Big changes are happening in the Christian Appalachian Project Volunteer Program. Effective August 2011, long-term volunteers will be asked to make a commitment of 12 months, rather than 9-12 months. Though 12 months has always been the preferred commitment, CAP has offered long-term volunteer benefits for volunteers serving 9-11 months for the past several years. Having volunteers serve for a full year will bring more stability to service programs and volunteer communities and reduce the gaps that often occur in between volunteer departures and arrivals.
Also effective August 2011, CAP will end its rolling admissions policy for long-term volunteers. For many years, CAP has had a very flexible admissions process for long-term volunteers: applicants could apply at any time and virtually name the date they would like to begin their service. Most long-term volunteer programs have somewhat rigid start and end dates, so CAP’s flexibility made us a little different and was attractive to many applicants. But there were also some disadvantages to this flexibility. Although many volunteers tended to arrive in the summer and early fall, the handful of volunteers arriving in October or April meant volunteer communities were almost always in a state of transition. And volunteers who did not arrive just ahead of one of the three long-term volunteer orientations would be in their service position for several months before being officially commissioned. Long-term volunteers will now be asked to arrive in August/September or January, and we will have two orientations a year. Having two possible start dates will ensure that new volunteers will always have some “veterans” around to welcome them into the house and help them get to know the area, while also minimizing the number of times volunteers are entering and exiting a community. This change in admissions means long-term applicants will be asked to submit their applications by certain dates, and you can view our admissions timeline here. We will continue to accept short-term volunteers on a rolling basis, as they will help “fill in the gaps” when we have a shortage of long-term volunteers.
We’re certain there will be a few bumps in the road as we make this transition, but we’re also very excited about how this change will increase consistency for our programs and the people they serve and bring more stability in our volunteer communities so our volunteers can grow in faith together. We believe the change will help us to live more fully our core values of Service, Community and Spirituality.
If you have questions about long-term volunteering, please contact Amy Schill at 606-256-0973 or at volunteer@chrisapp.org.
