Community Partners – ELS Timetable and Process
Here is the typical course of action to obtain the services of student volunteers:
- CREATING AN ACCOUNT
- As the representative of a community organization, you create an ELS Community Partner Account on this website. This account only needs to be created once for each organization.
- POSTING VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES (PLACEMENTS)
- By choosing a username and a password for the account, you can login and post placements at any time. You will also be asked to identify a community supervisor for each placement. This person’s contact information will only made available to the student(s) approved for the placement by the ELS office.
- RENEWING PLACEMENTS
- Before the beginning of each semester, the ELS office also contacts all of its community partners to renew or update existing placements, or to create new ones.
- MODIFYING EXISTING PLACEMENTS
- You are encouraged to contact the ELS office at any time to make changes to existing placements, or to remove volunteer positions that are no longer available.
- OFFERING PLACEMENTS TO STUDENTS
- All available placements are then offered to students, who will undertake them as part of a course (through Community Service Learning), or outside of courses (through the Co-Curricular Record).
- Most students looking for volunteer opportunities are from the Community Service Learning Program. This means that they are looking to complete 30 hours of volunteer work over the course of one semester (primarily Sept-Dec and Jan-April). Placements that fit these criteria therefore have the best chance of being filled.
- If the placements do not match the requirements for upcoming courses, or if they are not selected by students in courses, they are offered to the general student population through the Co-Curricular Record.
- INITIAL CONTACT WITH STUDENT VOLUNTEERS
- Once students have chosen their volunteer opportunity, it is their responsibility to contact their community supervisors. However, we ask that you, or the supervisor specific to this placement, respond quickly and help students get started with their volunteer placement as soon as possible. Their grade is largely dependent on a successful CSL placement.
- LOG SHEETS
- Students are asked to have a log sheet signed by their community supervisor throughout their volunteer placement. This is the student’s responsibility.
- QUESTIONS / CONCERNS
- Throughout the volunteer placement, the ELS office remains available to answer any need or concern you might have.
- EVALUATIONS
- Near the end of the student’s volunteer placements (usually in early December and early April), the ELS office contacts all community supervisors to have a very short evaluation form completed for each of the student volunteers to assess your appreciation of their volunteer services. As this evaluation is often considered by professors when grading their students, and it also allows students to obtain official recognition from the University of Ottawa for their volunteer services, it is therefore important that you take the few minutes necessary to complete it.