Identifier

etd-04132014-174432

Degree

Master of Social Work (MSW)

Department

Social Work

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between increased supervision and volunteer retention at the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center. Due to the agency’s anecdotal evidence of a downward trend in volunteer retention between 2011 and 2012, the researcher began examining the groups and performing an intervention to increase retention. Specifically, this study looked at the differential effect of increased supervision on two nonequivalent comparison groups. The researcher hypothesized that increased supervision of the volunteers would result in a greater percentage of volunteers fulfilling their 72-hour commitment to the agency, increase the speed with which they completed the commitment, and increase the number of hours that the group volunteered in comparison with the nonintervention group, which received the normal amount of supervision from staff. The groups were nonrandomly selected based on the naturally occurring training groups at the agency, which occur three times per year. Six total training classes were used in this study. The results showed no significant difference between the intervention group and nonintervention group in terms of completion, speed of completion, and volunteer hours completed. However, there were clinically significant results due to the reversal of the downward trend in volunteers’ average monthly hours to the required level of 12 hours per month. Additionally, survival analysis of parallel groups showed that the difference in the speed with which volunteers completed their commitment approached significance, indicating that further observation and research on this intervention may continue to improve volunteer retention at this agency.

Date

2014

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Page, Timothy

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2598

Included in

Social Work Commons

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