Launched in June 2006 with support from the MetLife Foundation, NCOA's Wisdom Works project is helping senior centers build their capacity and extend their reach by developing self-directed teams of seniors who address vital community issues. Skilled senior center directors, who receive special training, serve as mentors to help their teams be effective.

Through the project, teams are addressing these kinds of issues:

• Preventing West Nile Virus.
• Curbing childhood obesity.
• Making home repairs to enable seniors to age in place.
• Creating a team of older consultants to help understaffed local nonprofits.

Study Identified Challenges to Using Volunteers

The Wisdom Works project was born when the National Human Service Assembly conducted the From Research to Action, October 2004 Volunteer Management Capacity Study. This study, underwritten by The UPS Foundation, identified several challenges organizations face in effectively utilizing volunteers that, if not addressed, may lead to the demise of volunteers as a resource.

Two of these challenges are as follows:

• The inability to dedicate substantial staff resources to, or adopt proven best practices in, volunteer management.
• The lack of formal training among paid volunteer coordinators. One in three has not received any training in volunteer management, and half spend less than 30 percent of their time on volunteer coordination. 

As a result of this study, the IMPACT Fund, administered by the National Assembly, expanded its efforts to strengthen America’s voluntary infrastructure by awarding a grant to NCOA to provide additional training and support to its MetLife Foundation-sponsored “Wisdom Works: Building Better Communities” initiative.

Wisdom Works II Program to Identify New Models

NCOA’s Wisdom Works II program was launched in June 2006 to help a cutting-edge group of professionals and key volunteers do the following:

• Find new ways to empower older adult volunteers through self-directed teams,
• Develop innovative partnerships to implement community projects,
• Team up with “peer mentors” to overcome organizational and interpersonal obstacles to developing effective self-directed volunteer teams, and
• Identify and institutionalize practices that foster the development of volunteer teams that, with minimal support from agency staff, can reach into the community and successfully address relevant issues.  

Six senior centers were selected from among 171 applicants and awarded grants of $25,000 to retool their voluntary infrastructures. The objective is to identify new models and/or innovative underutilized models to enhance older adults’ ability to be a resource that provides community service rather than just one that receives services.

In each project, a senior center professional works with a key volunteer to develop and manage self-directed teams in addressing vital local issues. The issues range from prevention of West Nile Virus and curbing childhood obesity to making home repairs that enable seniors to age in place and creating a team of older volunteer consultants to help understaffed local nonprofits. The Wisdom Works project also has introduced the concept of using and training skilled senior center directors from other communities as mentors to help their team effectively implement the self-directed concept.

Many new and meaningful, paid and unpaid opportunities will be needed if we are to utilize the time and talents of older adults in the coming years. Wisdom Works is helping organizations build their capacity and extend their reach through the development and use of self-directed teams. 

The Wisdom Works initiative specifically targets senior centers, a sector of the aging network well-known for using older volunteers to support center-based activities, but one that seldom places volunteers in the community to address broader needs. However, with further study, lessons learned in the Wisdom Works projects should yield important and far-reaching volunteer management insights. The transferability and replication of best practices in introducing and implementing self-directed teams can have national implications for the nonprofit community. 

Onsite Training Teaches Teams Problem-Solving Techniques

In April 2007, key volunteers, professional staff, and peer mentors from NCOA’s six Wisdom Works self-directed team projects completed their second onsite training. Two intensive workshops were offered at NCOA’s offices in Washington, DC:

• Engaging High-Level Volunteers to Use Strengths and Maximize Flow, conducted by Tracey Manning.
• Creative and Collaborative Thinking Techniques, facilitated by Jean Carroccio.

These nationally recognized training experts designed the workshops to help Wisdom Works project leaders learn techniques for empowering and strengthening the creative problem-solving skills of their self-directed teams.

“This mid-term training provided an opportunity to reflect, refocus, and refine the work of each project; it was critical to successful implementation,” said Constance Todd, NCOA director for Wisdom Works.

“Helping organizational and volunteer leaders learn how to address important community challenges through the use of self-directed teams and empowering individuals to take on needed leadership roles is a new concept for many staff persons in community-based volunteer organizations. This paradigm shift won’t take place overnight, but there are skills and tools that can help advance this change for both organizational and volunteer leaders.”   

See more Wisdom Works information:

• Full report of Wisdom Works I (also funded by MetLife Foundation).
• Description of Wisdom Works II projects.

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