Shanti National Training Institute

The SNTI Model

SNTI offers a comprehensive, values-based model of volunteer management. At the heart of the model are values that inspire and sustain both staff and volunteers. These values include the importance of building community and fostering human connection, addressing volunteers' motivations, creating quality relationships with volunteers, and expressing the value of volunteers in every aspect of the volunteer program. The SNTI model provides concrete ways of incorporating these values into screening, training, supervising and retaining volunteers.

At the core of the SNTI model of volunteer management is the Shanti Model of Peer Support. With this communication model, the values of empathy, genuineness, mutuality and service can form the foundation of relationships both between volunteers and clients, and between volunteer managers and the volunteers they support and supervise.

Key Values

Our philosophy and practice of volunteer management and training are based on the following key values and concepts:

Volunteers are a critical extension of agency staff and can be trained to provide the highest quality of service.
The giving and receiving of service enriches the lives of individuals and communities. The desire for this experience of service is a primary motivating factor for volunteers.
A primary goal of training is to create a community of volunteers who offer each other ongoing peer support and guidance throughout their volunteer careers.
Volunteer training must impart useful life skills as well as the skills necessary to perform a particular voluntary function.

Effective training and supervision of volunteers must address the emotional and spiritual lives of those volunteers, as well as teach necessary skills.