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An Untapped Volunteer Resource: People
with HIV Disease, ARC, or AIDS
By Irene K. Wysocki
Posted with permission of THE
JOURNAL OF VOLUNTEER ADMINISTRATION from its Spring 1991,
issue, Volume IX, No. 3, pp. 8-13. Copyright 1991, Association
for Volunteer Administration.
We all know that maintaining and replenishing a pool of talented
volunteers is an ongoing and often difficult process, and
as volunteer managers we must be creative and even take risks
in our choices. The questions we need to ask are whom to recruit
and how to recruit. A rich resource of skilled and willing
volunteers to consider, then, lies in the approximately one
million people living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV). People with HIV infection, AIDS (Autoimmune Deficiency
Syndrome), or AIDS-Related Complex (ARC) can tremendously
benefit any volunteer administrator and organization, offering
advantages such as flexible schedules (a volunteer manager's
dream-come-true), enormous talent, and an extraordinary motivation
to help others. Beyond their direct volunteer efforts, they
can also help an organization make a contribution in the fight
against AIDS and HIV disease by fostering understanding about
the epidemic and about people with AIDS.
For those unfamiliar with working closely with individuals
with AIDS, many questions arise. How do I find these individuals
and how do I go about recruiting them? For other staff and
volunteers, what might be the ramifications of incorporating
this group of volunteers and how do I address those issues?
This article will attempt to answer these questions and present
an understanding of this extraordinary volunteer resource.
The HIV-Positive Factor
After the 1989 International Conference on Volunteer Administration
workshop, "Managing People with HIV Infection, AIDS,
and ARC," many members of the audience commented that
it had simply never occurred to them that a pool of "ideal"
volunteers existed in the HIV-infected population. While people
infected with HIV may be unable to maintain a full work schedule
and are technically disabled (covered by the list of handicapped
conditions in the new Americans with Disabilities Act), they
are nonetheless productive and can often provide substantial
volunteer hours. Many are also young, well-educated, and professionally
trained. For example, the author has found pertinent volunteer
assignments for lawyers, doctors, public relations experts,
writers, editors, and graphic artists. Given volunteers with
such high-calibre skills and available volunteer hours, managers
can frequently expand the scope of traditional volunteer assignments.
A volunteer with the time and requisite expertise can often
take on large, involved projects for which an organization
would otherwise have to hire an employee or paid consultant.
In addition to the skills and time offered to an organization,
a qualified volunteer also needs to have a sense of personal
commitment and responsibility toward helping others. Again,
many potential volunteers with HIV disease meet this description,
whether due to an innate sensibility or because of the effects
of their unique situations. They are usually ordinary folks
who, at a young age, have retired from the workplace because
of their HIV infection or related conditions; their illness
prevents them from living their lives as they once did; and
it forces them to face the stark reality of their own mortality,
a circumstance which most people don't encounter until much
later in life.
With the help of support groups and services, many are emotionally
coping with this reality and want to make a meaningful contribution
to society-not only as a way to reciprocate the love and understanding
they have encountered in their lives, but also to counter
the feelings of frustration and powerlessness that often accompany
a potentially fatal disease. Significantly, while many people
with HIV disease choose to work at an AIDS-related organization
because of its obvious relevance to their own situation, or
because they feel particularly accepted and comfortable there,
this is certainly not a rule of thumb. In the course of interviewing
hundreds of HIV-infected individuals, the author has found
many who, for a variety of reasons, would rather not work
at an AIDS-related agency: some say they "don't want
AIDS to become their whole life," some may be more interested
in the nature of the work they can do at other organizations,
some may already have a favorite "cause" to which
they've never before had the time to donate as a volunteer.
Regardless of how they choose to allocate their time and abilities,
people with HIV disease usually have that extraordinary dedication
that marks a great volunteer.
Recruiting Volunteers with HIV
Given that people with HIV are also members of the general
population, any active volunteer recruitment includes them.
Specifically recruiting people with HIV, then, often simply
entails making it well known that your organization will not
discriminate against people with HIV and, in fact, invites
their participation in your work. For example, an organization
might include the phrase, "Those covered under the Americans
with Disabilities Act are encouraged to apply" in all
published literature and volunteer solicitations. When an
organization is truly open and accepting of different individuals,
word spreads rapidly--this, of course, also holds true well
beyond the HIV-infected population.
Other more proactive means of recruitment are many and varied:
- Contact the AIDS agencies in your area and, if
they publish a newsletter, ask them to mention the volunteer
opportunities that exist at your agency.
- Speak with these agencies' volunteer managers and inform
them of your needs; not only could these managers refer
volunteers who have decided they would rather not work in
AIDS, but you also might be able to "share" volunteers
who have a lot of hours to donate but who would burn out
if they allocated their time solely to AIDS.
- Place a classified ad or listing in the local gay press
or in AIDS-related publications (e.g., there has been
a proliferation of general-reader publications that review
current AIDS research and alternative treatments).
- Post a notice on bulletin boards at the Public
Health Department, hospitals, clinics, the Social Services
Department, and AIDS service organizations in your area.
Issues Specific to Working with HIV-infected Volunteers
Why haven't volunteer managers actively recruited this new
and growing population of people who, by and large, have all
the qualifications a volunteer manager could ask for? There
are probably two main reasons: the fact that people simply
haven't thought of HIV-infected individuals as a discrete
segment of the population from which to specifically recruit
volunteers, and the fear and stigma associated with the disease.
This article addresses the first factor and, over time, education
effectively addresses the second.
In fact, education should be treated as an issue distinct
from a manager's conscious decision to recruit people with
HIV disease. As mentioned above, whether aware of it or not,
when a volunteer manager recruits from the general population,
that manager also recruits people with HIV-the disease is
a fact of life in the 90s, people with HIV live in every community,
and they lead active lives that often include volunteer work.
In other words, it's highly likely that you have, have had,
or will have volunteers who also happen to be infected with
HIV. And every one of your employees and volunteers is capable
of contracting the disease. For many corporations and organizations,
that simple fact is enough to instigate AIDS education in
the workplace, which then assuages any possible fears should
an employee's or volunteer's HIV status become public knowledge
or should a person with HIV disease join the organization.
Many public health departments and AIDS service organizations
produce AIDS education materials; many also have Speakers
Bureaus that provide in-house training sessions to local businesses,
schools and organizations. If nothing else, basic AIDS education
assures people that HIV is not easily transmitted: it isn't
an air-borne virus which could be caught through casual contact
such as sharing equipment, food utensils, bathrooms, or shaking
hands or hugging; specifically, the virus is transmitted through
high-risk (unprotected) sex, shared injection drug needles,
or by receiving a transfusion of contaminated blood (an extremely
rare occurrence in this country since screening of blood donations
began in 1985).
Given the fundamental ignorance and fear of HIV that still
persists, an hour or two spent listening to a speaker often
proves a practical investment, but more comprehensive programs
and resources are also available. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation
produces a very successful package entitled "AIDS in
the Workplace," which covers issues such as managing
employee and co-worker concerns, diffusing problems, legal
and ethical considerations, benefits, and grief and bereavement
issues. This is just one example, and there are many other
avenues to explore. Community AIDS agencies, the health department,
Impact AIDS at 1-415-861-3397, or the National AIDS Hotline
at 1-800-342-2437 can answer HIV-related questions and provide
a list of local AIDS agencies.
Volunteer managers who decide to actively recruit people
with HIV disease, then, will find this prior AIDS education
will have addressed many of the ramifications of that decision.
The fact remains, though, that an individual volunteer's HIV
status may always remain a moot point. Not only might volunteers
never disclose their conditions to volunteer managers, which
is the person's prerogative, but even if they do, they will
probably wish it to be treated as confidential information.
Fellow employees and volunteers may never realize that they
have been working with an HIV-infected individual.
Nonetheless, in anticipation of possibly having HIV-infected
volunteers on staff, a manager might have concerns about the
effect of a volunteer showing signs of illness or physical
deterioration, and the impact of a volunteer's death. These
are real and valid issues, although not necessarily specific
to people with HIV, and can be briefly addressed here. While
people with HIV can live for a long time without displaying
obvious signs of illness, they may show weight loss or decreased
stamina. Managers must address these issues of declining productivity
and whether or not the volunteer should terminate service
on a case-by-case basis, but the unfortunate fact remains
that many people with HIV will cease their volunteer work
before they become really ill and show signs of that illness.
If the former volunteer dies (often well after leaving the
volunteer position), this can have a profound emotional impact
on staff who had worked with that person. Again, this is not
unique to an HIV-related death; managers should ask themselves
what they would do if a volunteer unexpectedly died of a heart
attack or in a car accident, and they'll have the answer to
how they would deal with staff emotions if a volunteer died
of AIDS. In general, society isn't very adept at dealing with
death and bereavement, and these issues will never be easily
addressed.
A Valuable Resource
In considering the recruitment of people with HIV, then,
managers need to balance the potential infusion of new and
vital talent against the potential issues of fear and grief
involved. Any exploration of new volunteer resources involves
thoughtful deliberation, however, and as the demographics
of the workplace and of volunteerism continue to evolve, volunteer
managers will increasingly face the challenges inherent in
innovative volunteer recruitment. A volunteer manager who
works daily with HIV-infected individuals constantly witnesses
their commitment to doing work that they find meaningful--and
often refers them to other agencies that are not AIDS-related
but where their talents and dedication will be well appreciated.
Volunteer managers who accept the challenge of educating themselves
and their colleagues about HIV infection can also reap the
benefits that come from working with these volunteers. Volunteer
managers can help their agencies discover how to tap this
valuable resource. They not only will enhance the acceptance
and civic pride of HIV-infected individuals, but also will
do much to broaden the definition and value of volunteerism
in this country.
Appendix A
Written by Irene K. Wysocki, Director of Volunteer Services
of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, has been involved in the
AIDS epidemic in San Francisco since 1985. She began as a volunteer
educating the general public about AIDS and developed the current
volunteer program at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, where
for the past three years she has been managing volunteers. She
strongly supports the AVA Board of Directors' resolution discouraging
discrimination against volunteers with HIV infection and seeks
to share with her colleagues the methods she and others have
employed to cope with the disease among her own corps of volunteers.
Ms. Wysocki received a B.A. degree in Psychology and Business
in 1986 from New College of California.
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Permission is granted for organizations to download and reprint this article. Reprints must provide full acknowledgment of source, as provided:
Excerpted from An Untapped Volunteer Resource: People with HIV Disease, ARC, or AIDS, By Irene K. Wysocki, Posted with permission of THE JOURNAL OF VOLUNTEER ADMINISTRATION from its Spring 1991, issue, Volume IX, No. 3, pp. 8-13. Copyright 1991, Association for Volunteer Administration.
Found in the Energize website library at: http://www.energizeinc.com/art.html
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