Understanding volunteer retention in a complex, community‐centred intervention: A mixed methods study in Ontario, Canada

Gaber, Jessica; Clark, Rebecca; Lamarche, Larkin; Datta, Julie; Talat, Samina; Bomze, Sivan; Marentette-Brown, Sarah; Parascandalo, Fiona; Pelino, Stephanie Di; Oliver, Doug; Price, David; Geoffrion, Louise; Mangin, Dee

doi:10.1111/hsc.13775

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 67 publications

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“…A fuller description of the volunteers is available elsewhere. 27 In total, 56 people from all sites (6 physicians, 40 health care team members, 10 other) completed the NoMAD at least once. The average scores for 3 of the 4 subscales (Coherence, Collective Action, and Reflexive Monitoring) improved over time (Supplemental Table 6).…”

Section: Sensitivity Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health TAPESTRY Ontario: A Multi-Site Randomized Controlled Trial Testing Implementation and Reproducibility

et al. 2023

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PURPOSE Health Teams Advancing Patient Experience: Strengthening Quality (Health TAP-ESTRY) is a complex primary care program aimed at assisting older adults to stay healthier for longer. This study evaluated the feasibility of implementation across multiple sites, and the reproducibility of the effects found in the previous randomized controlled trial.METHODS This was a pragmatic, unblinded, 6-month parallel group randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomized (intervention or control) using a computer-generated system. Eligible patients, aged 70 years and older, were rostered to 1 of 6 participating interprofessional primary care practices (urban and rural). In total, 599 (301 intervention, 298 control) patients were recruited from March 2018 through August 2019. Intervention participants received a home visit from volunteers to collect information on physical and mental health, and social context. An interprofessional care team created and implemented a plan of care. The primary outcomes were physical activity and number of hospitalizations. RESULTSBased on the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework, Health TAPESTRY had widespread reach and adoption. In the intention-totreat analysis (257 intervention, 255 control), there were no statistically significant betweengroup differences for hospitalizations (incidence rate ratio = 0.79; 95% CI, 0.48-1.30; P = .35) or total physical activity (mean difference = −0.26; 95% CI, −1.18 to 0.67; P = .58). There were 37 non-study related serious adverse events (19 intervention, 18 control).CONCLUSIONS We found Health TAPESTRY was successfully implemented for patients in diverse primary care practices; however, implementation did not reproduce the effect on hospitalizations and physical activity found in the initial randomized controlled trial.

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Section: Sensitivity Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health TAPESTRY Ontario: A Multi-Site Randomized Controlled Trial Testing Implementation and Reproducibility

et al. 2023

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Understanding volunteer retention in a complex, community‐centred intervention: A mixed methods study in Ontario, Canada

Gaber

Clark

Lamarche

et al. 2022

Health Social Care Comm

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Volunteers are critical to supporting health care systems worldwide. For organisations that rely on volunteers, service to clients can be disrupted when volunteers leave their roles. Volunteer retention is a multi‐layered phenomenon. In this mixed methods case‐control study, we compared two naturally‐occurring volunteer groups supporting a complex primary care‐based programme for older adults in the community: volunteers retained by the programme, and volunteers that left. Our objectives were to describe differences between the groups and also understand how compassion changed over time for those that stayed. We collected quantitative data on demographics, the UCLA Geriatric Attitudes Scale, the Professional Quality of Life Index, the Basic Empathy Scale, the Reasons for Volunteering subscale of the Volunteerism Questionnaire and the 5‐level EQ‐5D. Qualitative data were collected through focus groups/interviews. Overall, 78 volunteers completed surveys and 23 participated in focus groups/interviews. Volunteers that stayed were more likely to be a little older and were a slightly higher proportion male than those who left. They also had significantly less positive attitudes towards older adults, descriptively lower Cognitive Empathy and descriptively higher Secondary Traumatic Stress. Compared to volunteers who left, volunteers retained were more likely to have said they were volunteering for Enhancement or Social purposes; however, these differences were non‐significant. Over time, Compassion Satisfaction decreased with a medium effect size for those that stayed, and Burnout decreased with a small effect size. Volunteers that stayed described more logistical and client‐related aspects of the programme were working well. We recommend that volunteer programmes communicate positive programme impacts that could enhance volunteers’ development, communicate any client impacts to volunteers to reinforce volunteers’ purposes for volunteering (thus reinforcing that their work is meaningful), and ensure logistical aspects of volunteer role work well.

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Promoting children’s health through community-led street interventions: analyzing sustained voluntarism in Canadian School Streets

Thompson,

Collins,

Frohlich

2024

BMC Public Health

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Background Active School Travel (AST) initiatives align with the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, which calls for ‘creating supportive environments’ and ‘strengthening community action.’ However, their reliance on volunteers poses sustainability challenges. The main objectives of this study were to document the motivations, satisfaction, and experiences of volunteers involved in sustaining two AST initiatives in Ontario for an entire school year. Methods Two volunteer-led School Street initiatives in Kingston, Ontario successfully operated during pick-up and drop-off times of each school day. The first initiative operated for the entire 2021-2022 school year, and the second operated for the entire 2022-2023 school year. These initiatives were the first of their kind in the province of Ontario, Canada. Volunteers from both sites (n = 56) participated in online surveys and their motivations, satisfaction, and experiences of their role were compared using the 2-sided Fisher’s Exact Test. Results Over 80% of volunteers were highly motivated to promote safety and over 70% of volunteers were highly motivated to disrupt the status quo of unsupportive, car-centric urban environments by reimagining how streets can be used. By taking collective action to re-shape the environment around these public schools to support healthy, active living, our findings reveal that over 90% of volunteers were highly satisfied. Of the volunteers, 87% felt they contributed to child safety and 85% felt they had developed stronger community connections. They appreciated the short (i.e., 40 minute) time commitment of each shift, weekly email communications by the community organization leading the initiative, and the volunteer schedule. They also appreciated the positive social interactions during volunteer shifts, which they felt outweighed the minimal resistance they experienced. Conclusions This research demonstrates the importance of logistical, motivational, and social factors in recruiting and retaining volunteers for community-led School Streets. Our findings support appealing to prospective volunteers’ influence in achieving School Street objectives (e.g., improved safety) in recruitment efforts, as well as highlighting School Streets’ innovative approach. Communicating with volunteers throughout School Street planning and implementation processes and limiting traffic in the closed street zone (i.e., by excluding the school staff parking lot and private driveways from the scope) are additional recommendations based on the findings of this study.

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Understanding volunteer retention in a complex, community‐centred intervention: A mixed methods study in Ontario, Canada

Cited by 4 publications

References 67 publications

Health TAPESTRY Ontario: A Multi-Site Randomized Controlled Trial Testing Implementation and Reproducibility

Health TAPESTRY Ontario: A Multi-Site Randomized Controlled Trial Testing Implementation and Reproducibility

Understanding volunteer retention in a complex, community‐centred intervention: A mixed methods study in Ontario, Canada

Promoting children’s health through community-led street interventions: analyzing sustained voluntarism in Canadian School Streets

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