Having recruited volunteers with the right qualities and personal experience (see our volunteer recruitment guide), you need to decide what training they will need to carry out the peer support roles safely and effectively.
The training programme you design will depend on the specific roles identified in your volunteer role descriptions and Theory of Change.
It is vital to avoid ‘professionalising’ the role – the unique and informal nature of the peer support role should be the golden thread throughout the training programme.
What do volunteers value about their training?
- Strengths-based training that builds their confidence
- Training that focuses on the skills they need to carry out the volunteer role e.g. activities that develop non-judgemental active listening, not just knowledge
- Training that is fun and offers opportunities to develop new friendships and a sense of joint endeavour
- Training suited to adult learners and a safe space for sharing ideas and debriefing their own experiences
- Opportunities for reflection – particularly as volunteers start supporting families
- Training that gives clear guidance about the boundaries and ground rules of their role i.e. the volunteer – parent relationship, confidentiality and safeguarding
- Using local and easily accessible or familiar venues for training
- Adapting to volunteers who have English as a second language or literacy barriers e.g. learner discussion instead of written assignments.
Quality and consistency of training is important
Build quality monitoring processes into your training programme, such as homework assignments, individual tutorials to check knowledge, and skills observations in practice.
Involving professionals in volunteer training helps to give them confidence and insights into the quality of training.
Accreditation is important to some volunteers as a pathway to future education and employment. Community Parent programmes offer this as an option rather than a requirement. Experience has shown that mandatory accreditation can be a barrier to recruiting valuable volunteers whose primary motivation is to support others in their community.
Regular ongoing training is important to sustain, reaffirm and further develop the core skills and knowledge for carrying out the volunteer role.
For more information
The Manual Guide: Community Parent Volunteer Training can be downloaded below.
Manual Guide: Community Parent Volunteer Training
Added 11/03/2020Please sign in to download this file.