In this article, Peter Nichols discusses how municipalities can benefit from the increased use of volunteers in providing local services.

The Town of Sexsmith, with a population of 1,500, relies on a volunteer fire department of 26 firefighters. With many residents working outside the community -- and unavailable for day-time volunteering -- Sexsmith faced the challenge of maintaining a core volunteer force of firefighters. The unique approach taken by the town was to propose a program in the local Peace River Bible School that would allow students to earn credits while participating in the fire department. The school is located less than two blocks from the fire hall and is attended by young people with a predisposition to community service and available during day-time hours. The volunteer program was seen by the school to have merit because many of its students go on to live in small communities which operate volunteer fire departments. The students with fire training would be particular assets to those communities.

The town, working in conjunction with the school, successfully developed a program which benefits the community, the institution, and the students. The students earn credits for serving on the fire department and completing recognized training certified by the Alberta Fire Training School. Some students are advancing toward professional levels of training certification.

For the Town of Sexsmith, the new program has meant that a competent, fully-staffed fire fighting crew is available at all times. Response times during busy periods have been reduced and potential liabilities have declined through improved maintenance programs and documented training.

Sexsmith's innovative use of volunteers should remind us of the often-unexplored potential for utilizing community volunteers in new ways. Volunteers have often been used in support of various family and social programs and, of course, fire protection, but a number of municipalities have expanded the use of volunteers to new areas, including, for example, recreational services (as instructors, coaches, aides, etc.), libraries (as aides, technicians, clerks, fundraisers, etc.), and even police services, where volunteers have assisted uniformed officers in data collection and analysis, clerical and administrative work, vehicle transport, and in a variety of other ways as well. In some cases, volunteers are integrated within existing municipal operations; in others, volunteer-run, non-profit groups may assume sole operational responsibility for particular services, such as the operation of a local arena or other recreational facility.

For municipalities struggling to maintain services levels and control costs, the use of volunteers can provide the following benefits:

• provide cost savings;
• supplement the resources of paid staff, allowing them to focus their energies on activities requiring professional capabilities or greater training; and
• increase citizen involvement in local government.

For the participants themselves, the volunteerism can provide an outlet for their energies, and give them new job skills and experience, including an enhanced opportunity to secure paid employment later on.

In pursuing an increased use of volunteers in the delivery of municipal services, municipalities should first identify and assess the possible areas in which volunteers might be employed. Communities must recognize that the use of volunteers conveys some organizational implications, for example, added materials and supplies costs; the need for management and supervision of volunteers; volunteer recruitment, training, and evaluation; potential liability, insurance and legal considerations; and, of course, the concerns and reactions of regular employees. In a number of the jurisdictions that have expanded the use of volunteers, the potential resistance of regular staff has been avoided through adequate internal planning and discussion, and by using the unpaid volunteers to provide new services or to provide supplementary resources that enable regular staff to increase their own effectiveness and efficiency. Staff support is sometimes strengthened as well by providing assurances that volunteers will not displace current employees.

The experience of municipalities that have widened the use of volunteers is that the volunteer program should be well-planned and documented, to include such considerations as recruitment, volunteer management, task definitions, training and orientation, and performance evaluation. In general, the experience with these programs has been very positive, and municipalities are encouraged to explore innovative ways in which the resources of local residents can be harnessed to improve performance in community service delivery.