William Penn Life, 2000 (35. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-09-01 / 9. szám
Volunteer activities are essentially about respecting the human rights of others. ise children. They are counting on your help and relying on you. Your responsibility is a heavy one. The establishment of a trusting relationship between you and those you are trying to help is vital to your success as a volunteer worker. Keeping your promises builds trust. hThI Be a Good Manager 1 of Your Time and ? Energy There are limits to both the number of projects and causes for which you can volunteer and the amount of time that you can spend on your volunteer activities. Be aware of these limits and match your efforts to your goals accordingly. Obtain the Understanding of Your Family Basically, volunteer workers are required to provide their services when the other party needs them. Sometimes volunteers have to work on Saturdays and Sundays, or work for extended periods of time. Inevitably, volunteers end up spending less time at home, a possible cause of friction with their families. Don't sacrifice your family or your job for the sake of your volunteer activities. Make sure your family understands your volunteer activity, your reasons for doing it, and the time it may involve. (We would add: get your family involved with you, if possible. That way you can spend time with your family while helping others.) Keep Secrets The success of your volunteer activities will be based, in large part, on the personal ties you create with those you're trying to help. Over time you will learn various sorts of information about them. Such information will be disclosed to you out of trust and to facilitate your volunteer activities. You must never pass this information on to others. Protecting people's privacy is not only common courtesy but also the basis for building deeper trust and a more successful volunteer activity. Don’t Let Religion and Politics Meddle In Some people become interested in volunteering because of religious beliefs or a sense of justice. Whatever your motivation, you deserve credit for wanting to offer a helping hand to those who are experiencing troubles or difficulties. However, you must not attempt to persuade or force the other party to join a religion of which you are a member or to support a political party which you favor. Respecting each other's rights to freedom of religion, thought and belief is of the utmost importance. After all, volunteer activities are essentially about respecting the human rights of others. Don’t Exchange Money or Goods Volunteer activities, by their very nature, are not something you do because you were coerced by others. You do them because you want to. In order to maintain the independence and freedom of your activities, you should not accept any kind of compensation or renumeration. Nor should you give any money or goods as assistance. Volunteer workers help others through their emotional support and good deeds, working alongside and building trust with those they are trying to help. Learn from Your Activities Volunteer activities provide a wonderful opportunity for personal development and self-fulfillment. One of the first lessons you'll learn is that volunteer activities are not charity. Pushing kindness on others can be not only a nuisance, but also an obstacle to establishing a personal relationship on equal terms, since it divides the parties involved into a superior "giver" and a subordinate "receiver." Volunteering is not a oneway flow of assistance, but a mutual activity where you'll also learn from those who you are trying to help. ‘ACT’ like a volunteer WHAT THIS ALL boils down to is quite simple: approach volunteering with an open mind, a kind heart and a pocketful of common sense. We like to call it the “ACT” princple: Acceptance, Cooperation and Trust. You need to accept the people you are trying to help for who and what they are, not what you think they could be or should be. Prejudice and preconceptions have no place here. Also keep in mind that volunteer activities are a group effort. You should cooperate with other volunteers and the people you are trying to help in order to reach your common goal. Leave your ego at home. It’s a lot easier to reach that common goal if you and everyone involved in the volunteer activity trust each other. Take people at their word ... and keep yours. Links Service Leader is a nonprofit online resource for volunteer management and community engagement. It is run by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin. For more great advice for volunteers, log onto: www.serviceleader.org William Pen« Life, September 2000 9
