Volunteer Risk and Program Management Project

About the Project

The U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA) is funding a 3-year Volunteer Risk and Program Management Project. The overall purposes of the project are to decrease and manage risks related to volunteer involvement in SMPs and increase the management and coordination of volunteer efforts, thereby enhancing the reach and effectiveness of SMPs across America. SMPs will be safer for both volunteers and beneficiaries and liability exposure will decrease among SMP agencies.

Project objectives include:

1. Identify, evaluate and prioritize risks related to volunteer involvement in SMPs.

• For a chart of SMP volunteer program risks identified through this project, click here.

2. Create a risk management plan for the most pressing identified risks.

• For the results of surveys conducted with SMPs and used to inform the development of the plan, click here.

3. Develop risk management-oriented policies, procedures, standards and guidelines and associated resources and training around the involvement of volunteers in SMPs.

• For the Vision Guide, which provides details, click here.
• For the Advance Release Policies and related information, click here.  

4. Develop additional best practices and associated resources and training in volunteer program management.

Project Leadership

The primary contractor for this project is Linda Graff and Associates. Lead consultant on the effort is Linda Graff, internationally recognized for her expertise on risk management in volunteer programs.You can read more about Linda by clicking here. Working with Linda is another internationally renowned consultant on effective volunteer involvement, Steve McCurley.You can read more about Steve by clicking here.

The project is guided by a steering committee from various levels of the SMP network. Members include: Barbara Dieker (AoA), Courtney Hoskins (AoA), Erin Weir (IL SMP), Darrell Elliott (KS SMP), Shirley Merner (SMP Resource Center), Ginny Paulson (SMP Resource Center) and Heather Flory (SMP Resource Center). Materials developed by the project will go through an SMP field review team made up of SMP stakeholder committee volunteers. Field review team members include SMPs Anita Hoy (VT), Stephanie Bias (NC), Karol Dermon (NH), Donna Denney (ID), Rona McNally (MO) and Lucilia Prates (MA). In addition, input will be sought on an ongoing basis from all SMP staff and volunteers at SMP annual conferences, surveys, conference calls, e-mail discussions and field tests to comment upon and help finetune materials before they are put into use.

Q&A about Volunteer Risk & Program Management

Consultants Linda Graff and Steve McCurley and members of the VRPM steering committee respond to a range of questions about their approach to volunteer risk and program management in these excerpts from The Sentinel. They also identify resources to learn more about best practices and examples of volunteer program management tools.   

• The Evolution of Volunteer Program Coordination and what it means for SMP
• Tips: 1) Finding trained volunteer management staff; 2) background checks; 3) finding volunteer management resources and templates
• VRPM: An SMP Point of View
• For the Q&A document, which answers seven questions about the VRPM project’s implementations, including such issues as insurance, conflicts of interest and planning cycles, click here.

Project Updates

• November 2011  Getting Started: Working with Volunteer Host Organizations to Implement Risk and Volunteer Management Policies
• February 2011  VRPM: An SMP Point of View
• February 2010    SMP Risk Management and Volunteer Program Management: Protecting Volunteers as They Protect Seniors