When it comes to the "numbers", your church needs enough volunteers to keep your child:volunteer ratios at a safe and effective level. Basically, for nursery you should have one volunteer for every three babies, one for every four toddlers and then one for every age of children - for example for five year olds you should have one for every five children, one for every six, six year olds, etc. This level of staffing allows you to provide a safe and effective children's ministry, which means, you need to determine how many volunteers you need based on the number and ages of children in your ministry.
So, what are the benefits for keeping the volunteers you have? Consider the following -
- It will give you a more stable children's ministry since you are not always focusing on finding new volunteers.
- It will allow you to have volunteers who develop relationships with children and their families - first grade teachers will be the same teachers for siblings and as children grow and move on, they will still see and relate with teachers they had when they were younger.
- You will be freed to focus on equipping and supporting your volunteers when your attention is not always on recruiting.
- You will be able to have new volunteers serve with seasoned volunteers who are able to mentor them.
- Your church will see a more stable children's ministry - and so will your community!
Clearly, there are significant benefits to keeping the volunteers you have - which benefit would you most appreciate? Tomorrow I'll focus on some of the "hows" when it comes to keeping the volunteers you have!
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