Examining Strategies for Undergraduate Student Volunteer Engagement and Management in a Community-Based Sport-for-Development Program

Abstract

Volunteers play a crucial role in sport organizations, particularly in the nonprofit context, but there is a need for theoretically informed studies to improve their experience and intentionally develop their skillsets. This study aimed to examine strategies for undergraduate volunteer engagement and management in a community-based sport-for-development (SFD) program. The strategies evaluated in this study were reflective journaling, daily debrief meetings, and autonomy-driven task design and responsibilities, guided by self-determination theory (SDT). Through analysis of semi-structured interviews with volunteers (n = 25) and their reflective journals, findings revealed that these strategies enhanced undergraduate volunteers’ experiences by increasing their perceived competence, relatedness, and autonomy. This study highlights the importance of using SDT-aligned strategies to enhance volunteer engagement and program delivery. These findings have implications for student volunteer recruitment and retention, as well as improving the overall effectiveness of SFD organizations.

Introduction/Background

Volunteers are crucial for sport organizations, particularly in the nonprofit sport context (Schlesinger et al., 2015). Volunteer roles and responsibilities vary depending upon the organization, from running sporting events to delivering health education (Coalter, 2013). Previous research has focused on why people volunteer and their relevance to sport organizations (Wicker, 2017). However, given the central role of volunteers, theoretically informed studies are needed to improve their experience and intentionally develop their skill sets. The current study evaluated strategies developed using experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984) and self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) to improve volunteer management in a community-based sport-for-development (SFD) program.

Generally, SFD programs use sports to exert a positive influence on participants who are often young people, who may be from communities affected by poverty (Lyras & Peachey, 2011). Many SFD programs rely on volunteers who are responsible for delivering content (Lindsey et al., 2015). Funding is often identified as an SFD challenge (Schulenkorf et al., 2016), highlighting the importance of recruiting and retaining volunteers. However, volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds and have different motives, which complicate managing their experiences.

The current study focused on the Young Olympians program, a college student-led, community-based SFD program designed to improve the social-emotional learning and academic efficacy of children from communities affected by poverty. University faculty negotiated relationships with community partners and developed the program structure. Graduate students (i.e., program leaders) and undergraduate students (i.e., volunteers) led the daily program activities and lessons. Programming also focused on undergraduate students’ personal development and career readiness. Outside of the SFD context, the design of volunteer programs (e.g., task variety, autonomy, and participants’ experience) has been found important for volunteer motivation, satisfaction, and retention (DuBord, 1989; Milette & Gagne, 2008). Running an SFD program can be challenging and unpredictable, making volunteer management difficult (Schulenkorf et al., 2016). Program structure and leadership can influence volunteer motivation and satisfaction (Welty Peachey et al., 2014). However, given the challenges of managing an SFD program, relatively little is known about how program design affects the experiences of SFD volunteers. Therefore, this study examined the use of theoretically informed strategies designed to improve the experience and management of undergraduate student volunteers at a community-based SFD program.

Theoretical Frameworks

The Young Olympian's volunteer experience was designed using theoretically informed strategies to foster learning, growth, and career readiness. This section provides an overview of the two frameworks that were utilized in designing the volunteers’ experiences. First, the four stages of the experiential learning cycle are introduced. These stages were intentionally incorporated into the volunteer's experiences to create opportunities for trying new things, reflecting, adjusting, and applying what was learned through the process. Examples of how experiential learning was incorporated for volunteers are included below. The strategies used throughout the experiential learning cycles were informed by SDT to improve volunteer motivation and engagement.

Experiential Learning

Kolb's (1984) experiential learning theory is a holistic model that emphasizes the process of learning through experience. He posits that learning is a continuous cycle that includes four stages: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Within the model, individuals engage in specific experiences (e.g., teaching a lesson), reflect on that experience (e.g., journaling), draw abstract concepts from reflections (e.g., through debriefing discussions), and then apply those concepts in new situations through active experimentation (e.g., teaching a new lesson). This iterative, cyclical process allows learners to refine and enhance their understanding and abilities over time (Morris, 2020).

The cyclical process described in experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984) was used in designing the experiences of the volunteers in this study. For example, the volunteers would engage in different experiences (e.g., teaching a lesson, playing a game, and handling a behavioral issue) that would then be reflected in using journaling (Gordon & Gordon, 2018). Volunteers would also collaboratively discuss their reflections during debriefing meetings with their peers and the program leaders. As the program progressed, they would be able to apply their understanding as they engaged in new activities and developed skills transferrable beyond the program. It is important to note that although this process was designed intentionally for the program, the experiences of the volunteers were likely not linear, and experiences, reflections, and applications could occur simultaneously and throughout the entirety of their volunteer experience (Kolb et al., 2014).

Self-Determination Theory

SDT (Deci & Ryan, 2000) grounded this project and focuses on understanding the facilitators and barriers to motivation and well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2017) and has been identified as an effective framework for engaging volunteers (Ison et al., 2022). Previous research has found SDT-aligned program structures to be effective in motivating university students (e.g., Powell et al., 2022; Wu et al., 2016). Ryan and Deci (2017) proposed that human motivation and well-being are linked to three basic psychological needs that include autonomy, competency, and relatedness. Autonomy occurs when individuals feel control over their own actions and feelings. Feeling in control enhances intrinsic motivation and one's well-being as one has greater freedom to act, which can lead to a deeper sense of satisfaction from completing the chosen task. Competency comes from individuals’ perception that they can succeed or achieve a specific goal or task. Believing one can be successful motivations and in doing so, well-being is enhanced from the sense of achievement obtained from completing tasks. Relatedness occurs when individuals feel connected with others and as if their contributions are valued by the group (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Having meaningful connections with others leads to positive social interactions that motivate collaboration and contribute to one's well-being by satisfying social needs.

The volunteers’ training, their responsibilities, and the programs’ structure were informed by SDT. Previous research has shown that promoting psychological needs satisfaction in volunteers improves program outcomes (Fredricks et al., 2010; Robbins et al., 2016) and that incorporating SDT in volunteers’ training enhances their emotional self-efficacy (Ulrich-French et al., 2016). While previous research provides support for adopting SDT into volunteer management, it has not explored the context of SFD programming. We examined whether SDT could assist with the design and subsequent experience of undergraduate student volunteers in an SFD context.

Methods

A case study design (Yin, 2009) was adopted to examine strategies used to engage university-student volunteers and improve program delivery. This design was appropriate as the study explores a specific contextual phenomenon (i.e., undergraduate volunteers’ experience), using multiple data sources, and is bound by time (i.e., program length), and place (i.e., a single SFD program). A partnership with a local Boys and Girls Club enabled the creation of the Young Olympians program, which emphasized social and emotional learning and academic efficacy for children ages 7–16. The program consisted of three stations that the youth would rotate through each day: sport/physical activity (e.g., basketball, relay races, and tag), cultural (e.g., art, music, and dance), and educational (e.g., writing, reading, and life skills). Each of the activities was designed to incorporate social-emotional learning and academic efficacy, which were the program's goals for youth participants.

Undergraduate student volunteers were assigned one of four roles: group leader, station leader, hybrid, or behavior management specialist. Group leaders were responsible for overseeing a specific group of youth for the duration of the program. Station leaders were responsible for delivering lessons at a specified station (i.e., sport/physical activity, cultural, and educational). The hybrid volunteers fulfilled different roles each day based on program needs. Each semester, one volunteer was classified as a behavior management specialist. Their responsibilities included rotating through stations to help manage behaviors as they arose (e.g., student conflicts, lack of participation, and disruption). The volunteers participated in a five-hour orientation that spanned two days to become familiarized with the program's goals and mission. During the orientation, they also learned skills for working with children, leading activities, and facilitating connections between the children and themselves.

Participants

Twenty-five undergraduate students (15 female) consented to participate in the study. Participants included freshmen (n= 5), sophomores (n= 6), juniors (n= 5), and seniors (n= 9) who came from various degree programs across campus. Racial/ethnic backgrounds included African American (n= 7), Asian American (n= 6), Caucasian (n= 6), and Hispanic (n= 6). Each participant was assigned a pseudonym to protect their privacy.

Program Elements

The three SDT-aligned strategies implemented in this project which intended to support autonomy, competence, and relatedness included reflective journaling, daily debrief meetings, and autonomy-driven task design and responsibilities. Volunteers completed reflective journals when they arrived for each session and again before they left. A mood meter (Brackett, 2019) and a two-word emotional check-in were used to help volunteers identify their feelings before and after sessions. During this journal activity, the volunteers would record two emotions that they were feeling at that moment and reflect on them. For example, volunteers may write that they are feeling “anxious and upset.” They would then write a brief reflection overviewing why they may be feeling that way. Program leaders provided additional prompts to aid volunteers’ reflections. Example prompts included “give another volunteer a shout-out,” and “how have your relationships with other volunteers changed?”

After the end-of-session two-word check-in and prompts, the program leaders facilitated the debriefing meeting. These daily debriefing sessions were used to enable volunteers to build relatedness and better understand the experiences of their peers. Volunteers shared their two-word check-in or answers to the prompt, which provided an opportunity for other volunteers to relate to and join the conversations. The last strategy involved roles and responsibilities designed to promote volunteers’ autonomy by giving them choice, ownership, and voice in their daily duties and program operations. Examples of these roles and responsibilities include the freedom to lead and teach activities separate from the leadership team, the ability to provide program suggestions, the trust to manage behavioral issues with kids, and the ability to lead debriefing sessions with the youth participants.

Data Collection

The undergraduate students who volunteered for the program completed reflective journals (Hubbs & Brand, 2005) each day of the program, which were collected for data analysis. Volunteers also participated in an individual, semi-structured interview (Patton, 2015) during the final week of programming, lasting between 25 and 60 min. The interviews focused on understanding the strategies that were most effective in engaging them in the program. Sample interview questions included, “how would you describe the end-of-program debriefing meetings that were conducted throughout the program?” and “what could the leadership team do to better support you as a volunteer?” Asking about their experiences and perceptions of the program gave insight into what kept them engaged throughout the semester (York, 2017), and what they found rewarding. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Data Analysis

Data were analyzed using a six-step collaborative qualitative data analysis approach that included: preliminary planning, open and axial coding, development of a codebook, pilot testing, secondary coding, and finalizing themes. For a complete overview, see Richards and Hemphill (2018). The coding process involved a combination of inductive and deductive coding that was informed by SDT, while we also remained open to new ideas that challenged or extended our theoretical perspective (Patton, 2015). The analysis team included two members who analyzed the data and a peer debriefer who provided methodological, theoretical, and topical feedback throughout the analysis. The research team met weekly to discuss developing themes and make amendments to the codebook using an iterative approach. During the process, themes were developed related to each strategy and were mapped back to SDT. Trustworthiness was enhanced using peer debriefing, researcher triangulation, and maintaining an audit trail and researcher journal (Richards & Hemphill, 2018).

Findings

Analysis of the semistructured interviews and journals were used to examine students' experiences with the three strategies (i.e., reflective journaling, daily debrief meetings, and task design and responsibilities). For each strategy, we developed themes, which align with the psychological needs identified in SDT for motivation and well-being. For instance, with reflective journaling, we developed two themes: emotional awareness and personal evaluation. These two themes correspond to relatedness and competency, respectively. For the daily debrief meetings, peer connectivity and participant connectivity themes were created, with both being related to relatedness. Finally, the task design and responsibility had one theme of empowerment, which in SDT is represented by autonomy. The impact of each strategy is presented below with the themes embedded in our findings.

Reflective Journaling

Journaling gave the participants a semistructured opportunity to evaluate and reflect on their different experiences in the program and their feelings. Many volunteers found the journaling to be beneficial because it increased awareness of their emotions (i.e., emotional awareness), the opportunity to reflect on how they could best serve the youth participants, and the ability to connect their experiences to their life and professional aspirations. Overall, these benefits were associated with increased competence. For many of the participants, journaling helped them become more aware of their emotions. Darrien stated:

I think those are great honestly. Us doing the two-word check-in and being cognizant of the emotions that we’re feeling and the things we are thinking about is a good thing. It’s probably my favorite part of the day.

Similarly, Vanessa stated, “journaling, writing, allowed me to evaluate how I feel.” Having a structured opportunity to reflect on their emotions with either the two-word check in or a prompt was beneficial for increasing their emotional awareness. Overall, volunteers expressed gratitude for the opportunity to reflect on their feelings. Some noted they were better able to identify and express their emotions as they progressed through the program. Alexis wrote, “I think my two-word check-ins have gotten better over time because at first I was nervous but now I’m secure in myself.” Prisha overviewed how journaling helped her become more aware of her emotions by writing, “I’ve found myself doing two-word check-ins outside the program especially when I am not feeling good.”

The two-word check ins gave the volunteers an opportunity to connect their emotions with root causes or outcomes for example. Brittany wrote, “I feel tired. I started the day late and felt gloomy. After volunteering, I feel more joyous and energetic. This is probably due to doing more interactive and physical activities.”

Reflective journaling and the program leaders’ prompts also provided an opportunity to reflect on experiences with the children, while identifying successful and unsuccessful strategies along with creating a plan for improvement. This is represented by our theme of personal evaluation. For instance, when writing about her view of the journal prompts, Holly wrote that “I got a lot out of the prompts. The prompts helped me reflect on what I could be working on, or something I enjoyed, or what I would tell my friends about.” Journaling served as an opportunity for the volunteers to gather their thoughts and make sense of their experiences. DeMario said, “I really like doing the journaling. You get to sit back and think about how the day went … you get to think on what went well and what didn’t. You can reflect what you could possibly do better.”

The journaling prompts provided the participants with a targeted topic to reflect on which they felt enhanced their ability to evaluate themselves. For example, Andrea stated, “being asked about what was not going well in the program allowed me to look at my own experiences and see that I was struggling to connect with certain kids.” Two-word check ins were also a useful tool for volunteers to evaluate themselves. Volunteers completed the two-word check in before and after the program each day. This allowed them to track how they were feeling at the beginning and end of each day. For many of the volunteers, this represented feelings of their own growth and performance. For example, before a program day, Marcus wrote, “I feel worried because Brennah is no here today.” In his two-word check in at the end of that same day, he wrote, “I feel happy because I was productive and successful today, even though Brennah wasn’t here.” Consistent journaling throughout the program promoted personal evaluation from the volunteers.

Daily Debrief Meetings

Volunteers reported that the group discussions made them feel more connected to one another and the program, which led to the development of the Peer Connectivity theme. Diane explained the daily debrief meetings encouraged more openness and communication among volunteers: “I think it's a good way to get people to open up and talk to each other more.” Carol further elaborated:

I think that's a good way to see how everyone's day went or how we can change how the next day goes. I won’t be in the sport or physical station, but I’ll hear about it and how it went and stuff like that. It helps me know what they did and how people in our station felt about it and how we can change it.

Carol's experience highlights how debriefing meetings can foster relatedness among volunteers who may not directly work together, while also serving to help them understand other parts of the program. Her observation also demonstrates how concerns can be voiced (promoting autonomy) and how the volunteers’ ideas can result in improvements to the program (increasing competence). This was clear in Vanessa's journal where she wrote, “the leadership teams takes our input and makes immediate changes quickly based on what we say.” Furthermore, DeMario stated, “the debriefing meetings a good because it allows me to get to know everyone else and how they think better. It made me want to connect with other volunteers.” The debriefing sessions allowed the volunteers to become more connected with one another and the leadership team throughout the program.

An additional benefit of these meetings was the space to reflect on their experience with the children, which is reflected in the theme of Participant Connectivity. Byron stated, “I feel elevated because the meeting really made me step back and realize all the fun I’m having with the kids.” Andrew stated, “in the meetings I hear about what everyone else does with the kids and it makes me excited to try new things and play new games.” For Darrien, the debriefing sessions allowed him to reflect on how well he has been able to connect with some kids and motivated him to seek out others. He said, “whenever we talked about something in the debrief meetings, I realized I kept having the same kid as an example. It made me want to connect more with other kids.” Overall, the open dialogue with the leadership team and peers increased connectedness and relatedness to the program, other volunteers, and children, while also promoting autonomy and competency.

Task Design and Responsibilities

The volunteers expressed that the program structure and leadership team's strategies increased their feelings of autonomy and engagement, which we summarized with the theme of Empowerment. For instance, the freedom to lead activities, provide program suggestions, be trusted to manage behavioral issues, and assist with youth debriefing sessions contributed to their self-determination. Denice linked autonomy with relationship building when writing:

The thing Young Olympians does the best is giving everyone a choice and makes everyone comfortable to share thoughts, ideas, or suggestions, to make the program experience better. It gives the ability to lead and take authority on your own with each activity and building relationships with the participants.

Similar to Denice, Prisha expressed how she felt valued and had the freedom to make choices, which enhanced her experience as a leader.

My opinion was greatly validated in this program. I feel like in other programs, you're just told what to do. But when I came here, I had an opinion on what activities to do. I felt comfortable to be able to step up and say, “Hey, could I do this with my kids instead?”

Taken together, volunteers felt empowered to manage challenges and overcome obstacles. This increased their efficacy to persevere and to manage difficult moments when working with children. Trisha mentioned that “asking for my perspective on things truly helped me feel valued and a part of the team” and she implied that the more the leadership team encouraged her to voice her opinion, the more she felt heard and included in the decisions being made.

In conclusion, each aspect of SDT (i.e., autonomy, competency, and relatedness) was promoted using the strategies presented in this study. Autonomy was achieved by carefully designing tasks, responsibilities, and structuring the program in ways that empowered volunteers to address challenges and grow. Volunteers need to feel competency was met through reflective journaling and the ability to engage in debriefing sessions throughout the program. Relatedness was enhanced using debriefing meetings that promoted open dialogue and the sharing of experiences. Together the three strategies (i.e., reflective journaling, daily debriefing meetings, and task design and responsibilities) enhanced undergraduate volunteer engagement by addressing their needs for autonomy, competency, and relatedness.

Discussion

Volunteers in SFD programs can face challenging circumstances making it important to examine how their experience can be better managed. The results of this study suggest that reflective journaling, daily reflection meetings, and strategic task and responsibility design can enhance the experiences of undergraduate student volunteers by increasing their perceived competence, feelings of relatedness, and autonomy. These findings provide program managers with strategies that require little time, yet positively impact volunteers’ experience and program delivery, which may have implications for volunteer recruitment and retention.

Volunteers play a critical role in many sport organizations including SFD programs (Wicker, 2017). Managing and engaging volunteers are a complex process that requires careful planning and organizing (DuBord, 1989; Shin et al., 2021). Many SFD programs face a variety of challenges in recruiting and retaining employees or volunteers, and the job demands can lead to burnout and high levels of stress (Welty Peachey et al., 2014). Other sporting contexts that rely on student volunteers or employees can also face recruitment and retention challenges (Woo et al., 2022). This study demonstrated how using experiential learning and SDT-aligned strategies can enhance the experiences of volunteers in an SFD program and improve program delivery.

Volunteers valued reflective journaling as it helped them to better understand what they have learned, need to learn, and how they can translate their learning to other contexts. Previous research has identified the benefits of reflective journaling in enhancing engagement and purpose-making (Gordon & Gordon, 2018), and the present study expands on this by demonstrating utility in the context of SFD programming. Engaging in reflective processes along with concrete experiences allowed the students to assess their effectiveness, identify patterns, and better understand their own needs and the needs of the youth participants (Kolb et al., 2014). Further, by discussing their journals and two-word check-ins with their peers, volunteers were able to foster stronger bonds (i.e., relatedness), while learning from others and developing their feelings of competence and autonomy. This creates a positive climate for volunteer recruitment and retention, and it also enhances program delivery, which in an SFD context is important given resource limitations (Welty Peachey et al., 2014).

From an experiential learning perspective, debriefing sessions serve as an open forum for abstract conceptualizations (Kolb, 1984) where the volunteers are able to discuss and identify new techniques, share successes/failures, and identify a path for future experiences. The debriefing meetings also contributed to volunteers’ feelings of self-determination. They were able to express concerns and recommend program amendments, while also learning from other volunteers’ suggestions. Regular opportunities to understand the needs of team members and their inclusion in strategic decisions have been reported to improve organization members’ perceived competency (Forner et al., 2020). This aligns with what the volunteers in this study reported. They were able to build new skills while enhancing self-confidence, which extends previous research from general management contexts (Stone et al., 2009). These meetings also provided volunteers the opportunity to praise others and identify what worked well, which can further boost self-confidence and feelings of competency (Forner et al., 2020). Providing praise or feedback has been identified as an effective engagement strategy that can also improve well-being and retention (Mouratidis et al., 2008).

The debriefing sessions further contributed to building connections and relationships among volunteers, which has been linked to building relatedness in organizations (Weinstein & De Haan, 2014). During these debriefing meetings, the leadership team facilitated conversations among the volunteers to understand their perceptions of what was going well, what was not, and what changes could be made to improve the program. By having their voice heard and valued, volunteers were able to feel autonomous and when their suggestions were heeded, competent. Moreover, these short and simple strategies benefited the leadership team and, perhaps most importantly, the youth who participated in the Young Olympians. End-of-day debriefing sessions may, therefore, provide a useful addition to sport leaders’ volunteer management repertoire. Moreover, such efforts can facilitate the development of relationships and personal connections among student volunteers and the leadership team.

The Young Olympians program structured the undergraduate volunteer experience to promote autonomy, which is an essential basic psychological need (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Previous research has identified the importance of empowering organizational members to be both creative and innovative (Hughes et al., 2018). Beginning with the volunteer orientation, Young Olympians enabled volunteers to choose their roles and responsibilities, and once the program started, the flexibility to adapt and change activities. Providing a safe learning environment like this can encourage people to try new things (Ye et al., 2019), and in the current context, to develop creative solutions for working in the challenging SFD space.

This study had several limitations. First, the study was limited to students from a single university who volunteered for a single SFD program which could limit the transferability of the results to varying settings. Additionally, data were collected by the program's leaders which could have influenced the answers of the participants to not share negative perceptions that they may have had from the program.

Application to Practice and Future Directions

The results from this study have practical implications for managing undergraduate student volunteers in sport contexts. Implementing the theoretically informed strategies (i.e., reflection journals, daily reflection meetings, and SDT-aligned task/responsibility design) can improve the experience of student volunteers which may have run-on effects of improving program delivery and volunteer retention. Implementing these strategies requires little time commitment, and are applicable in a variety of sport contexts, beyond SFD. Future research could examine the effectiveness of these strategies in other contexts, and the implementation of a longitudinal design would provide further insights into the effectiveness of the strategies over time. Another area for further examination is whether using SDT-aligned strategies affects program delivery, the experience of program participants, and the achievement of program objectives. Finally, examining the relationships between strategies for volunteer engagement and volunteer effectiveness provides an opportunity for future inquiries.