This section provides some practical guidelines for those who recruit and use volunteers.
Organizations can be held liable for the acts of its volunteers, staff, and Board members. It is, therefore, important for organizations to have policies covering all aspects of their volunteer activities, from screening to job descriptions to supervision.
I. SCREENING
A. The Application Form
Prospective volunteers should complete a written application wherever possible. Some of the questions organizations will want to ask may be barred by human rights laws. It is, therefore, generally useful to indicate, somewhere on the application form, that it is not mandatory for the volunteer to answer specific questions, but that this information is helpful in matching a volunteer with the appropriate task.
B. Police Checks
Volunteers require special screening if they will be providing services to clients who are children, elderly, or have some sort of disability. A volunteer must fill out a consent form prior to completing a criminal record check. You may require a separate form for a disclosure of sexual offenses for which a pardon has been granted. Organizations can see the RCMP website at www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca for more details.
If a prospective volunteer refuses to submit to a police check where it seems reasonable to do so, the general guideline is that the volunteer should not be accepted. Though it may seem unfortunate to turn people away from volunteering, the rights of clients and the duty of the organization to those clients must prevail.
C. Statutory Obligations
Various statutes may impose a duty on organizations to screen prospective volunteers. The Protection for Persons in Care Act, for instance, states that every agency is required to see that “every applicant for employment provide a criminal record check.”Though no specific mention is made of volunteers, the definition of ‘service provider’ in the Act, as described above, could be seen to include them. Evidence of this can be found in another section of the Act, which declares that every agency is charged with the duty to protect the clients it serves from abuse and to maintain a reasonable level of safety for its clients. This could clearly be interpreted as an obligation to screen volunteers in the same way as paid staff.
D. Screening and The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
Several provisions of this Act give the head of a public body the discretion to refuse an applicant (in this case an organization) access to the record requested, allowing access to an individual’s personal information only upon the written consent of that individual. Whether the information relates to a medical, psychiatric or psychological history, an investigation into a possible violation of the law, or a workplace performance evaluation, an organization can have its request for certain personal information turned down if it is determined that the disclosure would unfairly harm the reputation of the individual in question.
To avoid having an application refused, it may be necessary to secure the consent of the prospective volunteer or to ask him to make the request for the information directly.
II. SCREENING IMMIGRANT VOLUNTEERS
Another problem associated with screening concerns the lack of capacity for traditional security screening procedures of immigrant volunteers. These concerns can be traced to the references of immigrants and both the difficulty in obtaining them and their ensuring their validity. In addition, foreign nationals who come from tumultuous regions might be refused permission to volunteer due to their ‘undesirable’ background. The costs associated with screening procedures means that many volunteer organizations lack the capacity for acceptable screening of their immigrant volunteers. This may result in the acceptance of volunteers who may be less than acceptable for that particular volunteer position and the refusal of those who may be a good fit with the volunteer position but do not have the acceptable references. It is important to note that anyone who immigrates to Canada must show that they do not have a criminal record. In addition, these individuals must comply with Canada Customs strict regulations ensuring that they do not pose a security risk to Canada. All of these individuals are advised on the Citizenship and Immigration website that if a check is completed and their background involves either criminal convictions, organized crime, terrorism, espionage, human rights violations, war crimes or other forms of violence, they will be refused admission into Canada. This process is different than a police clearance as it is undertaken by the Canadian government without any involvement of the applicant. Unlike a background check which is completed by the Canadian government, police clearances are when a person applies they must provide police certificates from all the countries where they had lived for six months or more since they were over the age of 18.
III. PLACEMENT AGREEMENTS
Once a volunteer has been selected, it is generally desirable to record in writing the responsibilities of the organization and the responsibilities of the volunteer within it. This agreement (as discussed in Chapter 1) is not, strictly speaking, a legal contract, but it can be useful. For example, if a volunteer is to be a driver for XYZ Society, then the days, the times, the terms and conditions, insurance considerations, supervision and reporting obligations of the volunteer should be defined. The more complex the task being assumed by the volunteer, the greater will be the care with which the agreement is written.
In case of injury or harm, a first consideration will be whether the volunteer was operating within the scope of the duties defined for her. If the tasks are modified in the course of the volunteer’s duties, while it may not be necessary to rewrite the whole agreement, the changes to the duties assumed by the volunteer should be noted. The agreement itself is not likely to be legally enforceable by either the organization or the volunteer.
The main value of the placement agreement will lie in defining the relationship between the volunteer and the organization.
IV. SUPERVISION AND TRAINING
Regular supervision of volunteers is of paramount importance. Not only does it assist in fostering an ongoing awareness on the part of the volunteer as to the nature of his duties, but it is also helpful for him to know that the administrator of volunteers is available to discuss, critique, and provide constructive feedback as to how the placement is going. The legal consequences of failing to provide ongoing supervision and accountability for volunteers can have truly grave results. Clearly, an administrator of volunteer services cannot meet the community standard of care if he has no idea what the volunteer is actually doing. In addition, all volunteers should have some training. At the very least, volunteers should be given an orientation to the organization and its purposes or objects. For any kind of complex volunteer role, the organization may want to provide thorough training of its own or require volunteers to obtain other training, for example first aid or CPR training for volunteers who work with a seniors’ recreation program.
V. TERMINATION OF A VOLUNTEER’S PARTICIPATION
In cases of a deliberate breach of policy or risk to a client or other volunteer, the volunteer’s services should be terminated immediately. In cases that fall in a gray area, it is generally preferable to suspend the volunteer. Then, it is important to investigate and to make full and fair inquiries before deciding whether to terminate the volunteer, provide more training and supervision, or allow the volunteer to continue his activities. The responsibility for termination is likely to fall on the administrator of volunteers. It is preferable to have a witness present when a volunteer is terminated, because the volunteer may have a very different version of the termination than the administrator does.