Courses & Seminars

To Register - Please use this registration form  UPVS300712 - Registration form (227 kB)

Course Outline:  
This course is aimed at Volunteers within organisations who either want to gain the skills necessary to work in a voluntary capacity, or who would like additional skills and resources to work with the client group.  If you are a Volunteer, this workshop will provide essential information and skills for dealing with clients and other team members……….and be fun!  If you are a Manager who has Volunteers on your staff, send them along – they’ll come back better informed, more confident and be an even greater asset to your team!

Key subject areas covered:

• Principles of Volunteering
• Rights and Responsibilities of the Volunteer
• Rights and Responsibilities of the Organisation
• Communication Skills: communicating with the client group
• Potential Blocks to Communication
• What is a team?
• Power With v Power Over
• Strengths based practice/client focused approach
• What makes a service a good service?
• Looking at strengths, skills and resources

Participant Learning Outcomes:

• Understanding the role of the volunteer
• Increased skills in communication
• Understanding supportive and defensive team environments
• Understanding strengths based practice
• Increased confidence in participant’s own strengths, skills and resources

The target group for this course is: 
Volunteers working for NGOs or community groups  

Brief Biography of trainer:   Jen Ireland

• Operate a successful Consultancy which includes training
• Taught a variety of subjects, including Communication, at North Coast TAFE for 12 years
• Have facilitated many workshops on various topics and also community consultations in many areas
• Extensive experience in the private and public sector, plus my own personal experience/contribution to volunteering and involvement in the local community
• Formal qualifications include Bachelor of  Social Science, triple major: Community Development, Human Relations & Communication, Politics & Policy Studies;  Graduate Diploma Social Ecology: “People & Change”

Previous experience teaching the course:

• When working for North Coast TAFE and the Outreach Program, I compiled a “Volunteer Training Manual” which was used by myself and others in presenting workshops on Volunteering
• Facilitated a Volunteering Workshop for organisations in Ballina in 2010 with the aim of making Ballina a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in volunteering
• Facilitated a Youth Wellbeing Mentor Volunteer Workshop on 9^th November 2011 for Youth Connections North Coast (Transition House)