slightly longer supervisions or a series of much shorter supervisions.

Create a supportive and enabling relationship in your supervisions. Ensure that you ask your Volunteer how they are, how they are finding the role and how they would like to progress. This is something which is good practice for Volunteer Managers in general – not only those supporting Volunteers with additional needs.

2. Never assume

All too often, as we become engrossed in our work, it is easy to take things for granted. Never assume that your Volunteer is fine, nor that they are struggling with anything. Always ask. Your Volunteers’ support needs may change over time and the support they require to carry out a role at the beginning of their involvement may be different a year later.

Support is a continuous process. It must be reviewed and revised regularly to ensure that you are offering the best support you can to your volunteers. In practical terms, this means regularly reviewing your Volunteers’ support needs and asking both your supported Volunteers and others how this support is working. Do not forget your staff and Volunteers without support needs in this process. Some may wish to become more involved in offering additional support and some may be experiencing some difficulties in offering the level of support they currently do.

The only support principle which should be set in stone is Flexibility.

Image credite: Drumaboy