College

College of Health Professions (CHP)

Date of Last Revision

2023-05-03 23:23:03

Major

Social Work

Honors Course

7750:499

Number of Credits

3

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Date of Expected Graduation

Spring 2020

Abstract

Through a combination of business education and social work competencies, an in-depth analysis of volunteer training was created from existing data and applied to qualitative survey data of nonprofit leaders in the local city of Akron, Ohio. The overall aim of the project was to base volunteer training on evidence, as evidence-based practice is a hallmark of social work practice. In doing so, the training would also aim to build connections among volunteers and between volunteers and the organization to retain the volunteers who were trained and increase the efficiency of the training. Thus, the project sought to reduce two types of harm done in volunteer training: improperly or untrained volunteers and the harm they could do to served populations, and the harm done to an agency with an inefficient training with a high volunteer turnover rate.

The combination of the research led to the creation of a training module based on a local nonprofit, The Well Community Development Corporation’s Akron Hope program. Despite the specificity of the training module, the outline can be applied as a general template for other nonprofits to follow with the addition of their organization and program specific information. As described in the template analysis portion, a balance of standardization and personalization creates an engaging and effective training.

Research Sponsor

Dr. Mark McManus

First Reader

Jennifer Vliet

Second Reader

Laurie Curfman

Honors Faculty Advisor

Michele Thornton

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