Catholic Charities Nashville - Volunteer Engagement AmeriCorps VISTA

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Nashville, provides a plethora of services to members of the community. These include our Hunger Relief program, Refugee and Immigration program, Family Empowerment Program, and more. The VISTA will work to build the capacity of these programs via the recruitment and management of volunteers, whilst ensuring a high level of volunteer satisfaction and retention. The VISTA will also work with program managers, to assess volunteer needs across the agency, creating and implementing volunteer roles as they arise. The VISTA will attend community events, representing Catholic Charities and informing the public about the various services we offer. The VISTA will also implement a volunteer ambassadors initiative, in which select volunteers will become recruiters for our volunteer opportunities. Volunteers are a huge asset to our organization and it is through them that we remain in contact with the Nashville community. Building relationships and maintaining a high level of volunteer satisfaction helps ensure our programs run efficiently and our client’s needs are met with the utmost care and attention. This VISTA position is a part of Catholic Charities USA’s Family Strengthening Program, a national intermediary project. As a member, you will meet virtually with VISTA Leaders and other VISTAs serving throughout the country, all focused on alleviating poverty. Catholic Charities encourages everyone to join us in serving our community regardless of their religion, race, color, sexual orientation, gender, national origin, age, disability, or marital status. Catholic Charities’ volunteers serve the community without a religious or political agenda. 

Member Duties : 1) Build on existing volunteer systems and develop resources for expanding outreach and engagement to increase sustainability and capacity of the agency. 2) Build on the existing volunteer systems to develop more comprehensive and ongoing support for volunteers after initial orientation and onboarding. 3) Develop a means to evaluate the efficacy of volunteer recruitment, training, management, engagement, and retention to enhance our agency’s understanding of the strengths and needs and create more responsive strategies to engage the community. 4) Conduct research on current volunteer ambassador programs, primarily by identifying and interviewing organizations currently implementing similar programs. 5) Develop a plan to train and use volunteer ambassadors from local churches and community groups to recruit volunteers from their membership. 6) Implement the plan by recruiting and training volunteer ambassadors and communicating with volunteers regularly to support their efforts.