Preparing for volunteers 

As you take the first steps to bringing in a volunteer, take the time to adequately prepare for them. It's important to plan ahead and consider what a volunteer from a multicultural community can bring to the organisation. If you get this right, it will lay the foundations for establishing a positive experience from when a volunteer first interacts with your organisations right through to when they leave. 

Do your research about the different multicultural communities in your area. As mentioned in the Respectful Learning section, the best way to do this is to talk to someone. Listen to what your staff and volunteers have to say about their communities. If you don’t have any staff or volunteers from the communities you want to learn more about, go out and approach them, build relationships with them. The Practicing Cultural Inclusion module has a lot of information on how you can go about doing this. 

Undertaking research in your community will help you understand the different perceptions of volunteering across your local multicultural groups and give you a better idea of what expectations a multicultural volunteer may have when they commence their role.  

When you feel that you’ve gained some insights into your local multicultural communities, it’s time to start designing the volunteer roles you need filled. 

‘Look beyond skills, and look at what a diverse volunteer can offer’ 

Organisational need is a big driver for what kind of roles and necessary skillsets are required, however consider the needs and skills of a volunteer as well as the wider community. This will help you fill your positions and contribute to better volunteer retention while improving engagement with multicultural communities. 

Flexibility is another factor to take into account. Think about designing the role so it can be adapted to the various commitments a volunteer may have. For example, a volunteer with children may need afternoons off, while another may require certain times off to devote to prayer. 

Based on the volunteer expectations of your community, it might be worth designing shorter term, project based roles to attract volunteers, then provide pathways to more permanent roles if the fit is right. 

Some multicultural volunteers may even prefer one-off volunteering opportunities. While this wouldn’t initially fill the requirement for a permanent role it could be a great way to increase engagement and build relationships with multicultural communities.