Volunteer Activities (volunteer + activity)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Ports of Entry and Obstacles: Teenagers' Access to Volunteer Activities

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 2 2000
Richard A. Sundeen
The recruitment of young people into volunteering activities is the primary focus of this article. We examine which teenagers volunteer, the ways that teenagers become involved in volunteer activities, and why teenagers do not volunteer. Teenagers who volunteer tend to have dominant status, that is, access to social power, high personal competency, and socialization into volunteer experiences through family, church, and school. Personal contact with family, friends, and teachers who are involved with service, prior participation in school- and church-based service, and personal initiative lead teenagers to learn about and engage in volunteering activities. Teenagers who do not volunteer often do not have sufficient time or interest. Differences exist among teenagers as to which factors prompt volunteering. For example, teenagers who are white, have parents who volunteer, and attend religious services are more likely than others to learn about volunteer activities through organizations, and teenagers with higher personal competency (grade point averages) are more likely than others to learn about volunteering activities at school. The article includes suggestions for recruitment policy and management of teenage volunteers. [source]


Dispositional and Organizational Influences on Sustained Volunteerism: An Interactionist Perspective

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 3 2002
Louis A. Penner
Community service often involves sustained prosocial actions by individuals. This article focuses on one kind of such actions, volunteerism. Volunteerism involves long,term, planned, prosocial behaviors that benefit strangers, and usually occur in an organizational setting. A selective review of the literature on the correlates of volunteerism is presented. One part of the review concerns the relationship between dispositional variables and volunteerism; it includes new data from an on,line survey that show significant relationships among personality traits, religiosity, and volunteer activities. The other part concerns how organizational variables, alone and in combination with dispositional variables, are related to volunteerism. A theoretical model of the causes of sustained volunteerism is presented and the practical implications of this model are discussed. [source]


Ports of Entry and Obstacles: Teenagers' Access to Volunteer Activities

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 2 2000
Richard A. Sundeen
The recruitment of young people into volunteering activities is the primary focus of this article. We examine which teenagers volunteer, the ways that teenagers become involved in volunteer activities, and why teenagers do not volunteer. Teenagers who volunteer tend to have dominant status, that is, access to social power, high personal competency, and socialization into volunteer experiences through family, church, and school. Personal contact with family, friends, and teachers who are involved with service, prior participation in school- and church-based service, and personal initiative lead teenagers to learn about and engage in volunteering activities. Teenagers who do not volunteer often do not have sufficient time or interest. Differences exist among teenagers as to which factors prompt volunteering. For example, teenagers who are white, have parents who volunteer, and attend religious services are more likely than others to learn about volunteer activities through organizations, and teenagers with higher personal competency (grade point averages) are more likely than others to learn about volunteering activities at school. The article includes suggestions for recruitment policy and management of teenage volunteers. [source]


Factors Affecting Satisfaction Levels of Japanese Volunteers in Meal Delivery Services for the Elderly

PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 5 2008
Hisayo Yanagisawa
ABSTRACT Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting satisfaction with volunteer work of participants in a meal delivery service for the elderly. Design: A cross-sectional study with a self-administered survey was carried out. Sample: Of 364 volunteers assisting with a meal delivery service for the elderly in rural towns A (80), B (159), and C (125), 247 responded (response rate: 68%). Method: An anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey was administered seeking information about basic attributes, sense of satisfaction with volunteer work, and working circumstances such as human relationships with fellow volunteers, meal service users or professional staff members, opportunities for meetings or workshop, publicity through public relations magazines, and the like. Results: In multivariate logistic analysis, the sense of satisfaction of volunteers was closely associated with human relations among volunteers (odds ratio [OR] 5.15, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.84,14.40, p<.01), meal service users (OR 3.84, 95% CI 1.37,10.77, p<.05), and professional staff members supervising the meal delivery service (OR 3.53, 95% CI 1.27,9.84, p<.05). Human relations were also affected by the emphasis on communication, consultation with supervisory staff members, having opportunities for meetings, having friends with whom to confer, and publicity through public relations magazines. Conclusion: Satisfaction levels of volunteers in meal delivery services for the elderly were most affected by human relations with fellow volunteers, meal service users, and professional staff members. Increasing opportunities for communication may be important to promote good human relationships among volunteers and volunteer activities. [source]


,To Whom Much Has Been Given...': Religious Capital and Community Voluntarism Among Churchgoing Protestants

JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 3 2000
Jerry Z. Park
Research on volunteering behavior has consistently found a positive relationship between religion and volunteering. Using a sample of churchgoing Protestants (N=1,738)from the Religious Identity and Influence Survey we examine the specific influences of religiosity, religious identity, religious socialization, and religious social networks on local volunteer activity in church programs and non-church organizations, as well as general volunteering tendencies. These influences are presented within the theoretical framework of religious capital. Logistic regression techniques were applied to determine the strength of the contribution of these influences while accounting for basic background factors. Findings suggest that churchgoing Protestants are influenced by all measures to some degree, but religiosity (specifically participation in church activities) remains the strongest influence. Significant religious influences overall are most pronounced within the context of church-related volunteering which suggests that churchgoing Protestants exhibit a strong sense of community identity through their local churches. A discussion of these results and their implications for volunteering follows. [source]


Burnout among volunteers in the social services: The impact of gender and employment status

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2006
Liat KulikArticle first published online: 7 AUG 200
This study examines whether gender and employment status affect burnout, motives for volunteering, and difficulties associated with volunteer activity in social and community services in Israel. The sample included 375 men and women aged 16 through 80. Participants were divided into four groups by employment status: high school students, employed persons, retirees, and unemployed persons. The findings revealed that employment status had a more significant impact on the research variables than did gender. Burnout correlated positively with difficulty in relations with beneficiaries among men, and with difficulty in relations with the provider organization among women. Female students and unemployed men were found to be particularly vulnerable to burnout. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]