Effective Use of Volunteers in Group Work and Recreation Programs

Abstract

We believe that the volunteer is a living link between our members and the total community. To our members, the volunteers are continuous proof that there is some acceptance of them by the sighted community. Their voluntary presence, their devoted, sensitive and intelligent assistance, their regular attendance, attest to this much more than would any verbalization. Using the volunteer's services in the group work program has created a splendid and natural way in which blind and sighted people may exchange viewpoints. Rehabilitation of our members may be speeded through such continued contact; each relationship may be considered as another step in the long process of this rehabilitation. An adequately trained volunteer is a better-informed citizen, more aware of people's needs and of the community's responsibilities toward them. We feel that an informed volunteer adds a new dimension to his community as well as to the agency. Certainly, then, a better-informed group of volunteers makes for a more knowledgeable public.