Frost Valley YMCA places a high value on its volunteers, and holds them in high regard. Volunteers are defined as those individuals who contribute their time and talents in community service. Such individuals serve without expectation of remuneration of any kind, including special treatment or services returned in kind, and are differentiated from paid staff or barter volunteers , which might negotiate some form of compensation or special treatment in return for their services.

Volunteers are considered to be members of the Frost Valley YMCA staff, entitled and treated to the same non-compensatory benefits as paid staff, and subject to the same Human Resources procedures, including application, interview, background checks, hiring, evaluation, training, and in rare cases, even dismissal.

In addition to job-specific training, all program, facility and administrative volunteers intending to provide unsupervised or ongoing service are required to attend an orientation and a YMCA Child Abuse Prevention training prior to beginning service .