Volunteering

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Volunteers assist survivors at the Houston Astrodome following Hurricane Katrina.
Volunteers sweep the boardwalk in Brooklyn after the 2012 Hurricane Sandy.
People doing Volunteering at Chaitya Bhoomi.

Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity and is intended to promote goodness or improve human quality of life. In return, this activity can produce a feeling of self-worth and respect. There is no financial gain involved for the individual. Volunteering is also renowned for skill development, socialization, and fun. It is also intended to make contacts for possible employment. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster.

Etymology and history

The verb volunteer was first recorded in 1755 from the noun, in C.1600, "one who offers himself for military service," by M.Fr. Voluntaire.[1] In the non-military sense, the word was first recorded during the 1630s. The word volunteering has more recent usage—still predominantly military—coinciding with the word community service.[1][2] In a military context, a volunteer army is a military body whose soldiers chose to enter service, as opposed to having been conscripted. Such volunteers do not work "for free" and are given regular pay.

If a student is engaged in some sort of volunteer work, taking a gap year after high school or during college is also a form of volunteering. Career break is also considered to be a form of volunteering, until involved in a voluntary work.

19th century

During this time, America experienced the Great Awakening. People became aware of the disadvantaged and realized the cause for movement against slavery. Younger people started helping the needy in their communities. In 1851, the first YMCA in the United States was started, followed seven years later by the first YWCA. During the American Civil War, women volunteered their time to sew supplies for the soldiers and the “Angel of the Battlefield” Clara Barton and a team of volunteers began providing aid to servicemen. Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and began mobilizing volunteers for disaster relief operations,including relief for victims of the Johnstown Flood in 1889.

20th & 21st centuries

John F. Kennedy greets volunteers on August 28, 1961

The Salvation Army is one of the oldest and largest organization working for disadvantaged people. Though it is a charity organization, it has organized a number of volunteering programs since its inception.[3] Prior to the 19th century, few formal charitable organizations existed to assist people in need.

In the first few decades of the 20th century, several volunteer organizations were founded, including the Rotary International, Kiwanis International, Association of Junior Leagues International, and Lions Clubs International.

The Great Depression saw one of the first large-scale, nation-wide efforts to coordinate volunteering for a specific need. During World War II, thousands of volunteer offices supervised the volunteers who helped with the many needs of the military and the home front, including collecting supplies, entertaining soldiers on leave, and caring for the injured.[3]

After World War II, people shifted the focus of their altruistic passions to other areas, including helping the poor and volunteering overseas. A major development was the Peace Corps in the United States in 1960. When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a War on Poverty in 1964, volunteer opportunities started to expand and continued into the next few decades. The process for finding volunteer work became more formalized, with more volunteer centers forming and new ways to find work appearing on the World Wide Web.[3]

Types

Skills-based volunteering

Skills-based volunteering is leveraging the specialized skills and the talents of individuals to strengthen the infrastructure of nonprofits, helping them build and sustain their capacity to successfully achieve their missions.[4] This is in contrast to traditional volunteering, where specific training is not required. The average hour of traditional volunteering is valued by the Independent Sector at between $18–20 an hour. Skills-based volunteering is valued at $40–500 an hour, depending on the market value of the time.[5]

Volunteering in developing countries

Laura Bush poses with Peace Corps volunteers

An increasingly popular form of volunteering among young people, particularly gap year students, is to travel to communities in the developing world to work on projects. Activities include teaching English, working in orphanages, conservation, and so on. International volunteering is said to give participants valuable skills, knowledge, and the experience of a lifetime. However, "voluntourism" has been criticized by some as being paternalistic and reinforcing historic power imbalances. Some critics argue that in many cases, voluntourism does more harm to communities than good.[6][7]

Virtual volunteering

Also called e-volunteering or online volunteering, virtual volunteering is a term that describes a volunteer who completes tasks, in whole or in part, offsite from the organization being assisted. They use the Internet and a home, school, telecenter or work computer, or other Internet-connected device, such as a PDA or smartphone. Virtual volunteering is also known as cyber service, telementoring, and teletutoring, as well as various other names. Virtual volunteering is similar to telecommuting, except that instead of online employees who are paid, these are online volunteers who are not paid.[8][9]

Micro-volunteering

Micro-volunteering is an unpaid task that is operated via an internet-connected device and completed in small increments of time. It is distinct from virtual volunteering in that it typically does not require an application process or a training period.[10][11]

Environmental volunteering

Environmental volunteering refers to the volunteers who contribute towards environmental management or conservation. Volunteers conduct a range of activities including environmental monitoring, ecological restoration such as re-vegetation and weed removal, protecting endangered animals, and educating others about the natural environment.[12]

The Giant Panda Conservation program in Xi'an and Sichuan, China, is a famous endangered animals protection program. Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries conservation program attracts huge foreign support and volunteers.

Volunteering in an emergency

Volunteering often plays a pivotal role in the recovery effort following natural disasters, such as tsunamis, floods, droughts, hurricanes, and earthquakes. For example, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami attracted a large number of volunteers worldwide, deployed by non-governmental organizations, government agencies, and the United Nations.[13][14]

Volunteering in schools

Resource poor schools around the world rely on government support or on efforts from volunteers and private donations, in order to run effectively. In some countries, whenever the economy is down, the need for volunteers and resources increases greatly.[15] There are many opportunities available in school systems for volunteers. Yet, there are not many requirements in order to volunteer in a school system. Whether one is a high school or TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) graduate or college student, most schools require just voluntary and selfless effort.[16]

Much like the benefits of any type of volunteering there are great rewards for the volunteer, student, and school. In addition to intangible rewards, volunteers can add relevant experience to their resumes. Volunteers who travel to assist may learn foreign culture and language.

Volunteering in schools can be an additional teaching guide for the students and help to fill the gap of local teachers. Cultural and language exchange during teaching and other school activities can be the most essential learning experience for both students and volunteers.[16]

Corporate volunteering

A majority of the companies at the Fortune 500 allow their employees to volunteer during work hours. These formalized Employee Volunteering Programs (EVPs), also called Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV), are regarded as a part of the companies' sustainability efforts and their social responsibility activities.[17] About 40% of Fortune 500 companies provide monetary donations, also known as volunteer grants, to nonprofits as a way to recognize employees who dedicate significant amounts of time to volunteering in the community.[18]

According to the information from VolunteerMatch, a service that provides Employee Volunteering Program solutions, the key drivers for companies that produce and manage EVPs are building brand awareness and affinity, strengthening trust and loyalty among consumers, enhancing corporate image and reputation, improving employee retention, increasing employee productivity and loyalty, and providing an effective vehicle to reach strategic goals.[19]

Community voluntary work

Leaders welcome a boy into scouting, March 2010, Mexico City, Mexico. Photo by George Garrigues

Community volunteering refers to the volunteers who work to improve community enhancement efforts in the area in which they live. Neighborhood, church, and community groups play a key role in building strong cities from the neighborhoods up. Supporting these understaffed groups can enable them to succeed in a variety of areas, which connect social, environmental, and economic boundaries. Volunteers can conduct a wide range of activities. Numerous community organizations exist to facilitate volunteering, some are affiliated with academic organizations (Harvard Alumni), some are corporate(Intel Employees), some religious based(Methodists) while others are more socially (One Brick).

International work-camps

An international work-camp is an international voluntary project in which participants from different countries can meet, live, work, learn, and exchange with local people concerning issues about environmental conservation, cultural heritage, social justice, rural and human development, etc. Groups including CCIVS, NVDA, Group Work Foundation, and Service Civil International (SCI) are a few providing International work camps.

International work-camp volunteering can be divided into the short term voluntary projects (STV) and long- or middle-term voluntary projects (LMTV). STV projects are international workcamps for less than two months, while LMTV projects are those lasting two months or more. The most common international workcamp lasts for two weeks with a group of 10-20 overseas and local work-camp participants.

Finding the right Volunteer experience

Volunteers to be should ask the following questions:

  • What kind of work do you enjoy?
  • In what specific area of development would you like to pursue a career?
  • What skills do you have or need to acquire to meet you career objective?
  • How will the internship help you meet those goals (field work, practical experience, opportunities for networking or building professional relationships)?
  • What kind of institution do you want to work with?
  • Do you have an interest in a particular geographical area or issue area?
  • When do you want to do this internship?
  • Are you willing to gain experience by volunteering alone, or are you only seeking paid internships?

Popular volunteering tasks include working with disadvantaged children, communities, animals and conservation projects. Popular destinations include: • BelizeCambodiaGhanaNepalPeruSouth AfricaThailandVietnam

Some of the projects organised by UK Volunteering organisations, such as PoD (Personal Oversea Development) and others, include the following activities:

  • Belize – Liberty Children’s Home in Ladyville village, near Belize City provides care, support and education to children until they are in their late teens and has been recognized as a flagship home by the Belizean government; Reef conservation in the Sapodilla Cayes; Caribbean Wildlife Centre.
  • Peru – Amazon Conservation in Madre de Dios; Community Education in Huaraz; Child Care at an Orphanage in the White City, Arequipa.
  • Ghana – Supporting community in Ghana; Building wells and school and toilets through community partnership projects.
  • Nepal – Child care, teaching and sports coaching projects in the mountain city of Pokhara; English teaching.
  • Peru – Conservation project in the heart of the Amazon collects data on local wildlife and assist in the development of community bio gardens. A community education project in Huaraz; Care for abandoned and disadvantaged children in the “White City” Arequipa.
  • South Africa – Assisting Elephant care and research on the Western Cape, Cheetah reintroduction in the Free State; Contributino to important wildlife conservation research whilst living on a game reserve in the Limpopo Province (lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and leopard); Monkey Rescue project in Pretoria; Rehabilitation of horses that have been saved from abuse and neglect.
  • Thailand – Conservation; Child Care and Animal care; Teaching projects; Animal care projects include Elephant care and wildlife rescue at in a tropical wildlife rescue centre; Marine conservation initiatives on the island Koh Tao.
  • Vietnam – Orphanage support in Vietnam.

Political view

Modern societies share a common value of people helping each other; not only do volunteer acts assist others, but they also benefit the volunteering individual on a personal level.[20] Despite having similar objectives, tension can arise between volunteers and state-provided services. In order to curtail this tension, most countries develop policies and enact legislation to clarify the roles and relationships among governmental stakeholders and their voluntary counterparts; this regulation identifies and allocates the necessary legal, social, administrative, and financial support of each party. This is particularly necessary when some voluntary activities are seen as a challenge to the authority of the state(e.g., on January 29, 2001, President Bush cautioned that volunteer groups should supplement—not replace—government agencies’ work).[21]

Volunteering that benefits the state but challenges paid counterparts angers labor unions that represent those who are paid for their volunteer work; this is particularly seen in combination departments, such as volunteer fire departments.

Difficulties in cross-national aid

Volunteers fit new windows at the Sumac Centre in Nottingham, UK.

Difficulties in the cross-national aid model of volunteering can arise when it is applied across national borders. The presence of volunteers who are sent from one state to another can be viewed as a breach of sovereignty and showing a lack of respect towards the national government of the proposed recipients. Thus, motivations are important when states negotiate offers to send aid and when these proposals are accepted, particularly if donors may postpone assistance or stop it altogether. Three types of conditionality have evolved:

  1. Financial accountability: Transparency in funding management to ensure that what is done by the volunteers is properly targeted
  2. Policy reform: Governmental request that developing countries adopt certain social, economic, or environmental policies; often, the most controversial relate to the privatization of services traditionally offered by the state
  3. Development objectives: Asking developing countries to adjust specific time-bound economic objectives

Some international volunteer organizations define their primary mission as being altruistic: to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in the developing world, (e.g. Voluntary Services Overseas has almost 2,000 skilled professionals working as volunteers to pass on their expertise to local people so that the volunteers' skills remain long after they return home). When these organizations work in partnership with governments, the results can be impressive. However, when other organizations or individual First World governments support the work of volunteer groups, there can be questions as to whether the organizations' or governments' real motives are poverty alleviation. Instead, a focus on creating wealth for some of the poor or developing policies intended to benefit the donor states is sometimes reported.[22] Many low-income countries’ economies suffer from industrialization without prosperity and investment without growth. One reason for this is that development assistance guides many Third World governments to pursue development policies that have been wasteful, ill-conceived, or unproductive; some of these policies have been so destructive that the economies could not have been sustained without outside support.[23]

Indeed, some offers of aid have distorted the general spirit of volunteering, treating local voluntary action as contributions in kind, i.e., existing conditions requiring the modification of local people’s behavior in order for them to earn the right to donors’ charity. This can be seen as patronizing and offensive to the recipients because the aid expressly serves the policy aims of the donors rather than the needs of the recipients.

Moral resources, political capital and civil society

Based on a case study in China, Xu and Ngai (2011) revealed that the developing grasroots volunteerism can be an enclave among various organizations and may be able to work toward the development of civil society in the developing countries. The researchers developed a “Moral Resources and Political Capital” approach to examine the contributions of volunteerism in promoting the civil society. Moral resource means the available morals could be chosen by NGOs. Political capital means the capital that will improve or enhance the NGOs’ status, possession or access in the existing political system.[24]

Moreover Xu and Ngai (2011) distinguished two types of Moral Resources: Moral Resource-I and Moral Resource-II (ibid).

  1. Moral Resource I: Inspired by Immanuel Kant’s (1998 [1787]) argument of “What ought I to do,” Moral Resource-I will encourage the NGOs’ confidence and then have the courage to act and conquer difficulties by way of answering and confirming the question of “What ought I to do.”[25]
  2. Moral Resource II: given that Adorno (2000) recognizes that moral or immoral tropes are socially determined, Moral Resource-II refers to the morals that are well accepted by the given society.[26]

Thanks to the intellectual heritage of Blau and Duncan (1967), two types of political capital were identified:

  1. Political Capital-I refers to the political capital mainly ascribed to the status that the NGO inherited throughout history (e.g., the CYL).
  2. Political Capital-II refers to the Political Capital that the NGOs earned through their hard efforts.[27]

Obviously, “Moral resource-I itself contains the self-determination that gives participants confidence in the ethical beliefs they have chosen”,[28] almost any organizations may have Moral Resource-I, while not all of them have the societal recognized Moral Resource-II. However, the voluntary service organizations predominantly occupy Moral Resource-II because a sense of moral superiority makes it possible that for parties with different values, goals and cultures to work together in promoting the promotion of volunteering. Thus the voluntary service organizations are likely to win the trust and support of the masses as well as the government more easily than will the organizations whose morals are not accepted by mainstream society. In other words, Moral Resource II helps the grassroots organizations with little Political Capital I to win Political Capital-II, which is a crucial factor for their survival and growth in developing countries such as China. Therefore, the voluntary service realm could be an enclave of the development of civil society in the developing nations.[29]

Criticisms

In the 1960s, Ivan Illich offered an analysis of the role of American volunteers in Mexico in his speech entitled "To Hell With Good Intentions". His concerns, along with those of critics such as Paulo Freire and Edward Said, revolve around the notion of altruism as an extension of Christian missionary ideology. In addition, he mentions the sense of responsibility/obligation as a factor, which drives the concept of noblesse oblige—first developed by the French aristocracy as a moral duty derived from their wealth. Simply stated, these apprehensions propose the extension of power and authority over indigenous cultures around the world. Recent critiques of volunteering come from Westmier and Kahn (1996) and bell hooks (née Gloria Watkins) (2004). Also, Georgeou (2012) has critiqued the impact of neoliberalism on international aid volunteering.

The field of themedical tourism (referring to volunteers who travel overseas to deliver medical care) has recently attracted negative criticism when compared to the alternative notion of sustainable capacities, i.e., work done in the context of long-term, locally-run, and foreign-supported infrastructures. A preponderance of this criticism appears largely in scientific and peer-reviewed literature.[30][31][32] Recently, media outlets with more general readerships have published such criticisms as well.

See also

Buchenwald Concentration Camp 16 avril 1945, photo taken by Jules Rouard, Belgian military volunteer incorporated to the 1st First American Army, 16éme Bataillon de Fusiliers.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Etymology:VOLUNTEER". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2012-04-30. 
  2. "The origin of the word "Volunteering"". Jocote.org. Retrieved 2012-04-30. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 ISBN 1-86287-376-3, Volunteers and Volunteering, The Federation Press
  4. "Need of skills based volunteering for Non-Profit activities". National Service Resources. 
  5. Independent Sector "Skills based volunteering". Independent Sector. 
  6. World Volunteer Web, 16 August 2007: Gap-year 'voluntourists' told not to bother Linked 2013-08-09
  7. "The Biggest Problem with International Service & Voluntourism | Building a Better WorldBuilding a Better World". Criticalservicelearning.org. 2013-02-28. Retrieved 2013-09-17. 
  8. "Online Volunteering". UN Volunteers. Retrieved 2012-04-30. 
  9. "Virtual Volunteering". Service Leader. Retrieved 2012-04-30. 
  10. "Micro-Volunteering via Mobile Phones - Using Spare Time to Micro-Volunteer". 
  11. "Micro Volunteering - Changing The World In Just Your Pyjamas!". I-volunteer.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-09-17. 
  12. "Environmental Volunteer Work". PeaceCorps. Retrieved 2012-04-30. 
  13. "USGS Tsunami 2004 Summary". United States Geological Survey. 
  14. "Emergency Volunteering Coverage in NatGeo.". National Geographic. 
  15. "The Economy's Impact on Back to School". Great Schools. 2009-08-06. Retrieved 2009-11-20. 
  16. 16.0 16.1 "Volunteer teaching effort can help students to learn better in schools". School Mental Health Project. Retrieved 2011-12-14. 
  17. "Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering - The Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs and Fortune 500 Performance (2009)". Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship 2009. Retrieved 2010-04-21. 
  18. "Fortune 500's monetary donation programs for voluntary service". DoubletheDonation.com. Retrieved 2012-03-07. 
  19. "How companies benefit from EVP". VolunteerMatch.org. Retrieved 2010-04-21. 
  20. http://www.picketnews.com/archiveDetail.asp?cID=3&id=8327|publisher=Picket News
  21. Bush Announces Faith-Based Initiative
  22. ISBN reference for Volunteering Visions, Publisher: The Federation Press, Edited by: Joy Noble and Fiona Johnston, ISBN 1-86287-404-2 ISBN 978-1862874046
  23. "Aid, taxation, and development: analytical perspectives on aid effectiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa". World Bank. 1998-02-28. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
  24. Xu, Y; Ngai, N. P. (2011). "Moral Resources and Political Capital: Theorizing the Relationship Between Voluntary Service Organizations and the Development of Civil Society in China". Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. 40(2). pp. 247–269. Retrieved April 17, 2011. 
  25. Kant, I. (1998). Critique of pure reason (J. M. D. Meiklejohn, Trans.). Raleigh, NC: Alex Catalogue.
  26. Adorno, T. (2000). Problems of moral philosophy (T. Schroder, Ed. & R. Livingstone, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  27. Blau, P. M., & Duncan, O. D. (1967). The American occupational structure. New York: Wiley.
  28. Xu, Y; Ngai, N. P. (2011). "Moral Resources and Political Capital: Theorizing the Relationship Between Voluntary Service Organizations and the Development of Civil Society in China". Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. 40(2). p. 260. Retrieved April 17, 2011. 
  29. Xu, Y.; Ngai, N. P. (2011). "Moral Resources and Political Capital: Theorizing the Relationship Between Voluntary Service Organizations and the Development of Civil Society in China". Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. 40(2). pp. 247–269. Retrieved April 17, 2011. 
  30. Bezruchka, S. (2000). Medical Tourism as Medical Harm to the Third World: Why? For Whom? Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, 11, 77-78.
  31. Roberts, M. (2006). Duffle Bag Medicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 295, 1491-1492.
  32. Pinto, A.D., & Upshur, R.E.G. (2009). Global Health Ethics for Students. Developing World Bioethics, 9, 1-10.

Further reading

  • Georgeou, Nichole, Neoliberalism, Development, and Aid Volunteering, New York: Routledge, 2012. ISBN 9780415809153
  • Winfield, Mark. The Essential Volunteer Handbook. Friesen Press. ISBN 978-1-4602-1581-4. 

External links

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