Articles

Eigth issue of Voluntary Action
Spring 2001 (Volume 3 Number 2)

 

Volunteering matters – or does it? A UK parliamentary study of the role of voluntary action in the twenty-first century

Alan Dingle, freelance writer and Jane Heath, National Centre for Volunteering

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This is a summary report of the first session in a series of hearings at which UK parliamentarians will investigate the role of voluntary action in the twenty-first century and how national and local government can support it. This first session set out more to identify the important issues than to attempt to resolve them. The participants therefore discussed a series of papers prepared by expert witnesses on the following broad topics:

• Why does volunteering matter in the twenty-first century?

• Can volunteers change the world in the twenty-first century?

• What is volunteering worth? How does it contribute to the twenty-first century economy?

• Is there still a place for volunteering in twenty-first century public welfare services?

• How do we create a vibrant image for volunteering in the twenty-first century?

• Paying the piper in the twenty-first century – the role and responsibility of government.

The report concludes with some practical recommendations for taking the discussion forward.

Bowling along: community leaders in East London

Michael Locke, Alice Sampson and Julie Shepherd, Centre for Institutional Studies, University of East London

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This article reports on a study of the factors involved in volunteering for twelve ‘community leaders’ in east London. It begins by looking at the policy and research context for such a study, including the concept of ‘social capital’ and the support New Labour gives to volunteering. There follows an analysis of what prompted the respondents to volunteer in the first place – under the separate headings of specific triggers (such as being asked), a generalised predisposition to volunteer and feelings about the place where they live – and of what persuaded them to remain as volunteers, including the support given by local authorities and by national and local voluntary organisations respectively. These findings lead the authors to two conclusions: there was no consistent evidence that ways of co-operative working were being ‘invested’ so that they could be drawn on in future, thus challenging the concept of ‘social capital’; and the fact that the respondents received as much support from the public sector as from the voluntary sector might suggest that ‘an active community would be more effectively supported through general public provision or civic infrastructure than through specific initiatives’.

Volunteers and the 3C Model (Campus, Church, Community)

Dr Maxine Hammonds-Smith, associate professor in family and consumer sciences, director of the Center on Aging and Horizons Intergenerational Wellness, Texas Southern University and Professor Dottie Malone-Atkins, assistant professor of English, director of the Mickey Leland Center on World Hunger and Peace, Texas Southern University

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This article explores the contribution made by AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteers to the tobacco prevention programme organised in Greater Houston, Texas, by the Center on Aging and Horizons Intergeneration Wellness at Texas Southern University. The programme adopted what it termed the 3C Model (Campus, Church, Community): this was a partnership between the Campus (which provided the technical expertise for the planning, implementation and evaluation of the programme), the Church (which promoted the programme from the pulpit and through its members), and the Community (which provided the participants for the programme and the support of other organisations with an anti-tobacco agenda). The commitment of the AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteers is identified as the critical factor in the success of the programme.

Individualism and new styles of youth volunteering: an empirical exploration

Lesley Hustinx, Research Assistant of the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

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This article challenges the view that the cultural process of ‘individualisation’ is a threat to volunteering, especially by young people, and instead argues that it offers new opportunities. By studying a Belgian voluntary agency that organises international work camps, the author shows that volunteering can help young people to deal more successfully with their freedom of choice. It can not only stimulate personal development – in this case, through contact with other cultures – but it can also help to reduce the uncertainty young people feel about the future by enabling them to try out various career options. Today’s young volunteers seem to be of a new type: they are not particularly loyal to organisations, they are choosy about what they do and they expect some personal benefit from their volunteering. However, they combine this ‘consumerist’ attitude with sincere feelings of solidarity, a personal identification with what the organisation stands for and a genuine commitment to their volunteering. By setting out to meet the wishes and needs of these ‘new’ volunteers, organisations may be able to ensure a more secure future for volunteering than by restricting themselves to traditional ways of organising.

Below the waterline of public visibility: report of a round table on volunteerism and social development

Miguel D’arcy D’Oliveira with Robert Leigh and Richard Campanaro

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This article is based on the proceedings of a round table discussion organised by United Nations Volunteers to look at how volunteering can contribute to social development. It begins by showing that volunteering is important to social policy because it builds social capital – the trust and ‘connectedness’ that strengthen the fabric of society and can serve to reconcile divided communities. But volunteers can in no sense replace the services provided by government; they work in partnership with the state, adding value to statutory provision. Governments can maximise the contribution volunteers make to society by creating an enabling fiscal and legislative framework, by supporting an effective infrastructure for volunteering and by disseminating information.