{"id":3871,"date":"2018-01-15T03:36:36","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T11:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=3871"},"modified":"2018-01-15T07:03:55","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T15:03:55","slug":"servicerequirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2018\/01\/servicerequirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Bevin & Donald Trump Are Wrong on Community Service Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"logo\"<\/a>Remember at the start of the year when I warned that\u00a02018 is the time for USA nonprofits to be demanding<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Well, here we go.<\/p>\n

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and Donald Trump, as well as governors all over the USA, want to require unemployed Medicaid members to volunteer with nonprofit organizations –\u00a0or, probably, Christian churches – in order to receive those benefits.<\/p>\n

This idea was first floated back in Spring 2017. At that time,\u00a0Danielle Clore, executive director of the\u00a0Kentucky Nonprofit Network<\/a>, had a lot to say to Bevin\u2019s office when it asked the group to support his proposal:<\/p>\n

The bottom line is this will cost nonprofits money \u2013 money and resources we don\u2019t have to spare. It takes professionals to effectively manage volunteers. For the experience to be valuable for both the agency and the individual, volunteer efforts have to be managed. Is it worth the limited and precious resources of a nonprofit to manage a volunteer that is there because \u2018they have to be,\u2019 not because they want to be? Nonprofit employees are spread so thin as it is and I feel like a volunteer requirement for anyone not truly committed to the mission of the agency isn\u2019t an effective use of anyone\u2019s time.<\/em><\/p>\n

I do not typically take people who are \u2018required\u2019 to volunteer,\u00a0<\/em>because they don\u2019t make good volunteers. Also, 20 hours is A LOT OF TIME. We don\u2019t allow people to volunteer that many hours because at that point they could be considered a part time employee<\/em>\u00a0employee, and you have potential legal issues to consider.<\/em><\/p>\n

Emily Beauregard, executive director of Kentucky Voices for Health,\u00a0told Kentucky Health News in an interview<\/a>\u00a0at that time, \u201cWe need to provide them with the support services that they need, but forcing people to volunteer in order to get health care doesn\u2019t make anybody healthier. We know this. There are data to suggest that. In fact, sometimes these stringent requirements put people in a position where they are unable to get care and then they get sick, and they are unable to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

I’ve blogged about all this before, in April 2017, when I said that\u00a0requirements to volunteer are getting out of hand<\/a><\/strong>. And I’m calling on all nonprofit centers, all consultants regarding nonprofit management, including volunteer management, and everyone claiming to be advocates for volunteerism to speak out about this.<\/p>\n

Here here’s my Facebook post about how I feel:<\/p>\n

Nonprofits are not sitting around saying, “I wish several thousand people were forced to volunteer and they would then show up at our offices to do all this work we have just laying around waiting to be done by just any ole’ person that comes through the door.” Bevin and Trump are expecting nonprofits to involve several thousand more people as volunteers – people who are being forced into the act – but without funding all of the increased costs nonprofits are going to have to create more assignments and supervise these people. Nonprofits, don’t do it. Just DON’T. Not without a great deal more money.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let’s see your statement.<\/p>\n

Also see:<\/p>\n