Suchergebnisse

Volunteering is any activity in which time is given freely to benefit another person, group or cause. Volunteering is part of a cluster of helping behaviors, entailing more commitment than spontaneous assistance but narrower in scope than the care provided to family and friends. Although developed somewhat independently, the study of volunteerism and of social activism have much in common. Since data gathering on volunteering from national samples began about a quarter of a century ago, the rate for the United States has been stable or, according to some studies, rising slightly. Theories that explain volunteering by pointing to individual attributes can be grouped into those that emphasize motives or self-understandings on the one hand and those that emphasize rational action and cost-benefit analysis on the other. Other theories seek to complement this focus on individual level factors by pointing to the role of social resources, specifically social ties and organizational activity, as explanations for volunteering. Support is found for all theories, although many issues remained unresolved. Age, gender and race differences in volunteering can be accounted for, in large part, by pointing to differences in self-understandings, human capital, and social resources. Less attention has been paid to contextual effects on volunteering and, while evidence is mixed, the impact of organizational, community, and regional characteristics on individual decisions to volunteer remains a fruitful field for exploration. Studies of the experience of volunteering have only just begun to plot and explain spells of volunteering over the life course and to examine the causes of volunteer turnover. Examining the premise that volunteering is beneficial for the helper as well as the helped, a number of studies have looked at the impact of volunteering on subjective and objective well-being. Positive effects are found for life-satisfaction, self-esteem, self-rated health, and for educational and occupational achievement, functional ability, and mortality. Studies of youth also suggest that volunteering reduces the likelihood of engaging in problem behaviors such as school truancy and drug abuse.

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1 -- Why Is Community Service Beneficial for Adolescents' Development? A Review and Theoretical Model -- Abstract -- Introduction -- Community Service: Form, Prevalence, and Benefits -- Why Is Community Service Beneficial for Adolescents? -- The IMAR-Community Service Model -- The Relation between IMAR and Mediating Community Service Factors -- Interdependence -- Moral Responsibility -- Agency -- The Role of R (Reflection) in the Relation between IMA and Mediating Community Service Factors -- The Relation between Mediating Community Service Factors and Other Academic, Personal, Social, and Civic Outcomes -- Future Research -- Conclusion: Educational Practice and Policy -- References -- Chapter 2 -- A Theoretical Approach to Researching the International Volunteering Movement -- Abstract -- Introduction -- Analysis of Current Research -- Research Methods -- Conceptual Theories and Theoretical Models of Volunteering -- Origin and Development of Volunteering in the World and in Ukraine -- Theoretical Analysis and Discussion -- Conclusion and Further Research Perspectives -- References -- Chapter 3 -- Volunteering and Positive Youth Development: An Accumulative Approach -- Abstract -- Introduction -- Research Method -- Measures -- Statistical Procedures -- Results -- Discussion -- References -- Chapter 4 -- The Relationship between the Roles of Adolescent Volunteers and Their Levels of Volunteer Satisfaction: A Case Study of Hong Kong -- Abstract -- Introduction -- Roles of Volunteers -- Volunteer Satisfaction -- The Current Study -- Method -- Participants and Procedures -- Measures -- Demographics -- Volunteer Satisfaction -- Volunteering Roles -- Data Analysis -- Results -- Descriptive Analysis of the Sample -- Roles Performed by Students during Their Voluntary Service

"In this book, readers will learn about one of the important duties of active citizens. Why should we volunteer? What are organizations you can support? Vibrant, full-color photos and carefully leveled text will engage young readers as they learn more. Compelling questions encourage further inquiry"--

Volunteers and sport -- The impact of volunteers on sport -- Government impacts on sport volunteers -- The psychology of sport volunteering -- Sport volunteering and diverse populations -- Managing sport volunteers -- Volunteer administrators -- Volunteer officials -- Volunteer coaches -- Sport event volunteers -- A sport volunteering research agenda.

This book, with 12 chapters divided into 4 parts, examines critical aspects of contemporary volunteerism, from the perspective of a variety of volunteering contexts. It will appeal to academic researchers and students in disciplines such as leisure, recreation, tourism, management and sociology as well as practitioners in the voluntary sector (including volunteers), national and local government and those organizing special events that depend on voluntary support.

In recent months, there have been a growing number of grass-roots solidarity groups starting around Europe. Ordinary people, horrified by the inaction of their national and European representatives to the growing refugee crisis internationally, have initiated these groups. The most prolific of these groups are the 'Calais-Solidarity' groups. A social work student who was involved in initiating a Calais-Solidarity group in Wales writes this piece. It gives a first-hand account of a recent trip to Calais, undertaken by social work students and activists from this group.

Increasing third-party intervention in volunteering represents a key change in the environment of volunteering. One significant expression is "workfare volunteering": the governmental use of volunteering to foster the economic and/or social reintegration of social assistance recipients. We contribute to existing theory on "third-party volunteering" by studying the shifting discursive field in which volunteering becomes re-entangled with workfare volunteering. Our contribution is based on a governmentality-inspired discourse analysis of internal documents on workfare volunteering in one Belgian social assistance center. We conclude that workfare volunteering entails a strong violation of "voluntary" and "unpaid" properties of volunteering, relegates volunteering to an inferior status relative to paid work, and depicts workfare volunteers as suffering from a clear deficit: the inability to work under regular labor market condition. Through the discursive entanglement of various citizenship frames, the workfare volunteer is cast as an ever-aspiring, yet permanently failing citizen.