Secondary Trauma – Prevention. A Modular Programme for Volunteers.
Those who help sometimes need help themselves.
There can be various motivations for getting involved in volunteering: from the need for self-fulfilment, a sense of purpose and a life mission, to more or less conscious personal benefits. Volunteers are people with a great deal of empathy, which on the one hand leads them to dedicate their private time to helping others, while on the other hand, this same above-average empathy exposes them to difficult situations that they may no longer be able to cope with.
Burnout and Secondary Trauma
In many non-governmental organisations, the phenomenon of volunteers working with children in difficult situations being susceptible to burnout can be observed, due to the overwhelming burden of the children’s stories and the stigma of the environments in which they grow up. Regardless of the support they provide to children, the volunteers themselves will sooner or later need support. As highly empathetic individuals, after a period of initial enthusiasm, they may eventually find it psychologically difficult to cope with the difficult stories. If they are left to their own devices, their enthusiasm and sense of agency (autonomy) weakens, stress and disappointment appear, and as a result, the inclination to continue volunteering in the future decreases.
For non-governmental organisations, the challenge is therefore not only to recruit dedicated and long-term volunteers, but also to motivate, support and empower them, which has a significant impact on increasing engagement and satisfaction from working with the NGO.
Especially if, in return for long-term commitment, they receive support in their individual development, which results in increased self-awareness, the ability to cope in difficult and stressful situations, increased resilience, and greater flexibility. Thus, those involved in volunteering gain skills and competences that are extremely useful in their professional lives, in addition to satisfaction and valuable experience.
How to support and motivate volunteers in non-governmental organisations working with children
Sounds good, but how do you actually do it? How do you diagnose what the organisation and its volunteers need most? How do you design training that meets those needs? How do you choose the right methods and tools? How do you effectively organise resources? Few NGOs have a professional/comprehensive training programme specifically for volunteers working with children.
Volunteering, where a two-way flow of energy is ensured (from volunteers to NGOs and their beneficiaries, and back to the volunteers), is a special kind of exchange that benefits both organisations and volunteers.
We sought answers to these questions in the project Motivate. Support. Strengthen. Educational Programme for Volunteers Working with Children.
Comprehensive Modular Training Programme
The training modules relate to key development areas, such as motivation, emotional intelligence, communication, coping with difficult situations, as well as supporting the personal development of volunteers. The training programme also includes a description, recommendations and methodology for the application of various training and development tools in each module.
An important element of the Programme is also a guide for trainers, which suggests how to assess the needs of a given organisation (and its volunteers), and what to pay attention to when choosing one or more training modules to implement.
A report on good practices developed by our Norwegian partner is also available on the project website (in English and Norwegian). It was created based on interviews conducted in Norwegian NGOs. The document contains a broad spectrum of practices and solutions supporting volunteers in maintaining their motivation and engagement. The participation of Norwegians involved in volunteering reaches 80%, which may be due to the culture of civil society, as well as the skillful management and support of volunteers.
Programme website with access to materials
