African Red Cross & Red Crescent Health Initiative 2001

Volunteers and volunteer networks are the main comparative advantage of the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies. As National Societies scale up the need for community volunteers, they can shift from the ad hoc approach of disaster volunteering to proactive and ongoing volunteer services. These large volunteer networks will ensure and sustain the positive impact that ARCHI 2010 aims to acchieve.

Coaches and Networks of Volunteers

Coaches - Scaling-up

Coach selection

Health Coordinators, with input from the communities, will identify coaching candidates from within the districts.

Profile of Coaches

• Person who is qualified in First Aid with a proven record or a recognized female/male community leader who may not have First Aid (Both female and male coaches should be selected and equally represented in each district)
• Person who lives in the district where s/he will be responsible for coaching volunteers -
• Person experienced in training and motivating volunteers
• Person who understands local cultural practices and speaks the local language

Training for Coaches

• Coaches will be trained in First Aid and in the use of ARCHI 2010 Toolkits
• Training in targeted health intervention areas may be provided by partners at the district or community levels such as the health staff in a health centre
• Training in the development and management of volunteer networks

Role of Coaches

Overall responsibility

• To ensure that networks of community volunteers are recruited, trained, motivated, monitored and supported.
• To serve as member of a team working with the communities to identify needs, build networks, and develop work-plans

Map the communities (approx. 10-20 per coach) for which each coach will be responsible and include:

• Presence and numbers of volunteers (male/female/youth)
• Current health activities
• Existing partners and potential partners
• Receptivity of population to building up a volunteer network
• Areas of health interventions of interest in the community

Identifying key organizers

• Identify key persons trained in First Aid and/or other community leaders who can serve to help build or create a network of volunteers i.e., Mothers Club members
• Highly respected community leaders
• Maintain a gender balance for community representation and to ensure health strategies selected reflect community needs and priorities

Ratio of coach to volunteers
Ideally one coach is needed for 300-500 volunteers who work in 10-20 communities. Much will depend on the density of population.

Number of volunteers in a community
Each volunteer should ideally work in the 10-15 households around his/her own house. These 10-15 households may contain up to 100-150 persons depending on the setting and culture. In a community of 3,000 persons, at least 20-30 volunteers need to be recruited to work in their surrounding households.

Support and training provided by Coaches

• Coaches can do in-service training, support volunteers and provide recognition.
• Coaches can explore motivational needs to support volunteers during visits.

Coaches should visit each community at least twice a month to meet with community volunteers or their representatives. Community volunteers can elect a leader among themselves who can meet regularly with the coaches. It is not possible for coaches to see all the volunteers during each of their community visits.

Training to include:

• How to build a community network of volunteers.
• Refresher courses in the relevant ARCHI 2010 toolkits & First Aid.

Reporting system

Coaches report monthly to the local branch volunteer coordinator. Coaches need to develop a reporting and record keeping system that works for the branch coordinator and the community volunteers (see ARCHI 2010 toolkit report card)

Incentives and Payment

• Coaches should be full time RC paid workers.
• Coaches should be provided with transportation (bicycle or motorbike based on requirement to do her/is job).

Community Volunteers (CV)

Getting started at the community level - Scaling-up networks

First priority

Development of village-based volunteer groups actively involved in public health programmes (such as those outlined by ARCHI 2010) that promotes sustainability and capacity building at the community level that can then be used for multiple public health efforts, such as HIV, malaria, vaccinations.

Ratio of Community Volunteer to households

Each community volunteer should be responsible for 10-15 households (100-150 people) around his or her own household.

Community volunteers may wish to elect "volunteer leaders" to represent them since many will not be available during a particular visit by a coach. Some national societies have used the ratio of 1 volunteer leader for each group of 10 community volunteers.

Profile of a Volunteer – Men & Women & Youth

All volunteers should reside in the community where they work.
Selection of the volunteers should be with the participation and input of the community to ensure identification of leaders

Women, through the input of women leaders, should be selected as volunteers when strategies and efforts selected are more appropriate for women

• Sensitive subject area for men
• Part of the women's every day work
• Involving children's health (EPI, diarrhea, malaria)
• When women serving as social advocates (and or use social pressure) is of benefit

Men, through the input of male leaders, should be selected as volunteers when strategies and efforts selected are more appropriate for men or sensitive subject areas for women (e.g, condom use, male focused HIV/AIDS)

Many health interventions optimally benefit from participation from both i.e., water projects (women haul water daily therefore need to provide input as to the water sites & well design) and (men for the heavy manual labor).

Youth volunteers are highly encouraged and should be included whenever possible

Role of the Volunteer - See ARCHI 2010 Toolkits for Volunteers - Volunteers faithfully work a modest half a day per month - The same households should be repeatedly visited (once per month) by the same volunteer. See Toolkit for house-to-house promotion activities.

How to start building networks of community volunteers

• Build on existing successful activities
• Start small but plan to replicate and scale-up quickly (but do not compromise the efforts)
• Note and build upon existing groups in the community (i.e., Women's Clubs)

Volunteer incentives

• Plan and budget for volunteer incentives
• Incentives can include T-shirts, hats, armbands, aprons, pins, pens, pencils, paper pads, group photos, special volunteer recognition days, certificates, etc.
• Volunteer recognition should be an integral component
• Each district should carefully discuss how and how often should recognition and incentives should be used

Volunteer Training & Support

• Training should be in the community using the ARCHI 2010 Toolkits
• Priority areas of training should be simple and should not overload the volunteer.

Sustaining a network of community volunteers

• Volunteers can organize themselves to accomplish a specific task.
• Volunteers are sometimes absent or are not able to visit their households during a particular month. To ensure that households are visited every month, each volunteer should recruit a "back-up" or apprentice who can learn what the volunteer does and who can fill-in during absencies. In this way, apprentices can learn to become fully qualified volunteers. This helps to solve the recruitment of new volunteers.

Incentives: can include gifts of appreciation (i.e., hats, armbands, pens etc.), recognition through certificates is also very important. See the ARCHI 2010 brochure on "Volunteers and Community Health" for more on incentives and volunteer management.

Building capacity above the community level and at the district level

Consider assignment of full time branch coordinator when:

• Many communities have networks of volunteers in a district.
• There are several coaches to be coordinated and guided by the local chapter.
• A major project in one or more branches is planned.

Learn from successes and the way forward

• Mothers' Clubs in Ghana, Nigeria and Togo
• Youth theatrical groups in each of the eight Central African National Societies
• Youth peer education groups in the Gambia and Namibia
• Community volunteers in Rwanda and Burundi, Vaccination social mobilization efforts in Uganda and other NID countries

Work-plan Development

To be completed jointly by the staff at Branch, Coach and Volunteer levels

Criteria: Community driven and with RC team at all levels

Rational: To respond to need for desired health intervention

Components: Location of project (Districts, Branches of RC) - Communities/Villages Description

Selection of Toolkits (refer to the relevant ARCHI 2010 Toolkit)

• Health intervention focus
• Activities & strategies to be used by volunteers
• Goals and objectives based on activities selected

Supporting structure

• Support and monitoring especially from the district, branch and headquarters (Coaches to Volunteers)
• Simple but effective decentralized systems for managing volunteers

Monitoring and evaluation

The local health workers can assist in developing a simple health information system that will provide a measure of success in the community.

Sustainability

• Ongoing recruitment of community volunteers using the "back-up" apprentice method.
• Providing "in-service" training to increase knowledge of volunteers and to motivate them to continue their service (retention).

More experiences and success stories are needed. We need answers to:

• How many communities can be supported by a single coach?
• What are the differences between urban and rural settings in terms of coach coverage?
• How often a coach needs to visit a network of community volunteers?
• Should the coach use community visits as a chance to teach a F.A. topic?