St. Paul Communication Improvement Implementation Plan
Right now a request for information on volunteer opportunities can go through as many as four or five people. The request is given to one priest, who gives it to another, who gives it to the social worker, who gives it to the secretary, who gives it at last to the director of the applicable program. In the new program, some of the information will be directly available through web and print resources. At most the new requests will go through two people.
Volunteers will generally fall into three general categories. Optimally, we would like everyone to be parish to give at least twelve hours per year. Right now a small group of people seems to be doing all of the work, and most parishioners are giving little or no time at all. We need to create new opportunities to serve that fit the needs of other parishioners to meet our service goal.
Parishioners in the first category know what type of work they would like to do and are ready to make specific time commitment to fulfill it. Often these people have worked in those positions before. These people need only be referred to the project directors for placement.
The second type of volunteer is willing to make a time commitment, but is not certain of what type of work they would like to do. These volunteers will benefit from short projects in various fields. They might also benefit from a discernment retreat or from speaking with one of the priests or pastoral ministers. Other apprentice-type assignments should be available as well. It is critical to develop these volunteers as they often make excellent additions to the force, but are often the ones being missed at this time.
The third type of volunteer can only come occasionally. Periodic one-day projects such as trips to the food bank, working on the parish grounds, or a giving tree at Christmas should be available for these volunteers. It is not wise to ...