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The importance of being a volunteer in the public services
Importance of volunteering in community
Importance of community participation
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Introduction
According to Grossman and Furano (1999), each year Americans volunteer more than twenty billion hours of their time for a greater cause. Volunteers are the lifeblood of many organizations and programs, and those offered by parks and recreation agencies are no exception. Volunteers “play a vital role in providing a healthy, enjoyable, and developmentally appropriate youth…experience for children” (Wiersma & Sherman, 2005, p. 337). It is critical for managers to know how to recruit, train, supervise, evaluate, retain, and reward the people who sacrifice their time and efforts for the betterment of the community through youth programming. “Many [organizations] do not utilize volunteers as well as they could, and are reluctant to invest time and resource in improving their volunteer program” (Choudhury, 2010). This paper will address the relationship between park and recreation managers, volunteers, and youth program participants in order to create positive experiences for all involved.
Summary
There are a variety of youth programs that rely on volunteers, including sports leagues, field trips, special events, camps, and classes. Parks and recreation agencies should consider using volunteers for programs such as these, as volunteers can provide special skills, experiences, and connections, frees up staff time and resources, bring unique viewpoints, ideas, and feedback to the table, can help the agency extend its services, and offer a way for the community to get involved in the organization’s programming (Guide, 2011). Just as there are benefits to using volunteers in youth programs, there are also difficulties that arise. Recruiting suitable volunteers and letting go of unsuitable volunteers can be a tough and lengthy pr...
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... and expectations that need to be met with a positive experience. “Just as [volunteers in youth programs] accept a large responsibility in ensuring [a positive] experience for children, the [organizations] in which they serve have an equally important responsibility in ensuring that [volunteers] are prepared and able to do so” (Wiersma & Sherman, 2005, p. 337). Recreation agencies also have a large responsibility to ensuring a child’s safety and wellbeing and this can be achieved through successful volunteer management. Traditionally seen as “free labor,” managers need to recognize the required effort of leading volunteers. Recruitment, selection, training, supervision, evaluation, retention, and reward are essential processes when deciding to utilize volunteers and certain steps, such as selection and training, are especially important in the youth program setting.
Non-Profit organizations are a major mold in society in general, and they continue to help advance many of the social causes of our time. From the description, we know that employee and volunteer morale is quite low, and that is the fault of the senior management. In an organization, it is important that each individual knows that they are contributing to something larger than themselves. In many cases, employees seek to work somewhere where they can earn a living, but also where they can become a member of a team, and feel a sense of purpose. When they are not treated with respect or given the ability to make their own decisions, they lose engagement and become stagnant in their work. Volunteers look for much of the same thing; they are, after
2. To offer some suggestions about how to plan, organize and maintain an effective volunteer program.
After a single telephone call to the Children’s Hospital Volunteer Services Coordinators, I learned that volunteers were readily accepted to serve within the hospital’s recreational therapy deparment. When they asked my reason for volunteering, I explained to them that I wanted to help the children develop their leadership potential as well as other abilities. The members of volunteer services seemed excited.
Camp ReCreation was founded in 1978, with goal of giving adults and children the opportunity to participate in fun, social activities and an opportunity for spiritual growth. Since then the camp has continued to grow and in 2012 there were a total of 165 volunteers. The camp is a nonprofit organization, and is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and from charitable donations from the community. Recently, Camp ReCreation have left their roots from Catholic funded charities and the presidents have recently founded a new organization named RAD Camp, Inc. RAD Camp’s mission statement is, “We offer an awesome summer camp experience for those with developmental disabilities, much-deserved
Public /Private Ventures. (1995b) Morrow, Kristine and Melanie Styles. Building Relationships with Youth in Program Settings. May 1995. Philadelphia.
volunteering is a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task. In this report i will talk about the different types of volunteering in the:
People often fail to see the life-changing role sports can play for at-risk youth in low-income urban neighborhoods and the need for more sports-based youth programs to reduce crime and increase high school graduation rates in our cities. An article written about a year ago about “Royals, local government team up to open a youth urban baseball academy at 18th and vine,” The Kansas City Mayor calls it a dream and others called it a fairytale. Projects like this don’t come very often, or at least not nearly as often as we’d all like. They are calling it the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy. The possibilities are incredible. On the surface, they will be teaching baseball to kids from 6 to 18 years old, but really, they want to be doing much more than that. The only way communities can progress and build infrastructures like this one in areas that are termed as gang infested areas like this one is by spreading the message of love in community related events such as
The relationship between young people and nonprofits can be the start of a significant change in our community, and should be a reciprocal and powerful educational experience. An open-minded and encouraging flow of communication between organizations and community members can be the launchpad for the social and environmental change organizations talk about and try for every day. Together, we can make change – not just a semblance of idealism, but reality, as well.
Witt, Peter A. and Joni E. Baker. “Making A R.E.A.L. Difference,” Parks and Recreation. Mar 1999. General Reference Center Gold. Jan 2007
Volunteering increases a person’s physical health. A person who volunteers is found to live a longer life. Even more so, volunteers found themselves with lower mortality rates (Dietz et al.). Volunteerism has been helpful in increasing health and consequently lowers mortality rates. Furthermore, people experience less chronic pain when volunteering. Specifically, people experiencing chronic pain found it to decrease when volunteering and serve the public (Dietz et al.). Volunteers experience better health overall, but also specific enhancements such as reducing chronic pain like stated above. Additionally, volunteering can be physically demanding, increasing strength and stamina. Notably, Volunteers for Experience Corps found themselves with
The volunteer process has stringent guidelines, it protects youth by identifying and screening applicants that can pose a safety risk, therefore making this process time-consuming from three to nine months, with only 35 percent of the applicants being matched; 30 percent withdrew or was not considered, and 35 percent had not completed all the proper steps. The screening process for youth involves an application, interviews with parents and child, and a home assessment. Many agencies have a requirement of no more than one parent in the household. The youth must be between the ages of 5 and 18, a resident of Davidson County, have minimal social skills, and parent’s agreement for the child to follow the rules.
In the past four years of my life, volunteer work has left an indelible mark on my heart and mind. When I became a volunteer, I had a very vague notion of leadership. As my high school days come to an end, I am left with the feeling that I have finally come into my own shoes, discovering the things that are important to me and those that are not. I have found my personal leadership style, and I now pay attention to the leaders I come across each day. For this reason, volunteering has been both an enlightening and inspiring experience, for I am surrounded by peers, mentors, and the volunteer program director, all of whom are leaders with creative visions of their own.
As a native of Lancaster, I feel an obligation to act and do something that will benefit my community. I am well aware of the many perils that youth face, and these obstacles can be extremely difficult to overcome without positive figures to aid and provide guidance. There is a great need for an intensive mentoring program within the community to positively influence the lives of youth. For The Land of Dreams, I have proposed to host a community basketball tournament to raise funds to implement a mentoring program to assist in the personal growth and career development of youth in Lancaster County and surrounding areas. The program will form partnerships with local school districts and the juvenile court system. This event will aid Lancaster County by providing additional discretionary resources that will be used to fund such activities as tutoring programs, leadership courses, and college tours.
Volunteering enables a person to develop new skills that he or she would otherwise not have been able to develop. Unlike most other organizations, a charitable organization is happy to give positions to passionate, though inexperienced, individuals who desire to help others and benefit the community. Therefore, an individual with little experience in a field of work can gain meaningful skills that he or she can use in the future. For example, while I volunteered at the hospital this summer, I learned about the daily work lives and professional duties of doctors and nurses. Had I not volunteered, I would not have learned about these things. I was always interested in the medical field, but volunteering at the hospital let me explore my interests and en...
Volunteering benefits a person by building connections with peers, improving family life, expanding career skills, overcoming self doubt, having lasting life impressions, and creating new opportunities. Just a small act can make a huge difference in someone’s life. The future is dependent on the individual person and the people they surround themselves with. Just a few hours will change both the volunteer’s life and the one that is in need.