4 Steps to Take for Successful Volunteer Care in Disability Ministry
Four Steps to Volunteer Assimilation
Volunteers are a very important part of any ministry, and it takes four steps of caring for them to make sure that they feel supported and successful. The first step is recruiting, the second step is training, the third step is supporting, and the final step is celebrating. Let’s look at each of these four steps for success for our volunteers.
1. The first step to success is recruiting.
There are at least five ways to recruit volunteers. The first is word of mouth from your current volunteers. The best way to get new volunteers is for the current volunteers who serve in your ministry to tell their friends how much fun it is to be part of your ministry. They can tell their small groups or Sunday school classes, “It is so much fun serving in the disability ministry. You should come serve with us!” Word of mouth is a great way to recruit new volunteers.
The second way to recruit volunteers is to invite them to sign up for a low-commitment opportunity. It can be hard to enlist a volunteer if they think they have to serve every week or every other week. But if you can get them to say yes to a low-commitment opportunity, to show them what it looks like to serve one time, then they may be more likely to commit to being a regular volunteer. Low-commitment opportunities include respite events, vacation Bible school, or another event that you’re doing through your disability ministry. Get them to say yes to helping one night at a respite event, and then maybe you can plug them in more consistently on Sunday mornings.
The next way is ministry visibility when other areas are also recruiting new volunteers. My church hosts a Serve Sunday every year, when the ministry leaders set up tables to share what their needs are and answer questions about what it’s like to serve in their ministry area. If your church has an opportunity like that, make sure you’re part of it! You could also talk to the staff about making an announcement about your needs to the congregation on a Sunday morning or recording a video that can be played in the services and on social media.
Accessible Church
Sandra Peoples
Sharing years of expertise and personal experience as a caregiver, ministry consultant and professor Sandra Peoples shows churches how to remove physical and social barriers to create a welcoming, inclusive space for disability families.
The fourth idea has a high success rate but can feel like the hardest (especially for introverts). It is to identify and ask. At our church we have the most success with identifying somebody we think would be great in the ministry and then asking that person to consider serving. Some people don’t even realize that they have the skills that would be a great fit for our ministry. Such an invitation can give them the confidence to say yes.
The last idea is filling in around paid positions. If you’re having trouble getting enough help, consider hiring people who will be there every week and then support them with volunteers. Having a few consistent people in place can help get more volunteers because they know there’s a lead teacher in the room who knows the kids well and is prepared to present the lesson.
2. The second step to successful volunteer assimilation is training.
We have policies in place for all our volunteers to follow, and we make sure as part of the training process that they understand all those policies. They also get background checks and do MinistrySafe training. We have big training events twice a year and use videos on specific topics to supplement that training (either videos we’ve recorded or video resources we’ve found and shared). The video option is especially helpful if you’re onboarding volunteers at different times throughout the year.
Another way we train is by shadowing. On a Sunday morning, we pair together an experienced volunteer with someone who is training so the new volunteer sees what the role looks like. As I mentioned in the section above on recruiting, we also use respite nights and vacation Bible school as opportunities for training. The transition to helping consistently on Sunday mornings is much easier when they’ve had experience through these other opportunities.
3. The third step to success for our volunteers is supporting them.
Our job isn’t done once we recruit and train them. They need ongoing support so they feel successful week after week and so they don’t burn out in the ministry. Part of this support is providing them consistent, clear communication. We have a saying in our family and at our church: Clear communication is kind.
We don’t want our volunteers guessing at anything! We want them to know exactly where they’re going on a Sunday morning, exactly who they’re going to talk to, what their check-in process is, what room they go to get the supplies bag, and what fidgets to put in the supplies bag (if they need to fill it up themselves). The more communication we can give ahead of time, the more comfortable they feel and the more likely they are to be successful in our ministries.
We all want to be part of what God is doing and how he is using the gifts of his people.
We also want to ensure they’re comfortable asking questions (even sensitive questions), making a suggestion for a change, or offering constructive criticism. When I oversaw the ministry at our current church, we made sure our volunteers knew they could come to me or the children’s ministry director with any questions or issues they had. Because I’m also the pastor’s wife, I didn’t want anyone to feel weird about something they wanted to communicate. Even though we have a part-time paid staff person in that position now, we still let volunteers know that anyone on the team is happy to answer questions, help brainstorm solutions, or hear suggestions for changes or improvements.
4. The last step in assimilating our volunteers is celebration.
We can’t forget to celebrate how important their service is to our ministry and to celebrate what is happening in the lives of our friends with disabilities and their entire families. Here are a few ways we can celebrate our volunteers.
First, we can give lots of specific verbal praise. We can tell them they’re doing a great job by noticing something specific they did and letting them know how much we appreciate it. That praise could sound like this: “Hey, I saw you with Michael earlier! It looked like he was reluctant to get to the classroom, but you came up with a great idea to help get him in there by ‘dropping’ blocks down the hall. He picked up the blocks on the way to his room, and then he got to build a tower. That was so creative of you! Thank you so much for how you handled that situation.” The more we can be on the lookout for specific things to praise them for, the more encouraged they will feel.
You could consider having a volunteer of the week that you praise publicly (in an email newsletter or in a Facebook group for your church). If you can give a specific reason why that person is the volunteer of the week, like the example with Michael picking up blocks on his way to the classroom, your appreciation can also inspire creativity in other volunteers. You could also show thanks with tangible gifts or by hosting events to build relationships. Give each volunteer a candy bar or a coffee gift card one week. Or offer a thank-you breakfast before church. You could also invite the kids and their families to write thank-you notes for the volunteers. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, but even small ways to say thank you can mean a lot.
And finally, remind them they are part of a bigger story, a movement of inclusion and accessibility that provides gospel hope. Volunteers want to feel like they’re doing something important in your church and in the life of the families they are supporting. Point out to your team, “The Roberts family wouldn’t be able to attend week after week if we didn’t have the sensory class available. Thanks for your consistent help!” We all want to be part of what God is doing and how he is using the gifts of his people. Remind your volunteers of that bigger purpose so they are encouraged.
These four steps of assimilation success for volunteers—recruiting, training, supporting, and celebrating—apply to our disability ministry volunteers or any volunteers we have in children’s ministry, preschool ministry, or youth ministry. We can build a strong team in which members understand their roles as advocates and take steps toward accessibility for all our ministry participants.
This article is adapted from Accessible Church: A Gospel-Centered Vision for Including People with Disabilities and Their Families by Sandra Peoples.
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