The Volunteer Program at SWFHR is always in need of well-mannered, caring, and responsible people within our community. We do offer credit hours by way of community service hours for students, either high school or college, provide proper institution paperwork is provided by that individual.
We have the ability to offer credit hours for workers’ compensation programs. Compensation organizations must contact us first before any volunteer commitments.
While we have small and large projects to everyday common tasks, no one volunteer is required for any demanded length of time or day. Basically come when you want (within reason… i.e. time of day), leave when you need to. As stated by our dedicated volunteer Gary D. “South West Florida Horse Rescue doesn’t just save horses but they also save people, by providing them a way to give back while enjoying their individual time.”
We have many volunteers with all sorts of skill sets and would love to have more. We could not exist as we do without the tireless giving and tremendous efforts of our equine-loving friends. If you are ready to join our team and start your journey, we ask that you tour our facility first to know what you’d be getting into, then we will go from there.
Read more about our volunteer details and process below. If you are ready click the button below and schedule a tour first.
Pertaining to Equine Volunteers (98% of volunteers tend to be in this category)
Questions related to volunteering that you might have are listed below.
It is the policy of SWFHR to make it possible for all to give their time to a noble cause. But we do have a policy on age ranges which are listed below: If you are:
COVID-19... a concern not to be taken lightly, we've taken steps to reduce our staff and current volunteer's exposure to new people, at least at our facility:
Credit/Service hours earned by volunteers can help, especially in school environments, for graduation. For your help through volunteering to a local charitable organization such as SWFHR, we can in turn help with your credit hours. The most critical part to all of this is your Volunteer hour log times. Initially you should notify the volunteer manger of your intentions/ needs for credit hours. Your creditor/ institution (school) should have a form or process to accept credit hours. No one institution is the same as the next… they are all different. You need to be clear with us about the process or provide us the forms so we may properly track your hours. It is advisable that you track your own hours to avoid discrepancies.
We will create a special file for each credit hour volunteers. In that file is our in house Service Hours Form for official documentation. You will be presented a copy of this form initially for keeping track of your hours on your own. Should you need another SWFHR Service Hours Form you can ask the Volunteer Manger for one or pull one from the information box in the Volunteer Room. Overall your official hours are tracked through the volunteer hours log which all volunteers must sign when at the facility.
For hours earned by things done away from the facility, such as running a bake sale, you must first be authorize to do so by the volunteer/staff manager. The process for volunteer hours logged in this case, will be similar to the facility with one exception. You must note what was done on each day pre and post project included.
Organizations such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, or even academic groups (i.e. Fraternities or Sororities) are more than welcome to aid in our community effort. The manner in which any group helps SWFHR is entirely based on the group and in fact, is called a “Group Volunteer Activity” (GVA). Some examples of helping are General Volunteer duties, Fundraising coordination, and Specific project efforts. No matter the situation we can make something work.
Setting up and arrange a GVA request you must make contact with us about your groups needs if your not sure how to choose. Next, we will need you to fill out our GVA Request, Roster & Statement of Understanding Form. Going forward the group point of contact (POC) will have to touch base with our volunteer director and confirmed the date, time, and the number of people associated with the GVA request.
For GVA requests that have the group doing site activities… there will be a mandatory safety brief before any activity is done.
Some areas are only available to Core Volunteers who may apply when a position is open.
PROGRAM / OPERATIONS (98% of Volunteers choose this area)
Development / Fundraising
Administrative
Logistics
Communications
Active Volunteers
performed some volunteer activity within the last 30 days
Semi-Active Volunteers
performed some volunteer activity between 30 and 90 days ago
Dormant Volunteers
snowbird volunteers that are due to return
In-Active Volunteers
performed some volunteer activity between 90 days and 1.5 years ago
Expired Volunteers
no involvement for 1.5 years
no advisement of return or delay
Retired Volunteers
those who've moved and obtained an Established Activity while volunteering
advised of completion of volunteering
Probationary Volunteers:
those not knowledgeable enough about their area to operate on their own
Established Volunteers:
volunteers who operate without heavy direction and can work by themselves
Usually between 5 & 10 visits
Once you can verb your section of the facility and its horses and chores and other senior volunteers can vouch for your abilities. You’ll then be classified as an Established volunteer.
Even when you are considered established or independent, you may find yourself paired with another volunteer at the discretion of the volunteer coordinator. For reasons like equally distributing daily volunteers and work for the day.
Core Volunteers:
deemed as a volunteer with more than 50 total days of volunteering and more than 6 months of continuous volunteering.
these volunteers are allowed to hold positions of administration or other areas associated with the organization.
Dress Code: The title is meaner than the intent.
Due to the nature of the general area/habitat and working with horses, for volunteer safety, SWFHR requires that all volunteers wear proper foot protection (no open-toed shoes). Jeans are suggested to be worn but not required. SWFHR also suggests gloves, a hat, and sun/safety glasses, when and where appropriate. Additionally, due to the inherent risk associated with horse-related activities, SWFHR suggests volunteers have a valid health insurance policy before participating in volunteer activities. Volunteers will receive an SWFHR Volunteer t-shirt, when available, and the t-shirt should be worn (but not required) while participating at SWFHR Facility but at any SWFHR event, some representing shirts must be worn.
Understand SWFHR is not liable for missing or damaged belongings brought to the facility. If an item is of value, please secure it in your vehicle. We have an open to all refrigerator inside the volunteer room that has beverages available to the volunteers. If you’ve brought something for yourself, please label it.
Volunteers value their experience at our facility. There is a lot of liberty for volunteers to chart their own paths. Without ruining our family of cause-connected friends, we still must have policy rules that apply to our volunteers. Read the list of Volunteer Rules below.
Normal Volunteer Hours are either 7 or 8 am (depending on the day) to Sundown daily. In special circumstances, volunteers may start earlier than 7 am.
On average most volunteers come out 1 to 3 days a week.
The amount of volunteering time on any given day, depending on the shift a volunteer covers when they come out.
AM Shift - starts at either 7 or 8 am depending on the day.