• Be positive!
• Include food.
• Change it up every week.
• Use a variety reflection styles and activities (creative, verbal, written, drawing).
• Have different locations, maybe try a coffee shop and get to know the neighbourhood Keep it to the designated time, but don’t cut it short.
• Have a lot of icebreakers in the first few weeks as your group is forming.
• Use the travel time to intentionally get to know your group members and help them connect with each other.
• In addition to your usual reflection time at the agency location, try some icebreakers that you can do on the bus or while waiting for the bus.
• Start each week with a random fun fact.
• Have an anonymous Questions / Issues Envelope.
• Discuss a specific scenario or scenario which could be drawn from volunteer concerns that were submitted anonymously or brought up in discussions.
• Have a group scrapbook where volunteers can write observations and comments.
• Have them answer a question on stickers and then put them in the book.
• After a couple of weeks, the group facilitator(s) can revisit the scrapbook to look for trends in the concerns or issues of the group and from there gather additional ideas of reflection.
• Start a web scrapbook, facebook group, or a blog for your volunteer group.
• Share the facilitation (i.e. ask a volunteer to facilitate a reflection activity).
• Relate our career hopes to our future influence on social issues.
• As a group, write a reflection piece for the campus paper, promoting the need for volunteers or discussing how their experiences changed their view about the local community.
• Do a presentation in residence or on campus to help others become aware of the community.
• Ask volunteers to write reflective pieces that can be used to help newer volunteers in the future.
• Keep in touch with group members in between volunteering sessions (possibly get together for dinner or coffee outside the volunteer time).
• Have incentives such as Volunteer of the Week.
• Express your appreciation for the service and reflection of the volunteers.
• Explain to volunteers why their volunteer service is so important (show them feedback from the agencies).
• End reflection with a quote and then send it in a thank you e-mail with highlights of the past week.
• Give past examples.
• Be enthusiastic!