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The HEAL Project founded the Hospice Volunteer Training Institute (HVTI) with the
intention of achieving the following long-term goals and objectives:
- To offer hospice and other end-of-life care organizations a more
cost-effective alternative to training volunteers at a time when economic pressures
are affecting their ability to develop and support strong volunteer programs. (See
the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation's National Survey of Hospice Volunteers and Staff)
- To provide hospice organizations with a method of training hospice
volunteers that reduces their staffing requirements for training.
- To standardize the training of hospice volunteers throughout the
hospice community while at the same time offering each hospice organization the
opportunity to develop customized training programs for their own volunteers on
the HVTI learning site.
- To advance the methods and types of training through a coordinated
effort of member hospice organizations.
- To broaden the skills of hospice volunteers through advanced training
and continuing education programs.
- To increase the hospice volunteer's awareness of the diverse cultural
issues related to death and dying and improve their ability to serve diverse cultural
communities.
- To establish scholarship programs to promote hospice volunteerism
within low-income or underserved communities.
- To encourage participation of hospice volunteers of all ages and
all walks of life.
- To establish certification levels that reflect the level of experience
and training for a hospice volunteer.
- To offer more flexible scheduling options to hospice volunteers by
allowing them to take training courses at a time and place that is most convenient
for them.
- To allow individuals who may be contemplating becoming a hospice
volunteer an opportunity to take classes on their own and become knowledgeable before
making the final decision to actually join a hospice organization.
- To expand the hospice volunteer base by sharing knowledge and experiences
through HVTI.
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