Building Relationships with Communities Receiving Lay Missionary Volunteers

Building Relationships with the Salesian Communities That Receive Lay Volunteers

An aspect of Salesian mission volunteers formation

(ANS – Rome – December 11, 2025) – In November, Salesian missionary volunteer coordinators, including Salesians and lay people engaged in volunteering, participated in an online formation session to consider the topic: Building relationships with the Salesian communities that receive volunteers. 

There were 2 sessions – one for Spanish language and one for English language. The sessions were well attended and had robust discussions about this topic.

In the Spanish language session, Adam Rudin, director of Salesian Lay Missioners in New Rochelle, discussed ideas about building healthy relationships with receiving communities that focused on clear expectations, strong communication, and thorough volunteer preparation. Written guidelines define the responsibilities of the volunteers, the program, and the host community, ensuring a shared understanding of the mission and standards of care. Before the volunteers arrive, meetings with site directors address program values, training, logistics, support structures, and local context. Volunteers also receive updated site profiles so that they arrive with realistic expectations and a respectful, well-informed understanding of the community they will serve.

Similarly, Ulla Fricke from Don Bosco Mission in Bonn highlighted a range of important focus areas for strengthening volunteer preparation and partnerships. She emphasized the value of a shared Salesian identity supported by clear structures, roles, and expectations, as well as the need to understand different communication cultures and to support consistently partners on the ground. Ulla noted challenges such as safeguarding and post-colonial awareness, clericalism, differing views of volunteer roles, high staff turnover, and communication style differences. She stressed the importance of navigating hierarchical dynamics with sensitivity, maintaining a warm relational “glue” that characterizes Salesian collaboration, addressing crises and sensitive topics with care, and investing in long-term trust-building to sustain healthy, mission-driven relationships.

Karen Amaro from Uruguay, director of a Salesian social work and member of the provincial missionary volunteer team, offered valuable insights from the perspective of receiving communities. She emphasized the importance of accompanying volunteers with care and consistency, ensuring that they feel welcomed, supported, and integrated into community life. She also underlined that a strong, trust-filled relationship with the sending organization is essential, fostering open communication, shared responsibility, and a common mission focused on the well-being of both the volunteers and the young people they serve.

Fr. Chris Kunda, youth ministry delegate from Zambia, Botswana, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, also shared the experience of his province hosting volunteers since 1990s, a great work of coordination between youth ministry, missions, and rectors of the community. The first step is communication with the sending organizations, especially in clarifying the immigration policies and other challenges, learnt by experience over time, while the 2nd level is the receiving community, especially in the person of the rector.

Many of the sentiments introduced by Adam and Ulla were echoed by Karen and Fr. Chris.

After the presentations, there was excellent discussion about the topic.  Some of the discussion points included: strong relationships between sending and receiving communities are essential for successful volunteer placements. Clear communication from the outset, precise job profiles, and mutual understanding of roles, hierarchies, and cultural contexts help prevent future problems. Meeting partners in person and establishing a designated mentor greatly supports volunteers throughout their service. Participants also noted the need to clarify contractual expectations, including financial assumptions, and highlighted the value of preparing volunteers in local culture, the nature of the work, community life, and their own skills and responsibilities so that receiving communities can support them effectively.

The meeting concluded with missionary volunteer website and general updates. These online formation sessions are open to anyone who is interested in or working in Salesian missionary volunteering. They will take place twice a year (May and November). Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated about Salesian mission volunteer opportunities in the Salesian Congregation. You can subscribe by emailing: salesianvol@sdb.org or visiting our website.

We thank all the participants who came from Spain, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, U.S.A., Venezuela, Mexico, Uruguay, Ecuador, Italy, Lesotho, Ireland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Austria, Morocco, Zambia, Australia, Hungary, Great Britain, Vietnam, Dem. Rep. of Congo, and Cambodia: a vast mosaic, which is only a small representation of the world of missionary volunteering thruout the Salesian Congregation.