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
Recommended Citation
Hohman, Rebecca, "Harm Reduction Through Effective Volunteer Training" (2020). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 1036.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/1036