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Cricklewood Homeless Concern (CHC) - 11 staff, 32
volunteers
Empowering volunteers to manage conflict
'Conflict can come from other users who may feel that
a volunteer has 'traded places'. Becoming a volunteer
is about taking responsibility, so
it's important for us not to jump in automatically if
there's a problem. If we feel that the volunteer can
handle it, we stand back and allow them to deal with
it. There are volunteer team leaders, who keep a watchful
eye out and give support, but it's important to allow
the volunteer to take that first hurdle.
'New volunteers may also face conflict from within
the team, when others feel threatened because a new
member has joined. I've had situations where volunteers
have used our fortnightly volunteer meetings
to openly criticise other volunteers. This can sometimes
be positive because the volunteers recognise the difficulties
within the team and address them, and volunteers can
vent their anger if need be. More often than not, I
let them lead, although obviously I'll intervene if
things are getting too heated.
'To try and minimise conflict situations, you need
to get to know your volunteers - their
strengths and limitations, the difficulties that they
may have - and then be very careful in choosing the
type of tasks they'll be doing. It's important to make
sure that your volunteers know exactly what their roles
are. We've found that it's vital to teach volunteers
practical techniques about how to deal with conflict,
because it's a fairly common occurrence. More generally
it's important to empower volunteers
to feel that they've got the right to make decisions
and take control of situations. Our motto here is 'working
together for each other' and all of the team work hard
to create a comfortable and cheerful atmosphere.'
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