The Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) is the biggest volunteer network in the United States with over 500,000 members countrywide. Their main role is to provide a platform upon which senior members of the society can join volunteer programs in organizations either in their locality or nationally. There are different activities that are available for different members to work in and all these activities require a certain level of skill to work in. For this to happen, you need to go through a training routine.
Qualification and skill
First of all, for you to qualify to be a member of the Retired & Senior Volunteer Program, you need to be above 55 years of age and/or retired. At such an age, there is a certain level of skill that an individual has attained depending on one’s career and life path before retirement, which makes the pre-service orientation a walk in the park for most of the successful applicants. There is, however, a required level of knowledge that is obviously attached to whatever service you are going to offer, and hence the need for the pre-service orientation.
Pre-service orientation
This is a small training and testing routine that one is subjected to to make sure they are in good shape and ready to serve in the community. Depending on what service you choose to do, an appropriate training course is necessary. For example if you chose to volunteer in a gay, lesbian bisexual organization, you have to be trained in their rights, their function as an organization in the society and where you will fit into their organization. If the organization is about children, then on top of learning about how to teach and tutor them, you are also to teach how they are to handle these children and the dos and don’ts. After this orientation and training, then you are now able to go and serve in the community through the Retired & Senior Volunteer Program.