Volunteer

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.

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 you're 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.

To inquire about group volunteering, please contact us:

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