COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDER SURVEY OF SENIOR CORPS RSVP GRANTEES
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About RSVP:
RSVP is a federally administered national program that engages persons 55 and older in volunteer service that meets community needs and provides enriching experiences to those who serve. With an annual federal budget of $63 million and more than 400,000 volunteers each year, RSVP is one of the largest volunteer programs in the nation. A total of 741 organizations receive federal grant funds to operate an RSVP project in their communities, which they augment by securing funding and resources from non-federal partners.
In the RSVP program model, the engagement of the age 55-plus volunteers is possible because of coordination among the RSVP grantee, federal, and local resources. Since RSVP projects are community-based projects, usually with some Federal funding, there must be a real sense of local ownership and a spirit of partnership among the community, the sponsor, and the Corporation for a project to be successful.
Among many other responsibilities, RSVP grantees:
Connect with the broader community to recruit volunteers age 55 and over and develop opportunities for them to share their experience, abilities and skills to meet local needs.
Recognize and support the volunteers.
Tap an array of nonprofits, schools, and other organizations to serve as placement sites, called volunteer stations.
Convene a Community Participation Group, often an Advisory Council, to work on a regular basis with RSVP grantee staff to support the RSVP project with ideas, guidance, and feedback. The Community Participation Group is also required to lead an annual evaluation of the RSVP project. The annual evaluation can yield information to help determine how effective RSVP is in connecting with other community partners, highlighting the importance of volunteering by older persons, and placing volunteers in ways that are valuable and needed.
About the Stakeholder Survey
The Stakeholder Survey measures how effectively an RSVP project builds meaningful, interactive community partnerships and identifies and addresses community needs from the perspective of the project’s community stakeholders. RSVP projects can use the survey results to better understand their impact in the community and evaluate their own strategies for outreach and collaborations. The findings from the survey are designed to benefit the RSVP project. From responses to the questions, the RSVP project will gain valuable feedback about its role and identity in the community, and about how the volunteers serve and how the RSVP staff knows they are making a difference. While this survey was developed to meet a requirement of the Serve America Act – amendments to the federal legislation authorizing the RSVP program – its real value is to give each RSVP project a standard tool to assess strengths and possible areas of improvement.
Who Completes the Survey?
The Stakeholder Survey is to be completed by each RSVP Community Participation Group. A Community Participation Group, often the RSVP Advisory Council, can take many forms. In some communities, the Community Participation Group is a subset of the sponsor organization’s Board of Directors. The survey is designed to be completed by the group meeting as a whole and discussing then answering questions together, rather than each member completing a copy of the survey individually.
The Community Participation Group is the structure that CNCS has chosen to implement the statutory provision that an evaluation process include persons who are knowledgeable about the program and representatives of the communities served by volunteers.
As directed by the legislation governing the RSVP grants program, the Community Participation Group must have a membership that includes people:
Knowledgeable of human and social needs of the community;
Competent in the field of community service and volunteerism;
Capable of helping the sponsor meet its administrative and program responsibilities including project assessment, fund-raising, publicity, and programming for impact;
With interest in and knowledge of the capability of older adults; and
Who reflect the demographics of the service area.
The scope and extent of participation by the many entities that make up a community will vary considerably from project to project. But all projects can benefit from the involvement of a focused and sustained core group that provides perspectives and active assistance from the larger community.
What happens to the Stakeholder Survey results?
The results of the survey are for the use of the RSVP grantee, including the sponsor organization leadership and the RSVP project staff. The results can serve as a self-assessment for the RSVP grantee, identifying both strengths and challenges. The results will not factor into evaluation of applications received during re-competition of RSVP grants beginning in 2013.
SURVEY INSTRUCTIONS: This survey discusses a number of practices that successful RSVP projects use to meet community needs and provide community members with enriching volunteer experiences. After reading each practice, please indicate whether the RSVP project you work with uses it (yes or no). Please also provide further comment about your answer when requested.
Community Participation Group
How do members participate in the RSVP Community Participation Group?
Which community groups or interests are represented by the Community Participation Group?
What does the Community Participation Group do to support the RSVP project?
Are there other/additional ways the Community Participation Group could support the RSVP project? Yes / No
Partnerships
Which of the following people or groups does the RSVP project interact with (at any level / to any degree; including volunteer stations)?
Volunteer organizations/agencies
Health-care organizations /agencies
Local government
County government
State government
Federal government
Education organizations/agencies
Social services organizations/agencies
Senior organizations/agencies
Faith-based organizations/agencies
Disaster / Emergency services organizations/agencies
Environmental organizations/agencies
Locally-owned for-profit businesses
National for-profit businesses
Individuals in the community not affiliated with any of the above
Other: (fill in the blank)___________________
Are there other / additional people or groups the RSVP project should be working with? Yes / No
Do the project’s active volunteer stations represent a broad range of community organizations? Yes / No
From what sources do funds or donations of goods or services come to the RSVP project?
Does the RSVP project have enough funding and donated goods / services to run the program effectively? Yes / No
Communication
How often does the RSVP project typically communicate with you as its Participation Group?
How often and why does the RSVP project typically communicate with those community partners that are not volunteer stations?
Outreach
Does the RSVP project have a written plan for promoting and marketing itself in the community it serves? Yes / No
To what community organizations / interested parties has the RSVP project made a presentation in the past year?
Describe the relationship the RSVP project has with the local media (e.g. television, radio, newspaper, magazine).
Project Impacts
Who are the direct recipients of the service provided by the RSVP volunteers?
What impacts does the volunteers’ service have on the direct recipients?
How meaningful is the involvement of the RSVP project in the community it serves?
In what ways does the RSVP project act as a leader in meeting the needs of the community it serves?
How does the RSVP project decide which needs to focus on in the community it serves?
Are RSVP volunteers satisfied with their volunteer experiences, including feeling they are making a contribution to the community by volunteering? Yes / No
How does the community being served perceive the value of the RSVP volunteers’ service?
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | Copy of **DRAFT** STAKEHOLDER ASSESSMENT |
| Author | Katharine Delo Gregg |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-02-02 |