Community Volunteers

One part of our Truancy Prevention Project includes getting community volunteers to help out with the different needs of our elementary school. These needs include tutoring, mentoring, grading papers, and helping teachers in other ways with activities like spelling bees, math superstars, carnivals, holiday parties, lunchroom duties, and field trips. To recruit these community volunteers, you may use the following guidelines:

1. Create a master list of all the community volunteer organizations.

2. Use the phone book.

3. Network with people you work with.

4. Network with your family and friends.

5. Use the internet.

6. Look around your neighborhood.

7. Create a cover letter stating your purpose and contact information.

8. Send this letter to the above community volunteer organizations.

9. Follow-up with a phone call.

Another part of our Truancy Prevention Project (related to the above community volunteer section) is volunteer opportunities. In order for individual volunteers to help your school, you need to know where and when they are needed. You also need to be able to tell your volunteers what their responsibilities will be in the positions they sign up for. The following are steps that allow you to organize this section:

1. Create a master list of all the volunteer opportunities in your school.

2. Create one page for daily volunteer opportunities.

3. Create another page for weekly volunteer opportunities.

4. Create another page for monthly volunteer opportunities.

5. Create another page for yearly volunteer opportunities.

6. Ask all teachers and school-staff for the volunteer opportunities they know of.

7. Send this master list to all organizations who have responded to your initial letter or phone call.

8. Pair available volunteers with opportunities.