Supporting Volunteer Engagement in Sponsorship and Complementary Pathways for Refugees and Other People in Need of International Protection
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Highlights
Volunteers are vital to refugee sponsorship programmes but need clear coordination, targeted training, and diverse recruitment to deliver quality support and prevent burnout.
- Volunteers are indispensable to sponsorship and complementary pathway programmes, providing newcomers with social connections, labour market navigation, and housing support that complement professional settlement services.
- Without clear role delineation, realistic expectations, and consistent oversight, volunteers face institutional and social hurdles that cause frustration and erode program quality for both sponsors and beneficiaries.
- Training should cover programme structure, local services, and how to guide beneficiaries toward self-sufficiency. Also, economies of scale can be achieved by sharing toolkits and resources across national and transnational networks.
- Broadening recruitment beyond faith-based groups to diaspora, cultural, and LGBTQI+ organisations can help diversify volunteer skills, reduce overburdening, and improve matching with beneficiaries' specific backgrounds and needs.
Sponsorship and complementary pathway programs for refugees and others in need of international protection depend on the engagement of a range of stakeholders, including government agencies, civil-society organizations, and crucially, members of receiving communities who act as volunteers. These volunteers can help newcomers build social connections and navigate labor and housing markets, but volunteer engagement must be carefully planned and managed for these benefits to materialize. This fact sheet answers questions such as: What are common challenges to volunteer engagement? What training and resources do volunteers need? And how can programs expand their volunteer base to avoid overburdening volunteers?
This fact sheet is part of the Complementary Pathways Network (COMET) project. Other fact sheets developed by MPI Europe as part of this series cover approaches to matching, monitoring and evaluation, and refugee expectations management in sponsorship and complementary pathway programs.
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