The Comment
In our meeting at the Blazers Club, we were talking about what our volunteers should have in the future. One of our staff members shared a concern about people who were not culturally sensitive coming to volunteer at the Club and potentially doing some harm in the process, and told me this story: a couple months ago, there was a new volunteer at the Club (I'm going to omit some details of this story to avoid potential embarrassment to parties involved). This volunteer, while presumably well-intentioned, had little experience with Black culture and asked an ignorant and inappropriate question about one of the children at the Club. No harm was meant, but it bothered some of the staff, and in the context of the Club and of a person who is supposed to be a role model to the children, it served to highlight a recurring problem that is facing some of our Clubs: there are some good people who want to help out, but may not have the cultural competency to participate in this Club in a positive way.
Some background: our Blazers Club is located in the King neighborhood of Northeast Portland. This neighborhood has been, historically, made up almost entirely of Black citizens of a lower economic bracket than much of the city. The Boys & Girls Club provided (and still provides) an important service to these people who might not otherwise be able to find quality, affordable childcare and youth development. But in recent years, gentrification in the area has led to housing becoming more expensive, and many of the people whose families have lived in the neighborhood for generations are being priced out of their homes. At this point, many families that still send their kids to Blazers do so from a significant distance away. The children at the Blazers Club represent one of the most vulnerable populations our organization serves, and it is our responsibility to ensure that we extend to them the full level of respect and support that each of them deserves. In pursuit of this ideal, we need to make sure volunteers are culturally aware enough to be good role models to these children.
The Cause Orientation
This is where the Cause part of a good orientation comes in. The Cause orientation serves to align potential volunteers with the mission of the organization and buy in to it: in essence, to declare that the organization is doing something worth doing, and they want to be part of it. A part of this that my course text talked about was the history of the organization. At first, I wasn't sure why this was important, but today's events convinced me of how essential it is. In the process of recruiting and screening volunteers, it's important to have the conversation of the reality of the population we serve. This doesn't just serve to edify the volunteers: it opens the floor up for a real conversation about the challenges the Club faces every day, and it lets the volunteers speak up about why helping kids overcome these challenges is important to them. The best volunteers, the ones that will make our mission a reality, are going to be inspired by the opportunity to make a difference to those who are most vulnerable: they will rise to the occasion. For those who honestly want to help and are willing, we should work to help them better understand the community and communicate with the kids with the understanding of what their world is like. But: this should happen before we put them out there. If a volunteer can't understand the culture of the Club they're at, the best path might be to find them another Club to help at. This important step in matching the volunteer to the community can't be overlooked.
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