"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."
-- Albert Einstein
Volunteering personal time to a cause, service, or other person can be very rewarding for various reasons, and in various ways. These reasons can be specific to the volunteer task, whether the person was recruited for the work or if they found it themselves, life stage of the volunteer, or even the motivation behind donating time. Although research has proved that volunteering affects each individual differently, it has also proved that the affects are typically positive. Within the research done on how volunteerism affects well-being a few major themes emerge: motivations behind volunteering, the affects of volunteerism on the volunteer, and duration and consistency of volunteer work.
The motivation behind volunteer work has been researched time and time again, and the findings show that social state, economic state and benefits are factors that affect the volunteer force. The most prevalent factor appears to be social and economic state of the volunteer. “People of higher social status have greater civic skills; thus they are more likely to be asked to volunteer. They may also be more motivated to volunteer, as they have a greater stake in the community” (Oesterle, Johnson & Mortimer, 2004) This research is considered the human capital theory, those who have a better education, more job training, and greater income have more resources to pull from, which in turn gives a higher benefit to the organization that is looking for a volunteer. “Human capital theory offers an explanation for why children inherit their parents' volunteering habits different from that found in motivation studies.” (Oesterle, Johnson & Mortimer, 2004) This is becaus...
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...s health a benefit, barrier or both?. Social Forces, 85(1).
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Oesterle, Sabrina, Kirkpatrick Johnson, Monica, & Mortimer, Jeylan T. (2004). Volunteerism during the transition to adulthood: a life course perspective. Social Forces, 82(3).
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Thoits, Peggy A., & Hewitt, Lyndi N. (2001). Volunteer work and well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 42(2).
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In l997 the author Lynn Steirer was a student at Northampton County area Community College when she wrote “When Volunteerism Isn’t Normal”. It was published in the New York Times in a forum of current issues opposite the editorial page. (515).
. Motivations to volunteer: The role of altruism. International Review on Public and Non-profit Marketing2006;3(2):79-91
...heir things, or even clean up the bus after a traveling game. To get in these extra hours just have your coach or a teacher see you doing these things and sign off on your paper.
I have always considered myself a very promising student. I have worked extremely hard and received high grades. I have a close knit group of friends and my teachers and I have mutual respect for each other .Although I would consider myself at this present stage ‘fulfilled’ something was missing. I realized it wasn’t a materialistic aspect of my life. Through a tragic incident I finally discovered what fit perfectly in that vacancy. The consecutive hospitalizations of my grandparents evoked great pain and sorrow. However, out of the scorching intensity of this tragedy I was warmed and comforted by realizing what I was devoid of: community service.
"Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2014" Corporation for National and Community Service. Web. 05 May 2015.
“Holding all else constant, I hypothesize that those with lower incomes will spend their excess time working to earn more money, rather than volunteering.” (Yao, Kimberly) The author believes the amount of income a person receives affects their ability to volunteer. Individuals with lower income will not want to spend their time volunteering for free when they could be working. They will not see volunteering as beneficial, but rather time wasting. “To be sure, some of these wage gaps can be attributed to the fact that lower shares of blacks and Hispanics are college educated. U.S. workers with a four-year college degree earn significantly more than those who have not completed college. Among adults ages 25 and older, 23% of blacks and 15% of Hispanics have a bachelor’s degree or more education, compared with 36% of whites and 53% of Asians.” The wage gaps between the minorities affect their ability to volunteer. Being lower educated will affect people to have lower paying jobs which will cause less free time as they are trying to work instead of volunteering for free. As well as being less educated, they will not be able to understand the importances of volunteering. Having a lower education will decrease the chances of generations volunteering in the future. Getting a higher education is regarded as an impressive accomplishment, since many Hispanic households don’t get a higher education due to the obstacles faced at home.
Warburton, J, Paynter, J & Petriwskyj, A 2007, ‘Volunteering as a productive aging activity: incentives and barriers to volunteering to Australian citizens’, Journal of Applied Gerontology, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 333-354.
The trends correlating to the decrease in volunteerism between generations is of personal value relating to my desire to be a community leader and non-profit owner. Additionally, as an Americorps applicant, I found the lack of community project engagement versus individual volunteering of concern, since the foundation of the Americorps program is based on impact through group collaboration. In relation to group collaboration, Putin posed the lack of volunteer participation stemming from a decrease in establishing community connections. The given example of traditional visits regarding providing for others stresses the importance of community bonds within civic engagement (116). Putin states, “Volunteering and philanthropy and even spontaneous
Vantilborgh, T.; Bidee, J.; Pepermans, R.; Willems, J.; Huybrechts, G.; Jegers, M. (2012) Volunteers’ Psychological Contracts: Extending Traditional Views, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41(6), 1072–1091
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
For my 5 service hours I served at the Trunk or Treat. I thought I learned about about myself and the ones I worked for and I think that you would enjoy this activity as much as I did. For my service hours this year I worked at the Trunk or Treat for Halloween at the Water of life in Upland. I assisted by set up the booths and helped pass out candy to the people that walked by.
What community service means to me is helping someone without expecting anything in return. Community service helps you to gain skills and knowledge, as well as, providing a helping hand to others that need extra help because they can’t do it alone. It makes you feel good knowing you helped others in your community whether it’s cleaning up in a classroom at your school or going to a senior citizen's home and helping there. No matter what you do it will always affect your community, good or bad. There are many different benefits that come out of doing community service, a few of them are psychological, social, and cognitive benefits.
Volunteering impacted my life by building my self-confidence, relationship skills, and social skills. Helping others and devoting my time to this organization supplied me with a sense of pride. I now know that I have the ability to accomplish a wide spectrum of tasks. Volunteering gave me a positive outlook on life. While doing so, I met numerous people whether they were patients, coworkers, or other volunteers. I learned how to share similar interests with others which created friendships. As relationships began forming, I felt an enormous amount of support. I ceased to be timid; my interaction with others strengthened.
Though, the concept of community service is not very new its importance has developed in the past few years. There are thousands of organizations all over the world that engage and hold millions of young people all through the world. People of all age groups, with a maximum number of youth are involved in the process of community service. Community-based organizations include; social service organizations, non-profit providers and associations that engage both young people as well adults as volunteers. The process is beneficial both for the individuals as well as the society. Without community service people would not know the meaning of charity and giving back. Community service can be defined as a service that is performed for the benefit of the public. Community service is not a responsibly or an obligation; it is a commitment. A person must want to do it with good intentions and not because they are being forced to do so. Basically, community service is a way for a person to give back to a community in which they live.
Volunteering: The great experience no one can afford to lose. Opposers say, mandatory community service can have several negative effects on students. “Community service hours are impressive additions to college applications and can provide a student with a great sense of accomplishment; however, the mandatory hours will have many negative consequences” (Cydney Hayes, 2012). Many students are barely even passing the regular school curriculum, and opposers believe that adding the additional load of mandatory service hours will discourage teens from even wanting to graduate. Also mandatory service is usually assigned by a court as punishment to delinquents. “In a small number of cases, community service is required by the court system as restitution for delinquent offenses” (Planty and Bozick, 2006).