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Trainings for volunteers

Want to help your community? Want to be a more effective volunteer?

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The following worksheets are offered by Art All Night-International (AAN-I) grant recipients to their volunteers. They discuss the basic skills that volunteers need to be effective in their role and provide an introduction into how non-governmental organizations (NGO) operate.

 

Each worksheet pairs with a one hour training which includes an opportunity to practice the skill. Volunteers who go on to join one of the 8 committees that produce the Art All Night festival have the opportunity further practice the skill and see first-hand how NGO's operate.

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The worksheets were created because AAN-I could not find a concise guide to these skills that were written for a working-class audience. They are meant to be edited by our grant recipients for relevance to their country.​​​​​

Incentivizing volunteering
Why will working-class people, in countries without strong traditions of organized volunteering, donate their valuable free time? In addition to their application in the NGO context, each worksheet and training explain how the skill is useful in the private sector as well. For this reason, and to incentivize participation by working-class volunteers, AAN-I grant recipients will act as a job reference for all volunteers who complete the entire training series. Volunteers who faithfully participate on one of the 8 committees that produce the event will likely earn stronger recommendations than those that don't volunteer on a committee.

To our knowledge, this kind of trade has never been tried before in less developed countries. Yet, we believe it has a strong chance of succeeding in such places due to intense class stratification and scant opportunities afforded to working class people who want to improve their employment competitiveness. 

Clearly, testing the efficacy of our program is one of the reasons why a pilot offering, with a rigorous evaluation component, is necessary. If it is successful, trading 'volunteering for job credentials' could be replicated. This would empower working class people with leadership skills while extending the reach of philanthropic dollars. If volunteers are now able to perform some of the work that an NGO was paying people to do, additional dollars are now available to support the NGO's mission in other ways.  

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