What about safety for volunteers?
Submitted by jessica on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 09:35.
I was blown away by a Grade 8 student's question at the safety presentation I was giving at Earl Beatty Junior and Senior Public School in Toronto, Ontario. The kid stood up and asked:
"What about safety requirements for volunteers?"
For a few moments I stammered, thinking that I was supposed to be an all-knowing "safety guru", but then I smiled and said what any other guru would say: "I have no idea!" It's not that often I get stumped by 12 year olds (which is a good thing - because I might be out of a job if I was :), so I left the presentation determined to find the answers I needed. (I figured the student was asking me because of the 40 hours of mandatory volunteer work that every student in Ontario must complete before graduating from high school.)
Fortunately, there were some Toronto District School Board administrators visiting my presentation, so they could help. After a lengthy stop at a fast-food chain, (eating food that I had no business eating) I got the answers I needed:
- Parents must teach their children to do the same due diligence in a volunteer position as they would for a regular paying job.
- Volunteering is no small matter - in 2000, two teenagers were killed while just visiting a workplace.
- Volunteers are not covered by Workplace Safety Insurance - so be sure that the environment is safe.
- There are certain places where youth cannot volunteer until they are a specific age. For instance they must be 16 to volunteer/work at a construction site or a logging operation, and 15 years old to volunteer/work at factory or a restaurant kitchen. There are other jobs where there are no age requirements, this does not mean, however, that there are not hazards in these environments too.
There are plenty of resources for about workplace safety and volunteers on the web, however I found one of the best sources to be WorksSafeOntario.com.
Really, the best way to prepare your kids for a great volunteer experience is to teach them to ask the right questions and be sure that you keep the lines of communication open about workplace safety.
My 15-year-old stepson just
My 15-year-old stepson just started volunteering at a homeless shelter in downtown Hamilton; he goes with his dad, whom I asked, What about safety there? Did he and you get Orientation and Training?"
The answer was yes (relief!) - they got walked around the kitchen and shown big, special oven mitts that must be used to lift the soup pot, and special rubber matting that must be in place to prevent slips, and more.
Then there was the question of personal safety (I asked) when my loved ones are out serving the homeless; turns out they are protected by a wide serving area table that would virtually impossible to get over. Not that my husband son are really worried about their clients getting violent; it's just verbal outbreaks from time to time, which they can handle!
The Wesley Urban Ministries staff are so cautious about their volunteers' safety - especially when it comes to teenagers - my husband told me. (Are all places that take volunteers, I wonder?)
I'm not sure I would have asked my family members about safety on the volunteering gig if I hadn't been reading this blog and privileged enough to see Rob Ellis talk about the vital importance of Orientation and Training in all workplaces.
Oh, and a question for you: Isn't volunteering covered under some provision of WSIB? I thought it was...
I would be really interested
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