Lunch club coordinator role specific training
Training 4: reporting to Re-engage and responding to issues (3-minute read)
Your primary goal as a lunch club coordinator is to keep the lunch club running as smoothly as possible. A key aspect of this is to make sure that Re-engage knows how the lunch club is getting on by staying in regular contact with the team at Re-engage.
Responding to issues
We hope that every lunch club will run as smoothly and harmoniously as possible. However, we do understand that issues can sometimes arise.
The following are examples of issues you might encounter in the course of running a lunch club:
- An older person or volunteer keeps dropping out of lunch clubs at the last minute.
- An older person is experiencing hearing loss and is struggling to understand what people are saying.
- Some of the people in the group do not get on well with each other.
- A volunteer ‘talks over’ and patronises the older people.
- An older person’s health has deteriorated to the extent that it’s becoming difficult to support them to attend the lunch club.
What should you do?
Whenever you are faced with an issue like this and you are not sure how to proceed, your first step should be to check the FAQs on the Re-engage website. These frequently asked questions cover a range of scenarios that might come up in the course of volunteering with us and you can use the search function to find the FAQs that are relevant to your situation.
If you can’t find a solution for your issue in the FAQs, you can get in touch with the team at Re-engage by emailing knowledge@reengage.org.uk and we will help you resolve the situation.
Good to know
The team at Re-engage are constantly adding new FAQs to the website and updating existing ones. If there’s a question that you think we should add, you can let us know by emailing one of our friendly team at knowledge@reengage.org.uk.
Difficult conversations
As you respond to issues within your lunch club, you may need to have challenging discussions with an older person, a volunteer or both. You may find it helpful to have a look through our training module for call companion volunteers, 'addressing difficulties'.
Although the training module focuses primarily on navigating the relationship with an older person who wants more support and advice from their call companion volunteer, it does also provide helpful strategies for approaching difficult subjects in a positive and constructive way.
Here are some additional pointers on how to handle difficult conversations:
- Be clear about why you’re having the conversation and what you want to get out of it before you start.
- Try to approach the conversation calmly and with a clear head.
- Try to recognise and manage your emotions.
- Aim to keep an open mind and be prepared to challenge your own assumptions and beliefs.
- Give yourself time to plan what you would like to say.
- Listen to the other person’s side of the story.
- Try to find the middle ground so that you can reach a solution that works for everyone.
Important. Action needed.
If you've completed all the training, there’s only one more step for you to complete. You’ll then be ready to start your volunteering role with Re-engage. Please click the button below to complete your volunteer agreement.
Congratulations!
You’ve completed your volunteer lunch club coordinator training with Re-engage.
We’re always looking for ways to improve the training materials we offer to volunteers so if you have any ideas of suggestions, please let us know by emailing our friendly team at knowledge@reengage.org.uk.
We hope you enjoy your time as a volunteer with Re-engage. Thank you so much for your support.