Volunteer with GI Labs

What is GI-Labs?

At Governance Innovation Labs, we have developed a new policy framework for delivering good governance in which the government will act as a platform. A platform that will bring the demand side and supply side of public services together to create greater value. In this model, the role of the citizen will be that of an active co-producer of the public service rather than a passive recipient of the public service. The role of the government will be that of an orchestrator that will bring together various stakeholders in public policy through coordination, management and monitoring. We are looking at the possibilities of engaging citizens to develop, deliver and monitor public services through the successful service aggregator model from the digital market space.

(gilabs.in)

What we expect from you-

The volunteer at GI Labs can choose from the following roles:

i- Policy Awareness: The volunteer will conduct awareness programs of existing policies, provide handholding services to our target audience which include the intended beneficiaries of the policy scheme, and basically bridge the gap that exists between governmental schemes and its implementation. As a volunteer at GI Labs, you need to travel around the city or village, converse with people and make them aware of the schemes they are entitled to.

ii- Policy design: As the name suggests, these volunteers will be responsible in analysing the needs of the citizens, who are at the centre of the policies we work on. The volunteer interacts with the citizens through online and offline means and performs a needs assessment, before designing a policy framework. The citizens are responsible for actively engaging in the discussion on platforms and sharing their thoughts, opinions, views and needs with the government. GI Labs will provide volunteers with surveys which they need to collect the information from the citizens.

iii- Policy development: the existing policy design has to be further developed and built into sustainable public policy. This involves crowdsourcing from the citizens, methods to build the project, and the primary task of the policy development volunteer would be to organize events wherein the public is able to provide solutions to a posed problem. It could be done in the form of contests, similar to the idea of the programming hackathons. We will mostly engage the youth in this aspect as they are full of optimism and ideas. We could give handouts to universities and colleges or the volunteers themselves can engage friends and relatives. Prior to developing the policy, the citizens should be familiarized about the needs, goals, aim and initial findings from the policy design stage through primers or presentations.

iv- Policy implementation: Under this stage, the policy so developed needs to find its way to the intended beneficiaries. This involves meeting stakeholders, travelling to panchayat offices of different villages and continuing the work started by the policy awareness volunteers. The implementation volunteer will gather support from or pitch for investors, take up a working space, and organize meetings according to their convenience. A cluster of 4–5 volunteers work on each implementation project. This is a more responsible and hence laborious stage but the perks of this one is that considering the fact that the volunteers have other commitments, they can do this work according to their convenience, although a minimum of 12–14 hours of work per week is a requirement.

v- Policy evaluation: In this stage, a volunteer must evaluate the progress of the policies thus far and collect data from citizens in the form of surveys, online rating, feedback forms, social media interaction and other means that could contribute to better policy implementation.

vi- The volunteer is responsible for following up with the target group as well, and also conducting seminars in schools and colleges to gather more volunteers too.

What you get from us-

- After the minimum time period of associating with us (6 months), GI Labs will issue a certificate of appreciation. A certificate could prove handy for future education or job prospects.

- Your main incentive is the exposure and experience you receive due to the impact you create. The volunteer program is primarily for those individuals determined to make a difference and play an active role in the change.

- Well performing volunteers will be listed in our website along with the tasks they have performed during the volunteer programme.

Eligibility:

- High school or college students who cannot be working full time are welcome to join us. We provide flexibility with the timings and work.

- The candidate for volunteering has to be smart, speak the local language in order to facilitate interaction with common folk, and ensure the given tasks are completed on time.

Monitoring:

- We monitor the record of our volunteers through our website/ app. Upon joining GI Labs, a profile is created of the volunteer with all the necessary details. He/she can access their profiles any time and can update their progress for the day or week. The volunteer’s weekly performance will be analysed by the core team which will determine whether he or she will continue.

- We follow a point system wherein a volunteer starts off with 3 points. If the volunteer fails to adhere to a deadline, they lose 2 points. There is no gain of a point for doing the work on time. The volunteer can gain a point for substituting for another volunteer who failed to make it to a particular meeting or assistance call. In this way we can ensure balance of points and no compromise on our services as well. If a volunteer goes below -10 points, they can be terminated from the service.

Application process:

The application process involves two rounds. One, the online application and two, the interview round. In the online application, the candidate will be asked a few questions and are expected to provide concise, crisp answers. Those shortlisted for the interview round are reached out to and a volunteer contract is signed.

· The link to the online application uses a rolling application process. Applications will be accepted around the year and is continually evaluated. Once the available slots have been awarded to qualified volunteers, the application period will close. The application process is competitive: the submission of an application does not guarantee admission to the program.

· We engage and encourage youth to join us by having existing volunteers go to schools and colleges and conducting seminars and interviews. Thus, the old volunteer batch selects the new batch.