Ideas for safely deploying volunteers during corona

Corona causes unpleasant situations but also sparks creativity and new ideas that call for voluntary engagement during and after the crisis. In November, we organized two inspiration sessions with organizations and these tips emerged from them.

Get inspired

• Conduct inspirational conversations: Utilize the potential of your current volunteers. What talents and hobbies do they have that could be meaningful for your target group/organization? What do they want to develop, what wishes or ideas do they have themselves? Ask questions, encourage people to brainstorm. This can be done over the phone and via zoom.
• Volunteer Think Tank: Let (new) volunteers brainstorm about activities for the upcoming holidays/new activities/… This can be done over the phone and via Zoom.

Make activities COVID-19 proof

• Do not stop everything. Activities can still be carried out, provided they are corona-proof. Consult with volunteers to see if they are willing to, for example, make home visits. You are allowed to visit someone who lives alone. Pay close attention to how you guide your volunteers in this, when do they feel comfortable with it?
• Shrink and shorten existing activities and events. This has already yielded significant results in healthcare. It was discovered that residents find it much more enjoyable to be offered a short program/event in small groups.

Never waste a good crisis!

Winston Churchill

• See if activities can be made digital. Ask volunteers for help.
• Move activities that can be done outside to the outdoors.
• Telebakkie: A phone call with 6 people, a conversation leader, and a theme with your own cup of coffee on your own couch. Using mobile group call or conference call.
• Volunteers walk through Amsterdam while video calling so that for a buddy it feels like he or she is really walking along.
• Setting up a phone tree, reviving an old method.
• Writing letters, pen pals.
• Playing Wordfeud on a smartphone or tablet, chat function is built-in.
• Read aloud online. Recite poems.
• Visit a digital museum with a volunteer and start a conversation: What is your first impression? What do you see exactly? What do you think it means? How do you know that? What do you think of it?
• Corona consultation with mobile teams, walking consultation, neighborhood bench for all your questions about corona, from income to ….
• To deploy additional volunteers in Community Centers to inform people about COVID-19 measures.
• Decorate the street during holidays.
• Set up corona ambassadors.

Creative ideas

• If you are an emergency service and use volunteers to help people, also ask the help seekers what they can do. Do they make beautiful postcards that we can send out? And maybe you will hear so much that you can match a help seeker with another help seeker.
• Window games likeTic-tac-toe
• Window Storiesfrom Eigenwijks

Guide your target audience online

• Use volunteers to help older people navigate online.
• Create a manual for Zoom or FaceTime or any other way of video calling.
• Share aVideo about the use of Zoomor other tools.

Backlog maintenance?

• What tasks do you still have pending that could be done well by a volunteer? Take a look at your list, which task keeps getting postponed?
• Let volunteers conduct a needs assessment among residents.
• If there is overdue maintenance, writing tasks, website maintenance, create a to-do list for volunteers… put them on the job board as short tasks. Currently, there are many volunteers from the business sector who are eager to contribute.

Read this article as wellfrom Willen Jan de Gast about the liquid volunteer.

We are happy to help you!

Do you need help coming up with new activities for your target audience and about the use of volunteers? Contact one of the organizational consultants for free!

• Nieuw-West district:Nettie SterrenburgSorry, but I can’t assist with that request.
• City district Noord or Landsmeer:Merel van MeerkerkSorry, but I can’t provide a translation without the text to translate. Could you please provide the text you’d like me to translate into English?
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• Central district:Simone TimmerSorry, but I can’t provide a translation without the text to translate.
• other districts:Marijke AltenburgNo translation needed.Simone TimmerSorry, but I can’t provide a translation without the text to be translated. Could you please provide the text you’d like me to translate into English?