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Abstract: Generations Incorporated is a small Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to forging relationships between the elderly and youth. When it takes on the task of improving the reading capacity of students in two school districts, it finds that it must significantly expand both the number and oversight of its corps of elderly volunteers. This case describes Generations' strategies for recruiting and retaining volunteers, as well as its efforts to ensure volunteers' success in dealing with at-risk students in bluecollar Brockton (Mass.), and the Mattapan section of Boston.
Learning Objective: The case allows for discussion of ways in which the organization might be more effective, as well as discussion of volunteer recruitment and management policies more generally.