Workshops & Trainings
These interactive trainings and workshops for staff and volunteers will provide your team with opportunities to actively engage with a variety of skill-based topics and scenarios.
Vision for Volunteerism: Defining Needs & Developing Roles
This interactive, action-oriented workshop will help you and your team explore pain points and areas of need that could be alleviated by volunteer support. We’ll dig deep into where team members could use help, what skills and time commitment are needed, and resource questions like funding requirements, and who will provide training and support. We’ll take concrete actions to clearly describe potential volunteer role descriptions. With built-in time for reflection, brainstorming and discussion, workshop participants will come away with clear action steps to move forward. 
Success from the Start: Support, Expectations & Supervision
Do you feel clear about your expectations of your volunteer team members? Are your volunteers clear on what you expect from them? In this workshop we’ll explore the importance of starting off on the right foot by proactively defining and communicating expectations about commitment, availability, and behavior. We’ll also explore key components of effective volunteer support and how to hold team members accountable and recalibrate when there’s conflict with expectations. Through self-reflection and interactive skill-building activities, you’ll develop communication strategies, practice setting and holding boundaries, and come away with clear action steps for supporting your team’s success.
Connection is Currency: Building Relationships & Mission Alignment
Our volunteers will go above and beyond for our programs and organizations when they feel personally connected, valued, and see the impact of their efforts. Missed or seized opportunities to connect and communicate with our volunteer team members can be the difference between highly motivated, impactful teams and ones that feel disorganized and ineffective. In this important workshop we’ll discuss how connecting your volunteers with your organization’s mission, leadership, other team members, and their direct supervisor can make a critical difference in satisfaction and buy-in. We’ll also explore strategies for building personal rapport, demonstrating volunteer impact, and communication tools to enhance your leadership approach. This highly interactive session will help you map out an optimized strategy to apply these skills to your team’s needs. 
Building Skills For Difficult Conversations
Do you find yourself sweeping volunteer issues under the rug to avoid conflict or because you feel uncomfortable addressing a concern with someone who generously shares their time with your organization? You are not alone, and this workshop is for you! Managing volunteers is full of nuance, but there are many practical strategies you can learn that make those difficult, but necessary conversations more successful. We’ll explore examples of difficult situations with volunteers, why we avoid them, volunteer risk management basics, and why it’s important to take action. You’ll learn and practice strategies for clear, but kind conversations, how to lean into your resources to get support, and come away feeling confident to handle difficult conversations. 
Blazing a New Trail: Volunteers & Change Management
While change is a constant in life and in our organizations, it remains something that many of us are uncomfortable with! As leaders, we have an important role to play in helping our volunteer teams prepare for and adapt to change. In this workshop, we’ll explore the basics of how change impacts us and common responses, including developing a better understanding of our own ways of dealing with change and how that might impact the teams we lead. You’ll come away with clear strategies and tools for preparing for, responding to and communicating about change to better support your team in navigating a path forward. 