Internal Evaluation Home-Start
Quality process for and by volunteers
The Dutch Home-Start organization (Humanitas) asked Inge Anthonijsz (NJi) to help in ensuring the quality of its professionals and volunteers. Here we present the results of her activities, based on her report Start at the basics (Inge Anthonijsz, Utrecht (NJi) Amsterdam (Humanitas) Home-Start 2003).
The outcomes present a new method of internal evaluation which equips volunteers for their interaction with parents and helps to improve the quality of their work.
"Initially, the objective of the Home-Start quality plan was to formulate a 'vision' of quality, to examine quality models alongside coordinators and support staff, and to agree upon the priorities for improvement action. This was partly a top-down process. However, it soon became evident that promoting quality was something which required a bottom-up approach, asking how quality in the every day interaction between Home-Start parents and volunteers can be improved. To answer this question it is important to let the volunteers speak for themselves. After all, their efforts form the driving force behind Home-Start, and it is they who visit the families requiring support. Their inspiration and motivation are necessary to make improvements and ensure ongoing quality."
Meetings
To investigate what quality means to Dutch volunteers, and to find out what tools they require in order to improve quality, a number of meetings were scheduled with volunteers from various regions. The strategy was designed and supervised by Martha Talma and Inge Anthonijsz from the Dutch Institute for Care and Welfare (NJi), in association with the Quality workgroup and the National Support Centre.
The meetings addressed the following key questions:
- What does a volunteer understand by 'quality'?
- What do volunteers experience as quality in providing support to families?
- What is required in order to achieve this quality, and how can the volunteer contribute to the process?
- How does this definition of quality relate to the organization's own idea of quality with respect to volunteers, both in general and in specific cases?
- What does the organization demand from its volunteers, and is it entitled to do so?
Outcomes
The volunteers were enthusiastic and spoke about their work in positive terms. They could clearly identify the areas in which they expect guidance from the Home-Start organization.
- Volunteers feel committed to their client families, but also to Home-Start. They take their work seriously and devote considerable effort to their families. They have to establish certain boundaries, and expect Home-Start to support them in this.
- Volunteers feel that Home-Start offers them a lot. Each volunteer has his own or her own goals. The Home-Start organization was advised to keep a record of these goals.
- Volunteers succeed in keeping their work at a certain distance, deliberating on their actions and looking at themselves critically in the light of the Home-Start principles. It is Home-Start's task to provide them with the support they need.
Work in progress
The information, criteria and conditions relevant to the quality of the work are to be translated into a number of quality-enhancement resources:
- The Home-Start quality game for parents, volunteers and coordinators.
- Improvement plans and the development of (self-) evaluation materials for volunteers.
- Selection procedures, training and coaching for volunteers.
These resources will now be subject to further development. The implementation of the 'Home-Start Volunteer and Quality Plan' represents increased involvement in quality development on the part of the Home-Start organization as 'employers'.
