Ever since my first semester of volunteering at HSHS, I knew it was a special place. I had worked with people experiencing homelessness growing up in Puerto Rico, where housing insecurity grew to be an issue I cared profoundly about, so I really looked forward to coming into the shelter each night. I quickly began to feel quite passionate about the student-run shelter model because of the benefits I saw it provided to both guests and students, as well as these benefits' broader effects. Now, as Volunteer Director for HSHS, I get to engage with volunteers and guests more extensively, and still feel the same way. However, my further involvement with HSHS has made me more cognizant of the issues that surround this work.

For this project, I focused on two of those issues I identified in different capacities. As Volunteer Director, I noticed a large issue in our volunteer engagement and retention at HSHS. As a student who believes in the model, I noticed another: there is only a handful of student-run shelters across the nation. I set out to investigate both with my research questions:

1. How can the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter improve volunteer recruitment and retention?
2. How can students at other campuses learn from existing shelters' practices and channel resources toward this model?

The methods for this action research project consisted of a thorough literature review, a series of interviews, and a large-scale survey. 

The literature review served to identify evidence-backed best practices for maintaining positive volunteer relationships and boosting volunteer retention, and guided the design of the survey, as the goal was to assess how what HSHS does compared to research-backed practices.

Interviews with people who have experience working in the management of student-run homeless shelters were conducted for two main reasons: to get further insight into the student-run homeless shelter model, and to assess the needs of student volunteers at homeless shelters, especially HSHS. Interviews were held remotely and included the following individuals:

Interviews touched upon the feats and challenges of these individuals’ experiences at student-run homeless shelters, their strategies for volunteer relations, and their personal opinions on the model of a student-run homeless shelter.

Finally, a large-scale survey was launched to HSHS’s over 200 regular term-time volunteers. The survey served to provide insight and data into how our volunteers feel working at our shelter, and allow volunteers to voice their feedback on what HSHS does well and areas for growth. The survey was hosted on Google Forms and distributed through e-mail to the 121 weekly, active of the shelter. Posters were pasted on the walls of volunteer spaces at the shelter to encourage people to fill it out, and staff contributed to the distribution of the survey by encouraging their volunteers to fill it out right before or after shift. The survey was designed to be filled out in less than 5 minutes, and was broken down into three sections.

The first section included an option to write one’s name, and questions on how long they have been volunteering at the shelter and the shift they work on most. The second section consisted of thirteen questions in which volunteers were asked how much they agree with a series of statements on a scale of 1 through 10, with 1 being ‘Strongly Disagree’ and 10 being ‘Strongly Agree.’ These statements are based on the best practices for volunteer retention identified in the literature review and seek to gauge how much our volunteers feel that they are valued, that their work matters, that they are part of a community, and that they enjoy coming in. The third section consists of open-ended questions in which volunteers could identify any strengths or weaknesses of the shelter’s operations. All the questions are optional and the survey is anonymous by default.

Literature Review

A literature review of work on the benefits of volunteering and students who volunteer revealed that volunteering has countless benefits, but a few consistently stood out: it helps people develop interpersonal and pre-professional skills, provides people with a community of like-minded individuals, connects individuals with their community’s needs, and often results in personal growth and value changes (Anderson & Green, 2012). When it comes to students, these benefits can be even more consequential, as they could define how they lead the rest of their lives. More and more, educational institutions seek to foster the development of leaders in their student body, and volunteering is arguably one of the primary ways to do so. It also shone light on the fact that students’ main reason for volunteering really is genuine care and a sense of commitment to the community (Smith et al., 2010). Altruism might be the driving force pushing college students to volunteer, but, the practice of service is really a two-way street in which you give, but simultaneously receive so much as well: the opportunity to learn new things, leadership skills, self-satisfaction, job/career experience, and social contacts. It follows that, when trying to retain and recruit volunteers, the aspects studies show they care most about should be emphasized. Upon further research, I found best practices for volunteer relations in literature tend to align with these.

Volunteer retention and recruitment processes are largely dependent on an organization’s role in its community and its mission, but research has found that fulfilling volunteers’ emotional needs is fundamental. One study on several community enterprises across the food equity and green energy industries, after thorough data collection, came to the conclusion that “emotional connectivity of volunteers to a prosocial venture is decisive for achieving volunteer retention” (Farny et al., 2019). Consistent with the literature on why people volunteer, this finding suggests that people mainly volunteer to help others and feel fulfilled, so organizations must ensure their volunteers feel this sense of fulfillment and emotional connection to the work they do. This task seems simple enough, as most non-profits with volunteers have a well-defined mission and routinely track their impact. However, a lot of volunteering often boils down to day-to-day tasks - cooking, cleaning, chatting - which could prove difficult to connect with a cause to which the volunteer feels an emotional connection.

Hearing volunteers and consistently taking in feedback is another key practice for volunteer retention, stemming from Hirschman’s theory of exit-voice-loyalty (Garner & Garner, 2011). This theory essentially tells us that, when dissatisfied, people have two options, exit or voice, and that the choice people will make depends on loyalty. Exit refers to leaving, and voice refers to speaking up and trying to effect change. This theory is often held as the basis for corporations’ feedback surveys - satisfied employees will stay, but dissatisfied employees might leave if they are not given an outlet to voice concerns. A recent study linked this theory to nonprofit organizations, hypothesizing that volunteer voice had a positive relationship with retention, and, though the scope of the study was ample and results diverged depending on other variables, the relationship between the two was essentially found to be true. As such, it follows nonprofits should consider their volunteers’ feedback if they want to retain them; this is a standard practice in the workplace and many corporations, but oftentimes nonprofits focus their surveying on the population they seek to serve rather than their volunteers. 

In any organization, effective leadership is an important component of how a group feels, but this might be even more important in a volunteer organization. Volunteers do not tend to receive financial incentives or have consequences for exiting the organization, so fostering a sense of community under passionate and dedicated leadership is truly fundamental (Joseph & Carolissen, 2022). Studies show that support structures for volunteers are essential to their retention, and that they should meet volunteers’ needs for learning and understanding. In practice, it is also important to recognize that people tend to be more committed to commitments where they are leaders, so fostering a sense of leadership among volunteers by giving them agency and a sense of purpose or ownership can have very positive implications for retention efforts.

Survey

The survey was sent to the 120+ HSHS active weekly volunteers and had a response rate of 30.5%. The first section’s results ensured we were getting a sample that reflected our entire volunteer population, spanning people who had just started volunteering with us to volunteers who have been with us for 8+ semesters. Data on respondents’ answers on individual statements in the second section, in which they were asked to answer to statements with a number from 1 (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree), can be found below:

The average number values for these statements were calculated, and a few stood out as areas HSHS excels in while others highlighted where we have room for improvement. Lower numbers mean people disagree with the statement more, and a higher number indicates that people agree with the statement more strongly.

These numbers showcase HSHS is doing an excellent job at (a) self-selecting for a group of individuals who is passionate about giving back to their community and (b) providing a volunteer experience that is fulfilling and enriching. However, they also suggest that volunteers (a) feel like their presence at HSHS is not necessary, (b) do not see HSHS as a source for community, and (c) think training could be improved to prepare them for a shift better. 

The third section of the survey provided a lot of qualitative data, from volunteers’ favorite and least favorite parts about working at HSHS to concrete suggestions for shelter staff.

When asked about their favorite part of the shelter or things HSHS does well, respondents constantly pointed to interactions with other people (other volunteers and guests alike) and the positive feeling of doing something good for the community. Some responses include:

“Interacting with the members of the shelter and my fellow volunteers! I really do enjoy coming to my shift each week.”

“The people and the small sweet things that we do like baking extra cake even when there are pastries”

“Just being able to lend a helping hand is nice and I’m also glad to have met and get to know other volunteers”

“Just getting to feel like I'm helping out with issues in my local community. Also doing the dishes is very therapeutic for me because I always did that in my hometown household”

“Everyone is super friendly, upbeat, and understanding in all aspects of the job. In other words, HSHS is just staffed by great people.”

When asked about what they do not enjoy as much about working at the shelter or things HSHS could improve upon, answers seemed to focus on the large variation across how different staff members run their shifts, not feeling prepared after training, and a feeling of disconnect with broad-scale shelter operations. Some responses include:

“The first night I volunteered at HSHS, I felt very thrown into the mix of things and I wish there had been a little bit more of an introduction to the shelter and the volunteer community during my first shift.”

“I don't ever know what to expect and my experience is so dependent on who is supervising/directing that day”

“Is it possible to embed HSHS in more of a broader housing justice movement in Boston? or to have a more politically activist component? … I'm not sure what the current situation is so maybe it's already happening”

“Training felt a bit rushed at times - seemed more like we were just being shown the space than how we were supposed to use it”

There were also some concrete suggestions from volunteers that make a lot of sense: online modules for training that are easily accessible, having staff and volunteers wear name tags, and providing volunteers with a better sense of how the shelter operates behind the scenes. These are all actionable and will hopefully become a part of how we engage with our volunteers going forward.

Interviews

Interviews with founders of student-run homeless shelters shed a lot of light on the barriers to this type of undertaking, and highlighted the need for persistence and hope when trying to do something like open an entirely student-run homeless shelter.

During my conversation with Stephanie Sena, founder of SREHUP, she spoke of the process of founding SREHUP, difficulties their student leadership model endured during COVID-19, and the current efforts to “wake student chapters back up” - highlighting the universal challenge for student-run shelters to maintain a committed team and preserve institutional memory when graduations bring about large-scale staff turnaround every year. SREHUP, contrary to HSHS, has full-time staff that is committed to the space, but Sena affirms this does not make the effort “any less student-run.” Sena sees the benefits of student-run shelters in their willingness to be radical, a lowering of the barrier between staff and guests, and the fact students often come into the space with “open hearts and open minds.” Sena also spoke of social action clinics and group readings about homelessness that have engaged residents and staff, an interesting idea for community building. She emphasized her belief in the student-run homeless shelter model, saying there is a lot of potential for the model’s expansion and that it is “exciting,” arguing it falls on those of us who actively engage with the model “to help spread the word and educate” others of this possibility.

Sam Greenberg, a Harvard College alum who worked at HSHS and went on to found Y2Y, really highlighted the high-engagement model that is visible at HSHS and Y2Y, but was cautiously optimistic about expanding the model. Greenberg spoke extensively of the uniqueness of Harvard and the benefits of having an institutional backing like PBHA, a credible community partner that was already well-known in the area, when founding Y2Y. Y2Y is now a corporation and is working on another shelter in New Haven, CT, and, as someone who has seen the challenges to doing this type of work somewhere that is not Harvard, Greenberg cited barriers like insurance, finding facilities, and getting a budget. He also attributed a lot of HSHS and Y2Y’s success to an “equitable decision-making model within the student team,” which he believes is “challenging but important.” Still, regarding the expansion of the model, he affirms there is “enormous promise in trying it out.”

Dr. Scott Seider, a former HSHS volunteer director and author of the book Shelter: Where Harvard Meets the Homeless, also acknowledged barriers but believes “there is an opportunity” around the expansion of the model. He cites HSHS as an experience from his undergraduate years that still influences his career today. He also really highlights the many benefits of student-run homeless shelters, student’s “optimism on what’s possible” and a lower rate of burnout is something he speaks on both in his academic writing and in our interview. However, he also made it clear that he “would never want his book Shelter to be seen as an argument for replacing all professionally-run shelters” - explaining how there is an inherent value in both and that services like professional case management cannot be compared to college students who receive some training on resources. Still, Seider really uplifts HSHS in terms of its benefits to guests and students alike, saying that “HSHS has been influencing generations of college students and our trajectories;” many of his peers from his time on HSHS staff are now politicians and justices on state Supreme Courts that have gone on to do great things, often caring profoundly for the community of people experiencing homelessness.

Talking to leaders of HSHS and other student-run homeless shelters, namely the Bruin Shelter, highlighted the importance of building community and facilitating strong case management and services beyond food and a bed, as well as the impact working at a shelter in one’s undergraduate career can have in one’s future aspirations.

In my conversation with Coco Nakano, president of the Bruin Shelter at UCLA, I gained a greater understanding for the value of community among a body of volunteers and the diverse avenues for support in an endeavor like a student-run homeless shelter. Although they are a UCLA student group, the Bruin Shelter’s affiliation with the institution is way more limited than that of Harvard to HSHS or Y2Y. Instead, they went on to found a non-profit over them, Students4Students, which has now expanded to manage four student-run homeless shelters for homeless college students. The folks over at the Bruin Shelter also engage in a lot of mutual aid and tend to recruit case managers from graduate schools of law and public policy, interesting differences when compared to HSHS.

HSHS directors had amazing insights into what they think makes our shelter great and where we could improve.

Kara Murray has been at HSHS for 5 years and currently serves as the Maintenance Director. She was inspired to join HSHS by the stark contrast she saw between Harvard and the streets right outside the Yard, and cites a few things that make our model special. For one, staff rotates and tends to come in once per week, which avoids burnout but can also lead to many day-to-day inconsistencies and miscommunication with guests. She also believes it is important to remember that, unlike staff at traditional shelters, none of us get paid, which fosters a self-selecting group with a lot of buy-in. Murray will go on to a career in public service and cites HSHS as a driving force behind this decision, saying the shelter has taught her that, when it comes to broad social issues like housing insecurity, “you’re not going to solve the problem, but you try to do as much as you can.”

Salma Elsayed is in her last year at Harvard, serves as the Staff Director of HSHS, and also cites the shelter as a formative place during her undergraduate years, saying it has made her a more kind and compassionate person. She also believes many of our shelter’s benefits stem from the rotating staff model that prevents burnout (since people come in once each week), and thinks that, for students, working at a place like HSHS provides a unique opportunity, saying “as someone who is 21, you get a lot of power and responsibility” to highlight the benefits the model can provide to student volunteers’ professional development.

Thu Pham, also a senior at Harvard College, joined HSHS in her first year and is now the Supplies Director. She emphasizes benefits that are consistent with the survey, saying, for example, that HSHS self-selects for a group of very passionate individuals, whereas people at traditional shelters get paid and might have other motives; however, she also acknowledges that we are students first, and that more institutionalized shelters can serve more people. Pham points out that being a student is stressful, especially as a senior, there is a lot of pressure to find a job, apply to graduate school, or whatever comes next, but says that, for her, “volunteering at the shelter puts all those issues into perspective.” She highlights that HSHS does a great job in fostering community among staff, being really thoughtful and intentional in forming policy, and maintaining a “very proactive staff.” However, like all three HSHS directors interviewed, Thu cites case management as an area in which we could grow, something that is particularly important given the model change HSHS will undergo next season from being an emergency shelter to a longer-term transitional shelter. She believes full-time support from adults in this area could be helpful.

Taken together, the literature review, interviews, and data from the survey leave HSHS with a clear path of action on how to improve. The areas for growth that stand out most are (i) volunteer recruitment efforts have remained unchanged for many years, (ii) volunteers feel like training does not reflect the realities of a shift, (iii) there is a need for a greater sense of community and buy-in, (iv) volunteers often do not feel essential to shelter operations, (v) there are inconsistencies in how staff members run their shifts and engage with their volunteers, and (vi) communication among volunteers between shifts is essentially nonexistent. Staff also agrees that, especially as we go into our new model, there needs to be more robust case management support, and, as I was conducting this project, I realized that our non-traditional shelter volunteers (those who work on Street Team outreach and Resource Advocates) are very disconnected from our centralized communications.

My final deliverable is a plan to tackle all of these issues by renewing HSHS training and recruitment efforts, fostering buy-in and community among volunteers with more frequent and diverse events, and preparing staff training on how to run a shift and keep volunteers feeling valued. Concretely, some action steps are (i) starting to host bi-weekly volunteer reflections where all are welcome, (ii) renewing training to accurately reflect the reality of a shift and prepare virtual modules for accessibility, (iii) heightening recruitment efforts by conducting outreach to neighboring college campuses, (iv) creating a Slack channel and e-mail group for cross-shift communication to facilitate shift swaps, and (v) developing volunteer leadership roles to foster buy-in. Bi-weekly reflections could center themselves on a reading or allow space for volunteers to debrief, and training will be recorded for easy access and include sample scenarios and practical information (like how to turn on the stove, which is harder than it seems). Training will also emphasize the importance of coming into one’s assigned shift, and staff will be trained on how to run a shift from the volunteer perspective uniformly in a way that keeps volunteers engaged and feeling valued. Every HSHS shift should start with staff facilitating a community-building icebreaker and include the sharing of a comprehensive list of tasks for volunteers to do when nothing is imminently needed so that they feel useful and essential at all times. Recruitment efforts should also be further expanded into neighboring academic institutions and heightened at Harvard - oftentimes we focus on email lists, but I am a big believer in people-to-people interaction and hope to make tabling a larger part of our recruitment efforts. HSHS staff already communicates through Slack, and setting up one for volunteers would make shift swaps and communication easier. Finally, volunteer leadership roles could include titles like shift lead that require an additional level of training and foster greater buy-in. I will also make sure that, next season, our volunteer application is centralized - encompassing traditional shelter volunteers, outreach programs, and case management - and that shelter-wide communications reach all volunteers (they often do not tend to get to outreach and advocacy volunteers right now).

Through conversations with other shelters’ founders, I also come out of this project with the hope of a cross-shelter effort to grow the student-run homeless shelter model by conducting outreach to colleges with the resources to realistically work on founding a student-run homeless shelter. Many institutions already have organizations that work on advocacy for people experiencing homelessness, and they should at least be aware that student-run homeless shelters exist and that we are happy to help them mimic the work we do in their respective communities.

Overall, I am extremely grateful for everyone who has helped me on this project, and cannot wait for my 2 remaining years at HSHS. I am certain that the findings I have reported will make working at the shelter accessible to more student volunteers, and that it will enhance the experience of our existing volunteers and guests alike.