Exploring Volunteer Opportunities "Volunteer Adventures"

Planning this group was harder than the last group facilitation. There were eight groups that took place before mine and some of the activities that I wanted to incorporate were already used. I did not want to repeat what someone had already done, so I had to be creative with activity choices. I also wanted to improve in two areas from the last co-lead group session: I wanted to extend the group time and be ready with a plan B if I needed to adapt the group to any situations like length of group.

Before I facilitated the group, I meet with three other group leaders. We all discussed our group sessions. We bounced ideas off of each other and expressed our opinions about each other’s group session. More information on the group session can be found on my blog under Leadership Summit.

For this group I decided to use The Ecology of Human Performance Model. This model emphasizes the importance of contexts and environments within which people of all ages perform tasks. This group focused on finding occupational performance through volunteerism. Occupational performance is achieved when there is a balance between the person, task, context, and performance. The OTPF defines four occupational contexts: personal, cultural, temporal, and virtual; and two environments: physical and social. In this session, the focus will be on the social environment and temporal context. The temporal context I want participants to consider is after graduating OT school. The social environment will be the groups they choose to volunteer in.

As a warm up activity, I passed out three blank pieces of paper and I asked everyone to obtain a different color marker. I asked participants to write out three areas they are passionate about, each one on a separate piece of paper. The participants shared their passions with the group. I did this as a warm up activity because I believe to volunteer, an individual need to be passionate about something. If they are, they will continue to volunteer in that area. To facilitate their understanding of passion, I gave them this definition: Passionate is defined as having or compelled by intense emotions or strong feelings.

I did not do the best at communicating a schedule to the group. I was nervous during the beginning of the group. However, I did give a schedule of the group after the warm up activity.

For my activity I choose to play a matching game with volunteer opportunities. The volunteer opportunities were the different tasks that would be explored. The idea was to find a match and discuss if this would be a match to their context (after graduating OT school). The group discussed each match found to see if this was an area they would volunteer in. if no match was found then it would be the next participants turn. I feel that I was adequately prepared for this group. Since I was the last person to go, I was able to tailor the volunteer experiences to the individuals in the group. I laid out the cards before the group started to allow smooth transition from the warm up to the activity. Again, one area that I wanted to improve was to increase the length of the group. I tried to pick an activity that would take up more time; however, I did not anticipate the amount of discussion that took place. I was thrilled to have participants discussing volunteer opportunities, but I did have to watch the time and use plan B to finish the session without skipping over the main points at the end. Next time I do this activity, I will know to put less cards out. I did try to make the cards fun by using colored cards and ink. The environment that the game created was very therapeutic. Participants were cheering others on, celebrating a match, embracing the unknown of not knowing what cards to pick, and laughing with each other. I was thrilled to see this level of participation and fun that each participant had.

I have already mentioned that I was running short on time. They gave me a great opportunity to improve from the last group I co-lead. I had a plan B! Plan B included modifying the processing, generalizing, application, and summary. For processing, I had wanted to go around the table and discuss a new area of interest to volunteer in. Instead, I had participants, through nodding head yes or no, express if they learned a new area to volunteer. I feel that processing happened internally for some of the group members through the discussion portion of the activity. For generalizing, I noted that even though the majority of the group wants to work with adults, they can still volunteer with kids. They have all been through OT school. They have knowledge that they can all use. It is okay not volunteer in an area an individual is not passionate about. I pointed out similarities and differences in group answers. I did make it a point to say, “listening to others allows us to see different perspectives and discover new areas to be involved.” I wanted to say this, so that, participants would see the benefit of listening to others and trying new things. For the application, I asked the participants to return to the cards from the warm up activity. I wanted them to write a way their passion could be achieved though volunteerism after graduating OT school? This could include a volunteer area previously discussed. I wanted every participant to share one, but with time restrictions I asked a few people to volunteer to share. Finally, I summed up the group through encouraging them to volunteer after graduating. They have all learned valuable skills that can be used in different populations and setting. I thanked them for participating.

I did have an opportunity to limit inappropriate behavior. Because the activity required some discussion, the group would occasionally get off topic. At one point, I did ask to limit the off-topic discussions. I love that they are discussing volunteerism, but they can further talk after the group. This aided in respecting the other group members time by finishing the group within the hour time frame.

I do believe I improved my weaknesses from the last group facilitation. I had a plan B and was able to incorporate using it in this group facilitation. I did extend the time of this group, but I would have loved more time to facilitate the group how I planned. I have seen two extremes with the time, so now I need to work on fine tuning the time of the activity to the session. This will help me to better facilitate the group as I have planned it.

All in all, this was a great group experience!