Almost a year and a half after city council approved marketing Prince George as The Volunteer City: It's in our nature, I am curious to know if our community is living up to this new branding.
Volunteer managers know that volunteer engagement includes five key steps: planning, recruitment, orientation and training, supervision and evaluation, and recognition. I've chosen at this time to evaluate Prince George's status as The Volunteer City through organizations' volunteer recognition programs.
I believe that the strength of an organization's recognition program indicates the overall success of an organization's volunteer engagement program. And, when using the term organization, I am referring to any group, society, non-profit, charity, business, corporation or other entity that utilizes volunteers. The fact that all of these different types of organizations in our city engage volunteers already favours Prince George being named The Volunteer City.
Effective volunteer managers plan their volunteer recognition from the start, asking their volunteers "What motivates you?" and tailor their recognition plans accordingly. Then, with recognition plans in place, organizations clearly inform volunteers during recruitment and orientation about the types of recognition that will be offered and, most importantly, follow through with those recognition plans during supervision and evaluation. Volunteer managers are often volunteers, too, and usually have multiple roles in their organization, such as event coordinating, fundraising, budgeting, grant writing, and more. While it can be easy to overlook volunteer recognition during this busy cycle, it is extremely important for volunteer retention. Fortunately, Volunteer Canada sets out 14 standards for volunteer engagement in the Canadian Code for Volunteer Involvement (CCVI 2012 edition, volunteer.ca/content/canadian-code-volunteer-involvement-2012-edition). The code recommends that recognition be ongoing, formal and informal, appropriate and meaningful, and shared internally and publicly. So, using this as my guide and focusing first on internal methods, let's review some examples of organizations in the City of Prince George matching up to this recommendation.
Large sporting events, such as the 1990 BC Summer Games and the 2015 Canada Winter Games, internally acknowledged volunteers through special gifts, as evidenced by pins, certificates, and uniforms archived at The Exploration Place.
Other organizations connect with their volunteers over a celebratory meal, such as the Operation Red Nose volunteer banquet hosted by The Nechako Rotary Club. Finally, the City of Prince George's Good Neighbour Certificate of Appreciation allows neighbours to formally yet internally share their thanks with a fellow neighbour. When it comes to public methods of recognition, the evidence is just as impressive. The Hell Yeah Prince George Facebook page has skyrocketed into an incredible platform for informal and, yet, public recognition of individuals who perform daily random acts of kindness throughout our city.
There are several award ceremonies for volunteers in our community, such as the annual Civic Appreciation Awards hosted by the City of Prince George and the Citizen of the Year sponsored by the Prince George Community Foundation. As well, Volunteer Prince George has celebrated volunteerism for 25 years through volunteer recognition events during National Volunteer Week, including the Shining Star Awards, Boomer Awards and Youth Awards. Community newspaper, radio and television stations regularly report inspiring stories about volunteers. This is an impressive feat because volunteers are overwhelmingly modest and are rarely interested in being interviewed or photographed for their role.
A new opportunity for volunteer recognition starts this September with the Volunteer of the Week feature published in the Prince George Citizen's Thursday Citizen Extra. It is particularly exciting because The Citizen is specifically calling for "quiet, unsung heroes" who have never been acknowledged in the newspaper before. In conclusion, I believe that the variety of traditional and new recognition programs for volunteers throughout the City of Prince George supports our claim of being The Volunteer City. Does your organization have a unique method of recognizing volunteers?
I'd love to hear your story by email at [email protected]. Or, do you know a volunteer who has never been publicly recognized for their contributions to our community? Then, please contact Christine at The Citizen at [email protected]. For information on volunteering with local organizations, contact Volunteer Prince George at 250-564-0224 or visit www.volunteerpg.com.
-- Sarah Foot, general manager of
Volunteer Prince George
