Product Details

Author Information

Corresponding Author
Michelle Garner
University of Washington, Tacoma
1900 Commerce St.
UWT box 358425
Tacoma, WA 98402
United States
p: 253-692-4792
mdgarner@uw.edu

Authors (listed in order of authorship):
Michelle Garner
University of Washington, Tacoma

Heidi Haynes
Career Academy, Truman High School

Product Description and Application Narrative Submitted by Corresponding Author

What general topics does your product address?

Allied Health, Public Health, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Social Work

What specific topics does your product address?

Access to health care, Community health , Cultural competency , Homeless health, Housing, Social services, Low Income Health

Does your product focus on a specific population(s)?

Faith-based, Homeless

What methodological approaches were used in the development of your product, or are discussed in your product?

Case-based learning, Community-academic partnership, Focus group

What resource type(s) best describe(s) your product?

Best practice , Evidence-based practice, Handout, Manual/how to guide, Training material

Application Narrative

1. Please provide a 1600 character abstract describing your product, its intended use and the audiences for which it would be appropriate.*

In 2010, 26% of the adult population performed volunteer work worth $284 billion dollars(1). Adequate support of these volunteers, including education, is key to the quality and longevity of their service. Yet, there is a lack of materials intended to sensitize volunteers to recognizing and dealing with common issues of volunteer service. Further, there are explicit contemporary policies concerning religion in services that are funded, fully or in part, by the government (2); many programs and volunteers are unaware of these policies and how to comply with them. Thus, the submitted volunteer guidelines product, which was prepared to address the needs of a specific homeless shelter, seeks to help fill these voids in volunteer training.

“Community Volunteering: A Few Things For You to Know” is a three-part, six-page, 3,000 word document. The “Introduction” section contextualizes the product and provides freely-available references; it is intended for program leadership and volunteers interested in learning more. The “Volunteer Handout” section offers thumbnail discussions of important volunteerism topics, and the “Key Points List” is a one-page summary of behavioral guidelines. Our work is intended and appropriate for a general audience. The document, or portions thereof, could be used in volunteer orientation, continuing education trainings, or reference materials, and may be adapted or elaborated upon to suit a specific program’s needs.

2. What are the goals of the product?

Many service programs rely upon volunteers to function. How these volunteers handle themselves has direct bearing on the success of individual program beneficiaries, the program as a whole, and the volunteer’s well-being and longevity of service. Entering the fourth year of operation, community volunteers serving on the leadership team of a temporary winter shelter identified several areas where the program has had no consistent policy, training, or support for the frontline volunteers who make the program possible. The goals of this product are guidelines that address these gaps. Specifically to: 1) introduce important issues that volunteers will likely confront, 2) help volunteers understand these issues, 3) set expectations for appropriate action in these situations, and 4) provide accessible citations through which individuals may learn more. The learning outcome goals are that programs and volunteers become able to identify these issues, have well informed general strategies for handling them, and have concrete resources for further education and support. The product has been designed for flexible use in its current form, or as a basis for elaboration and program-specific training in lecture, discussion, or extended text formats.

Our “Volunteer Handout” also serves an important secondary function. People are motivated to volunteer their time, talent, or resources for any number of reasons. Clear guidelines that recommend boundaries around client confidentiality, dual relationships, and distancing of religion in the course of offering publicly funded services has brought to light that these practices may conflict with some volunteers’ service motivations. The “Volunteer Handout” has thus been a catalyst for discussions about our organization’s identity, values, and processes. While such discussions can be challenging, they are also central to organizational health through maintenance of a clear mission and scope marked by alignment of policies and practices that are congruent with stated purposes, community image, and fundraising claims(3). This product may similarly help other programs work toward organizational clarity and congruency, whether they are new programs or simply experiencing drift over time as we have.

3. Who are the intended audiences or expected users of the product?

This product was requested and prepared by and for volunteers of our particular shelter program to educate and provide behavioral service guidelines, but is suitable for use in a wide range of settings where volunteers support aid or social service programs; e.g., shelters, food banks, community meals, after school programs, emergency aid small grants, community-based substance abuse intervention programs, criminal reentry programs, and job training programs.

Section one of the document provides an optional introduction and references to aid community program leaders. Sections two and three are intended for possible use as generic and stand-alone educational modules for all aid and social service program volunteers.

4. Please provide any special instructions for successful use of the product, if necessary. If your product has been previously published, please provide the appropriate citation below.

Some of the concepts presented may be new or challenging to volunteers. We recommend using the “Volunteer Handout” in discussions during volunteer training and in training or reference materials.

If a program serves a specific population (ethnic, geographic, socioeconomic, medical, etc.) the “Volunteer Handout” section on “respecting people and our differences” might be augmented to help educate the volunteers about characteristics, beliefs, and values of that population. When doing so it is important to offer general information to sensitize the volunteer to potential areas of importance and reinforce the need to listen to and honor the person with whom they are working. Related educational resources are cited(4,5,6).

5. Please describe how your product or the project that resulted in the product builds on a relevant field, discipline or prior work. You may cite the literature and provide a bibliography in the next question if appropriate.

Both authors of the “Community Volunteering: A Few Things For You to Know” are members of the community and have served on the shelter’s leadership team since its first year. Ms. Haynes grew up and works in the geographic area the shelter services. She has been active in area civic and church life all her life and thus understands the local volunteer culture. Ms. Haynes has contributed to the shelter’s vision, fundraising, and host duties. Dr. Garner is a newer resident of the area, but has been a member of the shelter’s leadership team for four years and brings clinical, population, and research expertise to the team and this project.

Specifically, Dr. Garner is a health services researcher(7-17). She holds a masters of social work and a doctorate in social welfare. She has specific expertise in faith in social service programs(10-14) and programs for the homeless(15-16). Social work is a profession steeped in researching, practicing, and advocating for just and effective social service programs and policies. The profession’s history is rooted in volunteerism and has evolved an understanding of the need to respect and “meet the client where the client is.” As faculty in a neighboring public university, Dr. Garner currently teaches social workers in training about the same boundary and service utilization issues identified and addressed in the document(17).

The document offers guidance on volunteer issues collectively identified as touching our program. The product reflects Ms. Haynes’ understanding of the local culture, Dr. Garner’s disciplinary knowledge and expertise, and a community-engaged orientation and process. This work has been synthesized with and for volunteers of our program, but should prove helpful to others as well. Because the ideas and knowledge included in the product represent data from allied health care professional texts(18-19), trainings(20), research(21-24), and literature(25-26), the unique contribution of this work is in 1) succinctly preparing it for a general and volunteer audience and 2) collaboratively tailoring a scholarly product to meet the needs of a specific program. The product summarizes contemporary issues and best practices, provides relevant, generally accessible citations for further information, and invites questions/comments to the authors.

6. Please provide a bibliography for work cited above or in other parts of this application. Provide full references, in the order sited in the text (i.e. according to number order). .

Cited work:

1 Roger KL, Blackwood A, Pettijohn SL. The nonprofit sector in brief: Public charities, giving, and volunteering, 2011. A brief report of the Urban Institute [cited 2011]. Available from http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=412434

2 Exec. Order No. 13559: Fundamental principles and policymaking criteria for partnerships with faith-based and other neighborhood organizations. 3195-WI-P.F.R., 2010. Doc. 2010-29579. Available from http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/11/17/executive-order-fundamental-principles-and-policymaking-criteria-partner

3 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Successful strategies for recruiting, training, and utilizing volunteers. A guide for faith- and community-based service providers. A report of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2005. DHHS Publication No. (SMA) 05-4005. Available from http://www.samhsa.gov/fbci/Volunteer_handbook.pdf

4 Piece Corps Information Collection and Exchange Product. Culture matters, the peace corps cross-cultural workbook; No Date. Publication No. T0087, available through Hands On Network at http://Handsonnetwork.org

5 Athey, J, Moody-Williams, J. Developing cultural competence in disaster mental health programs; Guiding principles and recommendations. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; 2003. Report SMA03-3828. Available from http://www.samhsa.gov

6 Seifer, S. & Connors, K. Eds. Faculty toolkit for service-learning in higher education. National Service-Learning Clearinghouse; 2007. No. R3531. Available from http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/

7 Finn J, Garner MD, Wilson J. Volunteer and user evaluation of the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline. Evaluation and Program Planning 2010; 34:266-272.

8 Bowen S, Chawla N, Collins S, Witkiewitz K, Hsu S, Grow J, Clifasefi S, Garner M, Douglass A, Larimer M, Marlatt A. Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Substance Use Disorders: A Pilot Efficacy Trial. Substance Abuse 2009;30:295-305.

9 Garner MD, Logan DE, Woods BA. Multiculturalism. In GL Fisher & NA Roget (Eds), Encyclopedia of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Recovery. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications; 2009:572-578.

10 Garner MD. Advancing discussion of federal faith-based social service policies through overview and application of an established health services research model. Advances in Social Work in press 2012: 13(3).

11 Garner MD, Atkins D, Larimer ME. “Faith-based organization service programs unappealing to some – Data from a Pacific Northwest chronic public inebriate population,” oral paper delivered at the International Conference on Spirituality and Social Work June, 18-20, 2009, in Los Angeles, CA.

12 Garner MD. “Suggestions for ethical social work practice with communities or groups holding heterogeneous religious identities” oral paper delivered at the North American Conference on Spirituality & Social Work, at Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC, June 23-25, 2011.

13 Garner, MD. The Social Work Integral Model (SWIM): A tool for conceptualizing the place for religious/spiritual/nonspiritual worldviews in practice. Religion and Spirituality Clearinghouse, a publication of the Council on Social Work Education, 2012; e1-e11. Available at www.cswe.org.

14 Garner MD “Federal Charitable Choice and Faith-Based Initiatives: Do Faith-Based Organizations Pose a Barrier to Services?” dissertation concluding doctorate of social welfare degree, University of Washington, Seattle 2007.

15 Larimer ME, Malone DK, Garner MD, Atkins DC, Burlingham BB, Lonczak HS, Tanzer K, Ginzler J, Clifasefi SL, Hobson WG, Marlatt GA. Health care and public service use and costs before and after provision of housing for chronically homeless persons with severe alcohol problems. JAMA 2009; 301(13):1349-1357.

16 Collins SE, Malone DK, Clifasefi SL, Ginzler J, Garner MD, Burlingham B, et al. Housing First for chronically homeless individuals with alcohol problems: Within-subjects analyses of 2-year alcohol trajectories. Am J of Public Health 2012; 102(3):511-519.

17 Garner MD. Practice reconsidered: The Social Work Integral Model. Families in Society 2011; 92(3): 255-261.

18 Ivey, AE, Ivey, MB, Zalaquette, CP. Intentional Interviewing and Counseling, Facilitating Client Development in Multicultural Society, 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole; 2010.

19 Sheafor, BW, Horesji, CR. Techniques and guidelines for social work practice, 7th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon; 2006.

20 Council on Social Work Education. Educational policies and accreditation standards (EPAS), 2010. Available from http://www.cswe.org/File.aspx?id=13780

21 Kramer, FD. The role for public funding of faith-based organizations delivering behavioral health services: Guideposts for monitoring and evaluation. Am J of Community Psychology 2010; 46(3-4):342-360.

22 Heslin, KC, Andersen, RM., Gelberg, L. Use of faith-based social service providers in a representative sample of urban homeless women. J of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 2003; 80(3):371-382.

23 Kissane, R J. How do faith-based organizations compare to secular providers? Nonprofit directors' and poor women's assessments of FBOs. J of Poverty 2008; 11(4):91-115.

24 Sager, R., Stephens, L. Serving up sermons: Clients' reactions to religious elements at congregation-run feeding establishments. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 2005; 34(3):297-315.

25 Andersen, RM. Revisiting the behavioral-model and access to medical care: Does it matter? J of Health and Social Behavior 1995;36(1):1-10.

26 Andersen, RM. National health surveys and behavioral model of health services use. Medical Care 2008; 46(7):647-653.

7. Please describe the project or body of work from which the submitted product developed. Describe the ways that community and academic/institutional expertise contributed to the project. Pay particular attention to demonstrating the quality or rigor of the work:

• For research-related work, describe (if relevant) study aims, design, sample, measurement instruments, and analysis and interpretation. Discuss how you verified the accuracy of your data.
• For education-related work, describe (if relevant) any needs assessment conducted, learning objectives, educational strategies incorporated, and evaluation of learning.
• For other types of work, discuss how the project was developed and reasons for the methodological choices made.

Community program membership
Our winter shelter launched in 2009 as a grass-roots, collaborative, community effort among city government, churches, a secular non-profit human services organization, and several determined civic leaders. We now have a few paid positions (part-time intake and case management workers), with the bulk of the work done by volunteers. Volunteers provide food, nightly hosting, program coordination, fundraising, and leadership. Volunteers vary in their investment in the program, some providing food once and some heavily involved in ongoing committees and nightly shelter operation.

The fifteen member leadership team has monthly meetings, with additional meetings as needed. Three women are the core and driving force of the shelter program and its leadership team. Part of their collective talent has been cultivating a culture that solicits and welcomes participation and initiative; e.g., anyone may join the leadership team or task groups. As described above, both authors are long-standing members of the volunteer leadership team.

Project background
During preparations for year four, leadership began discussing volunteer training. We had both historical experience and the resources (time and available effort) for program quality improvement/enhancement. Experience told us pragmatic issues predictably arise and fluster unprepared frontline volunteers, with potentially serious consequences. In addition to having bearing on the successful entry, use, and outcomes of program beneficiaries (21-26), such issues could have legal, funding, volunteer health, and community relations implications. As interested and technically skilled parties for the task, we (Dr. Garner and Ms. Hanyes) accepted the greater leadership team’s request to develop volunteer training and guidelines for the shelter.

Program needs assessment
We began identifying what should be covered at the leadership meeting during which this project was initiated. Those present shared issues or incidents from prior years or future concerns. Not all volunteers attend the leadership meetings. Operationally, those overseeing the day-to-day running of the shelter (the hosts/coordinators who must supervise food preparers and other lower commitment volunteers) always attend the monthly meetings as part of the leadership team. Site hosts/coordinators have firsthand experience with all emergent volunteer issues, as they witness or are asked to help resolve such issues.

The standard format of leadership meetings is to cover current funding status, anonymously discuss/troubleshoot shelter operations including emergent beneficiary or volunteer issues, and discuss future planning. Official meeting minutes have only recently been taken and recorded, but most of us have taken our own meeting notes. During the first leadership meeting about volunteer training, we asked those present to check their notes to inform our next conversation. This project became an agenda item for a subsequent meeting. Meeting agendas are e-mailed ahead of time to all volunteers electing to be on the leadership team e-mail list; some volunteers make it clear they wish only to deliver food at an appointed time. E-mail is the main form of communication and, per organizational culture, anyone wishing to contribute attends the meeting or contacts the leadership to join the project task group or contribute ideas.

Thus, we developed a bottom-up understanding of the kinds of issues to address in our training and guidelines by 1) soliciting input and task group participation at two leadership team meetings and via email; 2) use of meeting notes and collective memory about issues during prior years of program operations, and 3) collaboratively vetting identified topics (and ultimately work products) among interested program volunteers (roughly fifteen people).

8. Please describe the process of developing the product, including the ways that community and academic/institutional expertise were integrated in the development of this product.

Procedures
After collecting anecdotes and concerns as described above, we looked for themes and salient issues. Examples included: difficulties stemming from volunteers with family members who are program beneficiaries, dual relationships stemming from knowing beneficiaries in other settings, volunteers blurring religious boundaries, and volunteers becoming upset and losing sleep over concern for beneficiaries. The scope of topics that we needed to address in the training document was wholly informed by our community. For instance, without input from our program’s volunteers about actual issues in our particular site, we might have assumed from the literature that active listening and engagement skills, knowledge of available service programs, or indicators of suicidal ideation would be highly important; however, given our parent non-profit agency and the training and role of the site’s case managers, these topics are not the most pressing content for our volunteers. Through this process of probing prior experiences and because of concerns of, and for, volunteers, we also collectively clarified and affirmed the purpose and scope of our undertaking as educational and behaviorally explicit of volunteer practices. Thus, our volunteers, rather than our program clients, were primarily implicated in our goals and represented throughout our process.

General gap in literature
We next set about looking for existing products that would fit our program’s volunteer training and guideline needs. The shelter now operates under the auspices of a larger 501(c)(3). We obtained the parent organization’s volunteer training documents and determined that our identified topics were not covered. Realizing that the kind of product needed was not likely to appear in the academic literature, we conducted a general web search for an existing document that would serve our needs. We note that Google actually adapts searches based on a user’s computer history and cookies, meaning different users might yield very different search results. However, scouring content on the first two pages of our several Google searches (key words: volunteer and guidelines, rules, policies), we found a myriad of items that did not contain all of what we needed. We concluded that with our education and behavioral guideline goals, desire for up-to-date data, and specificity of topics, we would need to produce our own product.

Product development
From the onset, we hoped our effort would be distributed and helpful to other programs. We designed the product for broad and maximum utility. The “Introduction” section contextualizes the document and provides references and resources for the whole document. References were intentionally selected because they were written for, and are freely accessible to, the public. Our goals were to support, without overwhelming, the curious layperson. The “Volunteer Handout” and “Key Points List” sections can be used, on their own, to sensitize and guide volunteers for situations that they are likely to encounter. We made a conscious pedagogical effort to provide not only a description of the issue, but the principles and rationale that support the guidelines to enhance the audience’s understanding. This knowledge-sharing approach (as opposed to rule-dictating) is intended to facilitate egalitarian partnerships with volunteers. The approach empowers volunteers to aid the program by extrapolating the principles and rationale to help identify the guidelines’ applicability in evolving or new circumstances. We are purposefully signaling to volunteers that they are an important and collaborative part of the team.

Product refinement
Once drafted, the “Community Volunteering” document was shared and iteratively refined with input first from the leadership team core (three women), then from two additional leadership team members with mental health and population service /outreach expertise, and finally from the whole leadership team—as a meeting agenda item at a meeting where we discussed the document along with corollary program-specific procedural changes. Subsequently, a meeting to which all current volunteers were called to attend was held to discuss “Volunteer Handout” guideline content and shelter operational changes that the leadership team had agreed upon.

Again, this document has helped illuminate our need for discussion about organizational identity, values, processes, the guidelines, and the text of the working document itself. Based upon the “Community Volunteering” project, the greater leadership team has agreed to some immediate changes to program policies while we have an ongoing discussion of other changes and our organizational identity and mission. The product you are reviewing is a used, but working document. It has undergone iterations of discussion and editing among our volunteers, and we anticipate another round as we prepare for year five of our program. Our collective goals are to assure that the product: 1) fully addresses the topics we identified for inclusion, 2) is understandable, and 3) will be congruent with, and helpful to, the program.

9. Please discuss the significance and impact of your product. In your response, discuss ways your product has added to existing knowledge and benefited the community; ways others may have utilized your product; and any relevant evaluation data about impact, if available. If the impact of the product is not yet known, discuss its potential significance.

“Community Volunteering: A Few Things For you To Know” is an organizational working document for which we do not yet have quantitative or qualitative impact or outcome data to report. Further, the product’s impact for the program will be hard to accurately assess as the product is preventative in nature (proving what would have happened, but for the document, is methodologically challenging). We hope to have improved partnership; better clarity of, and compliance with, best practices; and improved self-care among all volunteers as a result of implementing our product. With a small program (supported by approximately 6,500 volunteer hours annually), the greater possible impact will be gained by wider uptake and use of the product by other volunteers and service programs. Dissemination on trusted sites, with the reassurance of peer-reviewed validation, such as the case with CES4Health products, will undoubtedly help foster identification, use, and significance of the product.

If locatable, the product might have a substantial impact and significance. Twenty six percent of the adult U.S. population preformed some kind of formal volunteerism through an organization in 2010(1). Not all organizations must report to the IRS. Among those which did in 2009, 122,336 organizations identified as human service, 43,735 identified as public and social benefit, and 23,418 identified as religion-related (1). Clear expectations for protection of religious freedom and non-establishment of government religion among programs sponsored by any government money exist (2). Yet, these expectations are widely unknown among localized service programs and their volunteers. Considering the rate of volunteerism, there is clear potential for the current product to be of significant use and to foster behavioral change that benefits all: the volunteers (through self-care and empowered collaborative participation), the programs (through enhanced regulatory compliance and favorable utilization outcomes), and the program beneficiaries (through respectful, consistent, and quality services and providers).

10. Please describe why you chose the presentation format you did.

The product is intended for reference and use as either an electronic or hardcopy resource. The “Key Points List” section may be produced as a one-page checklist that will include the URL where more information may be obtained. Compacting this resource onto a single piece of paper is intended to help save on copying costs incurred by programs using the product. Structural cues such as use of topic headers, bolding, and parallelism are employed to help the reader easily understand the content being provided.

11. Please reflect on the strengths and limitations of your product. In what ways did community and academic/institutional collaborators provide feedback and how was such feedback used? Include relevant evaluation data about strengths and limitations if available.

As described above, we undertook this project as leadership team members of a community-based temporary shelter, at the behest of the greater leadership group. We drew upon our personal and collective experience and concerns about running this program to define the scope and needs of our product, asking those with interest or ideas for input at meetings and via e-mail (our program’s regular channel of communication). We anticipated our product would be refined through input from the core leadership group and greater leadership team, as has been the case. Balancing critiques and collaborating about content, word choice, ordering of topics, formatting, and writing style have been part of our iterative process. What has been unexpected was how this project would become a catalyst for identifying the need to revisit organizational identity, mission, and processes. But, after several years of growth and drift, this unintended additional collaborative work has been helpful and good organizational maintenance. We have also made a conscious effort in the “Volunteer Handout” document to engage with future, as yet unknown, consumers of the product by earnestly inviting questions/comments to Dr. Garner’s email address.

There are several strengths to this product, as well as some limitations. Starting with limitations, this product was specifically developed to suit the needs of a given homeless shelter program. The content was selected based on prior experience in running the program. Other topics that may be more pressing for volunteer orientation given alternative geographic, population, or program structural contexts. Thus, the product may lose some streamlined effectiveness when used for generalized or alternative programs.

Nonetheless, the product has several strengths. The product reflects community engagement and a community-academic synergy. The community helped identify and describe the flummoxing issues, which we were able to recognize and conceptually locate within disciplinary, health services, and policy literature. Several themes such as confidentiality, boundaries on religion in services using public money, and self-care are likely relevant to other programs and their volunteers. Drawing upon Dr. Garner’s expertise, we synthesized topical overviews that reflect current states of policy and best practices and are both educational and practical in nature. Our product has been critiqued, edited, and reshaped by community volunteer leadership partners to assure congruence with a shared organizational vision, which we are also working to refresh. While this document will grow and change to reflect the evolving needs of the program and its volunteers and contemporary knowledge and best practices, its current content and structural template provide a solid foundation for adaptive iterations. These same structural strengths make this product highly generalizable to a broad range of volunteers and service programs, even if some of the specific content may be less relevant in a given situation.

12. Please describe ways that the project resulting in the product involved collaboration that embodied principles of mutual respect, shared work and shared credit. If different, describe ways that the product itself involved collaboration that embodied principles of mutual respect, shared work and shared credit. Have all collaborators on the product been notified of and approved submission of the product to CES4Health.info? If not, why not? Please indicate whether the project resulting in the product was approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) and/or community-based review mechanism, if applicable, and provide the name(s) of the IRB/mechanism.

As described throughout, this product reflects a respectful collaboration among volunteer leadership team members of a community-based shelter program, one of whom is a university faculty member with related expertise. This was not a research project and has therefore not been subject to IRB review. Given issues and concerns from prior years of operation, the shelter leadership team identified the need to intervene with a volunteer orientation aid that might help prevent or lessen negative situations in the future. Two of us were interested and well-suited to the task and we accepted the request (Garner and Haynes).

Concordant with the leadership team’s perspective, we view all program volunteers as partners and collaborators in the success of the shelter program. As such, we 1) sought and worked from their experiences to identify issues to address and 2) intentionally included principle and rationale sections with each of our explicit behavior guidelines. We did so to signal respect, create partnership, and empower our volunteers as collaborators. We hope to position volunteers to help guide the project, ultimately taking ownership of assuring sound practices by applying learned principles when responding to novel situations.

The shelter program’s volunteer leadership team initiated this project. Those interested in this task were invited to contribute insights or perform work as they preferred—including helping develop the product as co-authors. The second author on this product is a community member not previously published. As previously described, the task group and leadership team are serving to vet the product document for its content, understandability, and utility. The seven individuals who have elected to engage with this project, outside of standard leadership meetings, through development, vetting, critique, and editing are supportive of the current “Community Volunteering: A Few Things For You to Know” document being submitted to CES4Health; all have received copies of both the product document and the application narrative.