stw volunteer analysis

A L L I S C O T T

T E N N E S S E E L E P O R T E

S A M M Y V A N D E N B E R G

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Researchers: A. Scott

T. LePorte S. van den Berg

V o l u n t e er Su r v ey A n a l y s i s 20 1 5

INTRODUCTION The following data were collected from the Stand Together Week Volunteer Survey

disseminated on June 18, 2015. The 22-question survey was completed by 84 volunteers. DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS

1. Age Range 15-60 Median age 35 Mean 36

2. Gender

Percentage Male 41.7

Female 58.3 Total 100.0

3. Which project did you attend during Stand Together Week? Top three projects attended

by survey participants are shown in yellow. Project and Date Frequency Percentage Sort Food to Feed More Families with Sunshine Division - 6/8 4 4.8

Recess Rockstars with PlayWorks! - 6/8 4 4.8 Outdoor Adventure Spruce Up with Portland Children's Museum - 6/8 6 7.1

Soccer Festival with AC Portland - 6/8 1 1.2 Hug a Tree with City of Tualatin - 6/8 1 1.2 Get Ready for the Grange! with Zenger Farm - 6/9 3 3.6 Soccer in the Park with 4 Worlds Soccer Alliance - 6/9 1 1.2 Get Books to Children with Children's Book Bank - 6/10 1 1.2

Willamette River Cleanup with Willamette Riverkeeper - 6/10 11 13.1

Community Garden Clean Up with Portland Community Gardens - 6/10 3 3.6

Building Homes, Change Lives with Willamette West Habitat for Humanity - 6/11 2 2.4

Get Books to Children with Children's Book Bank - 1 1.2

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6/11 Tree Care Work Party with Friends of Trees - 6/11 2 2.4 Revive Rock Creek! with Tualatin Hills Parks and Rec District - 6/11 1 1.2

Recess Rockstars with PlayWorks! - 6/12 1 1.2 Let's Give Woodland Elementary a Garden! with Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization - 6/12

3 3.6

Volunteer Action Center with Oregon Food Bank - 6/12 1 1.2

Farming at Durham Elementary with Supa Fresh Youth Farm - 6/12 3 3.6

School is Out... The Library is In! with Hillsboro Public Library - 6/12 1 1.2

Beautify the Dreamer School with "I Have a Dream" Oregon - 6/12 5 6.0

Volunteer Action Center with Oregon Food Bank - 6/13 3 3.6

Cleanup Lents with SOLVE and Green Lents - 6/13 9 10.7 Garden for Good with Timber Jim with Tualatin School House Pantry - 6/13 1 1.2

Shelving, Sorting, Searching, Shelf-reading with Tigard Public Library - 6/13

5 6.0

Spruce Up Our Soccer Field with OPI and James John Elementary - 6/13 2 2.4

Harper's Playground Clean-Up - 6/14 1 1.2 Beard v Bun: A DeNailing Battle for the Ages with Our United Villages - 6/14 4 4.8

Spruce Up the OHS Dog Walking Path with Oregon Humane Society - 6/14 3 3.6

Total 84 100.0

4. How did you participate in this project?

Participation Frequency Percentage Individually 26 31.0 With a group e.g. friends/family 23 27.4 With your company/organization 35 41.7 Total 84 100.0

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PROJECT-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

5. I believe the volunteering, outreach, and community engagement of Stand Together Week improved the local community in (mark all that apply):

Please note: because this is a “mark all that apply” question, many respondents chose more than one answer and therefore the percentages will not add up to 100.

Number of participants that

selected option Percentage of participants

that selected option Youth education 49 58.3 Youth activity 58 69.0 Environmental awareness 62 73.8 Other (please specify) 13 15.5 None of the above 4 4.8

Other (please specify) responses Frequency Beach cleanliness/enjoyment 1 Community garden opportunities 1 Completing work that otherwise would have gone undone or taken much longer 1 Disability awareness 1 Family help 1 Feeding families 1 Food sourcing, community gardening 1 Green spaces 1 It’s done in a day, it’s not a huge impact, but small ripples make waves 1 Sense of community 1 Servant leadership 1 Simple community involvement 1 Volunteer opportunity awareness 1 Total 13

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6. Of the selection(s) you made above, which one community component do you feel was most improved by your project during Stand Together Week?

Frequency Percentage

Youth education 13 15.5 Youth activity 26 31.0 Environmental awareness 31 36.9 Other (please specify) 9 10.7 None of the above 5 6.0 Total 84 100.0

Other (please specify) responses Frequency Beach cleanliness/enjoyment 1 Community involvement 1 Community togetherness 1 Completing work 1 Family help 1 Feeding families 1 Housing 1 Sustainability 1

7. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements.

a. I feel the involvement of the Portland Timbers in Stand Together Week enriched my

project. Frequency Percentage Strongly disagree 5 6.0 Disagree 4 4.8 Neutral 18 21.4 Agree 30 35.7 Strongly agree 27 32.1 Total 84 100.0

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b. I feel the work accomplished in Stand Together Week helped give, unite, and inspire the local community.

Frequency Percentage Strongly disagree 4 4.8 Disagree 1 1.2 Neutral 2 2.4 Agree 36 42.9 Strongly agree 41 48.8 Total 84 100.0

c. I feel the work accomplished in my project impacted the local community in a positive way.


d. I feel Stand Together Week helped build a stronger, more cohesive local community. Frequency Percentage Strongly disagree 3 3.6 Disagree 0 0.0 Neutral 13 15.5 Agree 40 47.6 Strongly agree 28 33.3 Total 84 100.0

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e. The participation of the Portland Timbers/Thorns player(s) in Stand Together Week influenced me to volunteer.


f. I feel the presence of the Timbers/Thorns player(s) at my project enriched the experience of Stand Together Week.


g. I feel the participation of the Timbers/Thorns player(s) in my project contributed to the success of Stand Together Week.


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h. I feel the participation of the Timbers/Thorns player(s) in my project demonstrated their investment to the local community.


i. I feel my volunteer work in Stand Together Week positively impacted the local community.


j. I feel the work accomplished in Stand Together Week helped promote a safer and healthier local community.


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The table below reports the frequency and percentage of respondents who selected “agree” or “strongly agree” to the following statements previously seen in Question 7(a-j). Frequency of responses

“agree” or “strongly agree”

Percentage

a. I feel the involvement of the Portland Timbers in Stand Together Week enriched my project.

57 67.8

b. I feel the work accomplished in Stand Together Week helped give, unite, and inspire the local community.

77 97.7

c. I feel the work accomplished in my project impacted the local community in a positive way.

78 92.8

d. I feel Stand Together Week helped build a stronger, more cohesive local community.

68 81.0

e. The participation of the Portland Timbers/Thorns player(s) in Stand Together Week influenced me to volunteer.

42 50.0

f. I feel the presence of the Timbers/Thorns player(s) at my project enriched the experience of Stand Together Week.

51 60.7

g. I feel the participation of the Timbers/Thorns player(s) in my project contributed to the success of Stand Together Week.

57 67.8

h. I feel the participation of the Timbers/Thorns player(s) in my project demonstrated their investment to the local community.

66 78.5

i. I feel my volunteer work in Stand Together Week positively impacted the local community.

78 92.9

j. I feel the work accomplished in Stand Together Week helped promote a safer and healthier local community.

75 89.2

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TAKEAWAY QUESTIONS

8. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements. a. I found this project to be a meaningful experience.


b. I would participate in Stand Together Week again. Frequency Percentage Strongly disagree 4 4.8 Disagree 0 0.0 Neutral 2 2.4 Agree 17 20.2 Strongly agree 60 71.4 Total 84 100.0

c. I would participate in this same project again. Please note: this question was only presented to respondents who selected “agree” or “strongly agree” for the previous question: “I would participate in Stand Together Week again.”)

Frequency Percentage Strongly disagree 0 0.0 Disagree 0 0.0 Neutral 5 6.0 Agree 23 27.4 Strongly agree 51 60.7 Missing (were not asked question) 5 6.0 Total 84 100.0

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STORIES AND EXPERIENCES

9. Personal experiences are integral to understanding the impact of Stand Together Week. Please share a story or a memorable moment from your involvement in Stand Together Week.

Allie Long of the Thorns sat w/ us as we sorted potatoes for a long time. It was great to talk to her! She was awesome. My only constructive criticism is that there were two stations that she helped with. Someone from organization should have moved her from stand to stand so others could have the same experience we did:) I feel the organization should move the player, not the player move themselves:) Lucky for us but not as lucky for others there....Otherwise, it was great! At Alder Elementary I helped basically reorganize the textbook room. As part of that work, we boxed up books that needed to get sent back to the school district. I've worked at schools before where I was solely responsible for the textbook room and it's nt an easy task to have on your own. I understand that value of volunteers for a teacher who is solely responsible for this task. Cleanup of the soccer pitch and surrounding area, improving the area for kids to be active and healthy lives as well as help improve the community. Coming as a new employee with my company, the project I got to participate in was beneficial in team bonding. It was neat to have the company come together and all work toward the same goal of helping others and the environment. Enjoyed working with everyone as a team to achieve a common goal. I will see you next year if not sooner. thanks for the wonderful experience. Friends with Trees was extremely organized and well prepared. They made hard work fun and educational! We would definitely do it again!! Getting into the tall grass with other volunteers including some children and just working together and the smiles on the faces. The feeling of doing something to make a difference. I brought my step-son. It is great for kids to be involved in this to see how helping in simple way can have a larger impact on the community. I don't know that I can really contribute a memorable moment. I will say that I had a lovely time doing Requests to Fill at the Tigard Public Library, and it reminded me of how wonderful libraries are.

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I enjoyed learning a new game with the kids, who taught me the rules and why they were important. I found a bottle full of someone's pee. I loved that the principal was really thankful to have us there and she was super excited to meet the players & Timber Joey! I picked Harper's Playground specifically so I could bring my 11-year-old son, and I appreciated the opportunity for a meaningful family activity that occurred in our North Portland neighborhood. thank you! I really didn't expect to have a Thorns or Timbers player at the activity I selected (since it was one of the last activities that was available) I found out about the event through Hands On Portland, and I have been signing up for events once a month with students from my school Kaplan International. The fact that a Thorn and a Timber were there was really the icing on the cake of the whole experience and it made the experience a lot more exciting for my students. We will definitely do it again next year!!! Thanks a lot!!! I really enjoyed meeting an employee from the community gardens that I enjoy gardening in so much. I learned a few gardening tips while meeting people from my community who were also Timbers fans. I enjoyed showing George Fochive the plants in my garden. I also enjoyed seeing how nice the fence looked in the garden after we removed the massive amount of plants overtaking it. I was very appreciative to have the opportunity to volunteer with youth. I lament that so few projects allowed younger children and of those that did, many were during daytime hours. (I took an 8 year old and had a 3 year old who would have liked to come. It can be challenging to find ways for youth to be involved in the community and this was a beautiful way to show them it can be rewarding, fun and that people of all ages can work together help make our community a better place. I worked with a teacher on my project and it was enriching hearing her experiences of teaching It is fun and satisfying to volunteer with a group of like minded Timbers & Thorns fans! It was a great experience overall working together as a team and seeing the results of what we were doing for the Children's Museum. Seeing the players interacting and doing the hard work everyone else was doing made it a special experience.

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It was great to be able to bring my 9 year old son to this volunteer experience. Thank you for including opportunities for the whole family! It was great to be there side by side with Timbers players who were harvesting garlic along with me. They were having fun, and so were we, and it showed. It was great to different fans out with their kids all participating and doing something good for our community. It was awesome to see how much work a group of 40 people could crank out in just a few hours. We got a very noticeable amount of work done a our site, and I look forward to seeing what the site looks like down the road. It was wonderful to work with Timber Jim and the Thorns in the garden, It was impactful for my children who attended the event with me, so see that something that seemed so small made such a great impact on the communities that the Tualatin Schoolhouse patry has. Kelly Point is a place where I take my dog to play on hot days. I've also noticed it's a great place to take family trips. It was just great to clean up after the people who decide to be less than respectful to the park, and I'm hoping it motivates them to realize someone cleans up there and perhaps they will be less likely to want to trash the place. Listening to Kenny G with a kindergarten teacher as we helped her prepare for the next year! Loved getting to meet the players and to work within the community! It was a fun day! My job was picking up trash from the area. Among tons of other things, I literally found a rusty tin can and an old boot. It felt like being in a cartoon. My positive experience was being told I bagged enough potatoes to feed 378 families! My wife and I recently moved to Portland and I saw this as an opportunity to learn more about the area and my community. I am a Timbers fan so this was a perfect match for me. Johns community garden was a great experience. The employees of both the Timers and Hands On were fantastic! George Fochive was not only involved in the work but he took time afterward to talk to us about the club, Portland, and his journey to get to where he is today. This opportunity allowed me to learn more about my city, mee a few new friends, and participate in something that will surely be an annual event for me!

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Our project, rehabbing books for the Children's Book Bank, included one little guy (age 6) who was engaged in his first volunteer project. He petered out on the cleaning part after the second hour, but found his calling shuttling and sorting finished book in the back bins. It was fun to see how all the adults made sure that he knew his contribution to the project was valuable and appreciated. I felt like we helped plant a seed in him that could grow into a habit of volunteering. Really enjoyed meeting and spending time with the Thorns coaching staff. Fantasic people! I've been a Timbers fan/supporter for years. The coaches won me over for the Thorns now too:) Seeing the smiles on the kids faces as they tried new things Surprised there was so much litter on the beach and happy we could help clean it up. Talking with the kids was great! I didn't even know the players were going to come, so that was a bonus, especially when the kids got excited to see them. Made me think back to when I was a kid. Also, the players' participation was great! Once we got to work, they blended in like everyone else. The interaction with fans and projects makes a connection that can't be forged in other ways. RCTID The ladies in my office agreed to do this volunteering opportunity with me because we wanted to do a project where we would be physically working towards a goal...and they put us to work shoveling rocks to make the area safer for children. We worked hard and had a great time doing it! This is my family's second year participating at the Supa Fresh Farm as part of Stand Together Week. The fact that we are able to get our children (ages 8 & 9) excited about volunteering their time (along with the the support of some awesome players) is fantastic and allows us to build a solid foundation and help mold the next generation into supporting and giving back to the community. We're proud of our children, our teams, our community, Hands On Greater Portland, and the great kids and staff at Supa resh that continue to make a positive impact! Nothing but smiles that day from everyone working side by side. Thank you for the opportunity! We're grateful!! See you next year!! This was a very small project and there were almost too many people there. We found ourselves standing around a bit while a larger corporate group was taking care of things. Person supervising project should remain accessible during the duration of project.

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This was the first event my Organization Xtreme Consulting did as a team together. It was great teambuilding and the Timbers were wonderful to work with. Watching my 7 year old daughter teach a timbers player how to plant seeds in the garden was pretty cool. However, the players showed up midway through the project and seemed more focused on good PR than on actually making a difference. We cleaned out a whole room and moved a lot of books! We quickly transformed a field full of blackberries and garbage into a recognizable garden space. It was dramatic how different it looked after just a few hours of work. When I was playing soccer with the kids at recess, the boys on the team I ended up on were very excited to have a girl on their team. They were dying things like: "Woo! We have the girl!" And "girls can be better than boys at sports." It was really cool t see that they were happy to have me on their team even though there were male volunteers as well. With the name Beards vs Buns, I was hoping that member(s) of the Timbers would be there in addition to Thorns. Disappointed that was not the case, but I was glad I went nevertheless. Maybe next year I'll choose something more family friendly than 'pullig nails out of boards!' Working with other Portlanders during this volunteering experience was really delightful. Total responses 39

10. What suggestions do you have that would improve the experience of your project and/or Stand Together Week as a whole?

Suggestion trends noted by researchers More introduction of the events, players, and Hands On employees before the start of each event. This could possibly be covered in the Volunteer Lead Training. There were differences across the projects where some Timbers employees / volunteer leads were less enthusiastic and/or gave less instruction. Set aside time to meet the player in order to minimize distraction when the player arrives. If there are kids at the event, they want to meet the player just as much as volunteers do. Advertise more. Larger marketing campaign can get more individuals who would enjoy the type of experience more. Many volunteers had not seen advertising. Make responsibilities clearer to the players, so they know that their role is to participate and contribute to the event rather than being there solely for PR. Many were engaged and worked hard, but many didn’t.

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More planning and organization in the event description. Many volunteers felt ill-prepared for what they were doing. Blurbs about an event should answer questions about what to expect, what to wear, etc. The name of the event isn’t always sufficient. Suggestions Better explanation of what each project site would entail for participants. Don't know. Maybe more advertisement. Maybe during games. Really all I saw was a few emails to season ticket holders. A larger marketing campaign (signs around town, etc.) might boost attendance. Encourage people to volunteer in pairs, a buddy system! Have the players stay longer and do more work :) Have the Stand Together week groups work together when there are other groups present. Also, it would be great if the Timbers/Thorns players were introduced and everyone who is participating in Stand Together Week get to meet the players. Have them twice a year. I don't exactly know how to say this without sounding like a jerk. Ha. I enjoyed the de-nailing volunteer session I participated in, but the title of the session made it sound like Nat and Liam would possibly be there at it was called Beard vs Bun. So it as disappointing when they weren't. That being said, I don't regret volunteering at all and would do it again. Also, if the work is going to be physically challenging and in the sun, I'd recommend doing it indoors or under cover somewhere. It was pretty gnarly out there. I got heat rash. I do appreciate the water, sunscreen, and lollipops that were provided though. They were great. I heard about the opportunities through work, but not anywhere else (social media, etc.), if more people in the Harper's Playground neighborhood heard about the opportunity there might have been more local volunteers. I only wish it had been a morning activity rather than afternoon. The traffic back to Portland was a nightmare. If all the Timber representatives that attended participated at the same level as the other volunteers in terms of hand-on work and in appropriate attire for the tasks. Just a bit better planning, training, and organization so we have a better idea of what we are doing and how to do it. Let the volunteers know in advance if there will be Thorns or Timbers players attending. My daughter wanted to meet Thorns players this year (and last) but our activities didn't have any Thorns in attendance.

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Maybe some non-trivial volunteering work? 2 hours isn't much. Also, maybe try to keep it more local? It was pretty far away - not really my community. I live in Portland. More awareness More Timbers/Thorns Our project broke off in half and a Thorns player went with the other group. It would have been cool to have another player there to be with the other half so that we could talk and work with him/her. Players should be on site for full project time and there should be much less intrusive media coverage. Players work the whole time like the rest of us and don't just come for 1 hour Some of the people that were put in charge of small projects did not know they were going to be until it was announced to the whole group, so better preparation would help. Other than that I think everything else went great. The only thing I'll say: it wasn't easy to find the group when arriving at the library if you hadn't been there before. The Zenger farms project didn't really help the community so much as it helped the farm. The produce we picked goes to their CSA, so not really a community good there. There were too many people at my project. Many people stood around talking rather than working because there wasn't enough work to be done. Sadly, this influenced some of the younger volunteers and they stopped working altogether. I would like to see more opportunities spread out across the greater Portland area for all ages at a variety of times. I also think it would fantastic to do quarterly events that draw in the teams and community volunteers in addition to the one big event. Allie Long of the Thorns sat with us as we sorted potatoes for a long time. It was great to talk to her! She was awesome. My only constructive criticism is that there were two stations that she helped with. Someone from organization should have moved her from stand to stand so others could have the same experience we did. I feel the organization should move the player, not the player move themselves. Lucky for us but not as lucky for others there....Otherwise, it was great! This was a very small project and there were almost too many people there. We found ourselves standing around a bit while a larger corporate group was taking care of things. Person supervising project should remain accessible during the duration of project. Total responses 37

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LIMITATIONS As with any research project, we encountered research limitations that may have skewed or somehow impacted the validity of the data we have presented.

• Sample size: We were only able to send the questionnaire to a little over half of the volunteers who participated in Stand Together Week. Of the 500 volunteers this questionnaire was sent to, 84 completed it, making the response rate 17%. However, since there were closer to 1000 volunteers and the questionnaire was sent to 500 of them, the total response rate is closer to 8%.

• Participants opted-in: Volunteers through Hands On Greater Portland are given the opportunity to opt-in for email communication or to opt-out. We can assume that each participant in our survey is someone who chose to opt-in for email communication; this removes a layer of diversity among our respondents.

• Diversity of events: Our data are largely skewed toward the environmental impact projects because those are the projects that had the highest number of respondents. The majority of the projects in our study are only represented by one respondent. This means that we have received only one person’s opinion of their project, which may not be representative of the overall experience of the project for all volunteers.

• Survey selection bias: In an entirely voluntary study such as ours, we receive responses only from those who actively choose to participate. In this type of study with voluntary participants, we typically see data at either extreme: strongly positive and strongly negative. It is rarer to find neutral data because those who do not feel strongly about their experience are less likely to give their opinions.

• Branding: One of the most exciting parts of Stand Together Week is the participation of the Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns FC. The data show that volunteers felt that the Timbers’ presence was highly positive. The volunteer projects were largely regarded as Portland Timbers events, not Hands On events (even though we understand that Hands On handled the volunteer and project coordination). We feel that if the volunteer survey was sent from the Portland Timbers account, it would enable the branding of Stand Together Week to be more consistent, and consequently entail a potentially higher response rate.

stw volunteer analysis

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