Policy On Age Ranges:

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:

• [1 - 11] --> Only if accompanied by a parent organization.. such as Girl Scouts or 4-H. As much as we appreciate the willingness we just don't have the staff to maintain a safe enough environment for those under 12. Special conditions do apply.
• [12 - 15] --> You must be accompanied by a legal guardian or someone identified by your legal guardian at all times.
• [16 - 17] --> You must have a parental consent letter on file to perform volunteer activities without them present.
• [18+] --> You are free to volunteer without restriction.

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:

• Masks are currently not a requirement but distancing is.  New volunteer training will still consist of pairing with an established active volunteer but the use of the same vehicle (riding together) is up to the active volunteer.  We only have so many vehicles.  This means provisional & candidate volunteers may need to walk to and from paddock areas.

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.

Group Volunteer Activity request

The Areas Available to those who Volunteer

Some areas are only available to Core Volunteers who may apply when a position is open.

PROGRAM / OPERATIONS (98% of Volunteers choose this area)

• Equine Care & Keep
  • Feeding, cleaning stalls & paddocks, filling & cleaning water troughs, and other tasks that need to be completed daily
• Handlers & Groomers
  • Grooming, hoof care, and socialization.
• Equine ER
  • In severe cases, those who are approved may tend to non-common medical needs for any equines
• Equine Training:
  • We reserve horse training and development (halter training, groundwork, saddle training, exercising, and other related activities) for training professionals however, we do exercise equine–human socialization beyond paddock environments. We welcome those with training experience but in order to perform coordinated training, you must be approved by the board and trainers first.
• New Construction

Development / Fundraising

• Event Organization
  • outreach, special projects, and independent event-ing outside of planned events
• Event Operations
  • General event help & Event management
• Grant Writing & Research
  • Specialized volunteers only (experience is highly needed)

Administrative

• Data Entry
• Form Management
• Call Processing
• Accounting (must have experience)

Logistics

• Supply Tracking & Inventory of,
  • Organization materials
    • medications & chemicals
    • gear excess
    • volunteer gear
  • Donation materials
    • donated tack items
    • donated household items
• Material Procurement
  • price pointing and tracking
  • management of items access
• Maintenance
  • Facilities / Grounds
    • Barn maintenance, fence checks, fence building and repairs, weed control, tree maintenance, hazard watch, general maintenance and repairs, and other typical activities
  • Transportation / Utility

Communications

• Website Maintenance
• Tour Guide
• Media Management
• Social Media
• E-Newsletter

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.

• The minimum age expectation for volunteers is 18 without guardians. Under legal guardian consent 16 and anyone under 16, an adult guardian must be present. No ages under 12, unless approved by SWFHR representatives, exceptions made for organizational groups such as 4-H and Girl Scouts.
• Do not bringing pets of any kind as this may cause unexpected problems with the equines at the Rescue.
• No feeding of equines of any foreign items unless pre-approved by Coordinators.
• Do Not enter any fenced area unless you’ve been approved to do so.
• Always close gates to include the main gates behind you and use the chain clasps.
• Pick up all trash behind you and any you may find while at the Rescue.
• Personal items are the Volunteers' responsibility. SWFHR is not responsible for any loss of personal property, yet if any items are found that don’t belong to the Volunteer it is requested that they turn them into a Coordinator. SWFHR will mark it and date it so as to hopefully return the item to the owner.
• Visitors may accompany a Volunteer only after visitors fill out a ‘Liability Release Wavier’ before any activity to include showing them around.
• Children may accompany you as long as someone watches them at all times and they remain orderly. Absolutely no children under 16 in any fenced-in area containing equines allowed unsupervised by Coordinators.
• Do Not go any further into the house at the Rescue than the volunteer room.
• No climbing through wires to access any fenced area. Most of the fencing is electric.

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 is about 4-6 hours
• PM Shift is about 2-4 hours

AM Shift - starts at either 7 or 8 am depending on the day.