Volunteering and Society in the 21st Century


Book Description

Expectations about the contribution that volunteering can make are at a new high. This book aims to meet this interest by bringing together in one volume what is known about the phenomenon of volunteering; the principles and practice of involving volunteers, and the enduring challenges for volunteering in today's world.




Heart of the Nation


Book Description

Heart of the Nation traces America’s volunteer tradition—the golden thread of American democracy—and how Presidents from Washington to Obama have called on citizens to serve neighbor and nation. From the bunker below the White House on 9/11 to villages in Africa, John Bridgeland shares his own experiences inside and outside of government to spark more Americans to volunteer to meet urgent needs. He compellingly argues that such service is fundamental to our own happiness and to what the Founding Fathers envisioned when they talked about the “pursuit of Happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. Bridgeland helps the reader discover their own volunteer service mission and issues a rallying cry to the nation to heal our partisan divisions by joining together across party lines to address our toughest challenges.




Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations in the 21st Century


Book Description

This new handbook builds on The Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations published in 2007, and is the only resource defining the field of study related to small nonprofit organizations and to studying communities from the standpoint of associations that make up communities. It explores the history and conceptualizations of community, theoretical concepts in community organizations, social movements ranging from health to crime, and community practice methods. Further it provides authoritative statements of major theory areas, gives examples of different sub areas of the field, provides guidance to people working as practitioners in the field, and nicely coincides with the increasing interest in clinical sociology. This handbook is of great interest to academics, students and practitioners with an interdisciplinary resource to understand and collaborate in work with contemporary communities.




The New Breed


Book Description

Across the country, volunteer ranks continue to grow, but people are volunteering differently. They're working online, seeking flexible schedules, and pursuing a role in defining how projects should be completed. They want to feel a sense of responsibility for your organization's overall mission. Put simply, these volunteers don't want to simply make a contribution; they want to make a difference! Help to recruit, manage, and lead the new breed of volunteers. Authors guide you to a clearer understanding of what today's volunteers look like, how they want to get involved, and how you can most effectively attract, train, and unleash them within your organization.




Accounting for the Varieties of Volunteering


Book Description

For a long time, volunteering lacked standardized data sets allowing methodologically robust comparative analyses and global policy making. Starting from 2011, the International Labour Office (ILO) and the United Nations (UN) have provided global statistical standards for organization-based and direct volunteering which offer path-breaking opportunities. The global statistical standards on volunteering are however only relatively known. They also have to face difficult methodological and substantial challenges: Can they really account for the local varieties of volunteering in the different areas of the world? Does their adoption further develop our knowledge of volunteering both at national and international level? Beyond illustrating which innovations these statistical standards bring and critically assessing the tensions between the global guidelines and the local differences, the book shows how the ILO and the UN standards can be implemented into national statistics and which advancements in the understanding of characters, antecedents and impacts of contemporary organization-based and direct volunteering they allow. The Volume takes Italy as an illustrative case that offers global value. This multidisciplinary book demonstrates that a holistic approach to the implementation of the ILO and UN guidelines permits to virtuously balance international statistical standards and locally embedded cultures as well as to move knowledge of volunteering forward in a complexity-driven agenda. The book provides tools, evidences and inspiration for scholars, statistical agencies, practitioners and policy-makers.




Volunteering in Community Sports Associations


Book Description

This review paper focuses on volunteers in community sports associations (CSAs). Such associations are a major context of sports volunteering across Europe, Canada and Australia—the countries in which a multitude of sports clubs are represented by governing bodies of sport. Their importance is not only in the large numbers of volunteers involved but also in the benefits of such associations to society. The clearest of these is the provision of opportunities to take part in sport, at a cost subsidized by the efforts of volunteers and thus contributing to physical health. However, the benefits extend more broadly to the quality of life and the rewards the volunteers themselves receive from association. Many community sports associations have a significant number of members who, while they do not actually play sport themselves, provide opportunities for others and also enjoy the social rewards of membership. The aim of this broad-ranging review is to introduce the reader to community sports associations as an example of small, volunteer-led associations, and to make links between academic theory in this area and the more general study of volunteering. The breadth of the review allows readers to follow-up supporting references on individual topics. The author’s extensive experience, primarily of England and Europe, has inevitably led to more examples being drawn from these areas; however, broader international work is also incorporated. It is hoped this review will stimulate readers’ thinking about volunteering in their own country.




The Palgrave Handbook of Volunteering, Civic Participation, and Nonprofit Associations


Book Description

Written by over 200 leading experts from over seventy countries, this handbook provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of the latest theory and research on volunteering, civic participation and nonprofit membership associations. The first handbook on the subject to be truly multinational and interdisciplinary in its authorship, it represents a major milestone for the discipline. Each chapter follows a rigorous theoretical structure examining definitions, historical background, key analytical issues, usable knowledge, and future trends and required research. The nine parts of the handbook cover the historical and conceptual background of the discipline; special types of volunteering; the major activity areas of volunteering and associations; influences on volunteering and association participation; the internal structures of associations; the internal processes of associations; the external environments of associations; the scope and impacts of volunteering and associations; and conclusions and future prospects. This handbook provides an essential reference work for third-sector research and practice, including a valuable glossary of terms defining over eighty key concepts. Sponsored by the International Council of Voluntarism, Civil Society, and Social Economy Researcher Associations (ICSERA; www.icsera.org), it will appeal to scholars, policymakers and practitioners, and helps to define the emergent academic discipline of voluntaristics.




Enterprising Care?


Book Description

What does it mean to be a volunteer in the UK today? This book adds new insights into volunteering from the perspective of the individual, the organisation and the community .




Volunteer Tourism


Book Description

Volunteer Tourism is one of the major growth areas in contemporary tourism, where tourists for various reasons seek alternative goodwill experiences and activities. To meet this demand there has been a surge in volunteer programmes offered in range of destinations organized by a variety of charities and tour operators which is predicted to continue to grow in the future. Volunteer Tourism provides an in-depth analysis of the complex issues associated with traditional and contemporary volunteer tourism. Reflecting the growth in this phenomenon, this book provides a cohesive collection of chapters written from a range of international expert scholars and researchers. The theoretically rich, practically applied and empirically grounded contributions are based on current and diverse research in the area. This groundbreaking volume explores topics which have not been addressed in the literature before, such as the impact on host communities, introducing new areas and ideas to the field. The diverse range of themes are identified and addressed, including volunteer tourism and sustainability to, uniquely, the examination of volunteer tourism stakeholders – volunteers themselves, the host-to-guest exchange, and the organizations – and management of volunteers. These themes are examined in a range of international case studies, demonstrating the wide range of issues associated with volunteer tourism. This volume is a timely addition offering an innovative approach to the area. Volunteer Tourism will be of interest to both students and researchers interested in tourism, leisure and development, as well as non-academics, practitioners, NGOs government officials at all levels.




The Changing Face of Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care


Book Description

Volunteers have a long been involved in supporting the delivery of palliative care. Indeed in some countries, the range and quality of hospice and palliative care services depends on the involvement of volunteers. Hospice and palliative care services and volunteering are changing. As society develops, so too does volunteering. Volunteers have growing expectations of organizations, and increasingly seek roles that meet their needs and aspirations, rather than fitting in with organizational approaches. As hospice and palliative care services experience increasing and changing demands for their services due to aging populations with complex healthcare needs, we need to recognize that volunteers have a vital role to play in supporting the delivery of services of the future. The Changing Face of Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care explores the complex phenomenon that is volunteering in hospice and palliative care in different countries. It considers how and why volunteering is changing, through the contributions of authors from Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Australia, Africa, and India. It reflects on the influence of culture and organisational contexts, in addition to management approaches, legislative, and political influences, highlighting factors that contribute to the success of volunteering. Contributing to knowledge and understanding in the field of volunteering in hospice and palliative care internationally, this book highlights the factors that contribute to the success of volunteering models, allowing readers to see possibilities for change and find new ideas for innovative practice in their own setting.