Volunteer recruitment, training, supervision and referral
Beyond Words recruits volunteers from the community and trains and supervises them as volunteer biographers under the program. We link volunteer biographers with residents in the aged care residence and together they undertake the process of biography.
The process
- Usually a client is initially referred by the aged care residence Lifestyle Coordinator.
- Working closely with the Lifestyle Coordinator, we set up an initial session where the program is explained to the client with written consent obtained if the client wishes to proceed.
- A volunteer biographer is allocated to the client and attends 6-8 private sessions with the client (usually around 1 hour, once a week) to client record their life story into an audio-recorder.
- The audio recording is transcribed by the volunteer biographer into a draft which is read back to the client at the next session. Editing of the draft is at the direction of the client, who has exclusive copyright of the biography.
- Photos, mementos, artwork, poetry etc. are provided by the client, if desired, for insertion in to the transcript. Family can assist by emailing photos to photos@beyondwords.org.au.
- When the biography is completed, it is reviewed and edited by the Beyond Words volunteer editorial team.
- Once printed and bound, it is formally presented to the client by the biographer.
Click the graphic below to download the detailed process from the client’s persepctive.
