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Measuring Volunteering
"What does it mean to ask someone if he or she volunteers?
It means that we have an answer totally dependent on how
individuals define volunteering, without any consistency
between individuals." Chris Toppe, Senior Social
Scientist at the Points of Light Foundation, takes on
this challenge of identifying a more accurate way of measuring
volunteer rates. He finds that asking behavioral questions
about volunteer activities increases the number of volunteers
and levels of commitment captured.
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Driving Forces Behind the Rise in Youth
Volunteering
It has been well documented by numerous surveys that
young people today are volunteering at unprecedented rates.
A new report by Lewis A. Friedland and Shauna Morimoto
examines the motivating factors behind volunteering.
Young people are facing higher stress, greater uncertainty
and risk (although coupled with opportunities for some),
and looser connections among family, friends, and communities.
While parents' occupation may still predict the broad
income band that children will occupy in adulthood, it
will not necessarily predict educational achievement,
occupation, or lifestyle. Students recognize that their
future life chances rest on college attendance. Anxiety
resulting from this recognition has suffused both the
lives and future life-planning of all sectors of high-school-aged
youth. Under these circumstances, young people of all
classes are approaching service as (in part) an instrumental
price to pay for college admission.
In addition to the resume-padding, this study finds
that several other factors are motivating the rise in
volunteer activity, and these factors vary by class and
racial position, ideological disposition, and religious
involvement. Additionally, the report contains a typology
of youth volunteers.
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The Gap Between Service and Politics:
A Candid Discussion Between Young People and Politicians
Research shows that young people are leading the way
in volunteering, but falling behind in political participation.
In January 2004, college students in Wisconsin were invited
to join U.S. Representatives Tammy Baldwin and Mark Green
at The Johnson Foundation's Wingspread Conference Center
to discuss the disconnect between service and politics.
Findings from the meeting are contained in CIRCLE
Working Paper 27: From the Horse's Mouth: A Dialogue Between
Politicians and College Students.
The Working Paper suggests that one way to increase youth
involvement in politics may be to develop more models
that allow students the opportunity to engage in realistic
political exercises through their schools or other places
of civic education. Students noted that working in a soup
kitchen prepared them for service work, but it did not
prepare them to advocate for policies to decrease homelessness.
To work on these policies, students need opportunities
engage in the realities of politics, including partisanship,
without advancing one side or the other. Several other
recommendations and insights can be found in the paper.
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National Service
The President’s call for more Americans
to engage in national
service through programs such as the USA Freedom Corps
brings
new attention to a long history of voluntary service programs
in
America. Since the New Deal, Americans have participated
in a
variety of civilian national service programs. A CIRCLE
Working
Paper by Melissa Bass traces the development of the three
most
prominent civilian national service programs—AmeriCorps,
VISTA,
and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)—and gives
reasons
why to date national service in the United States has
not been
recognized and supported as a viable policy option for
addressing
the nation’s needs and a viable life-option for significant
numbers
of young adults.
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How to Encourage Young Volunteers
A major survey completed in September, 2002
and released by CIRCLE contains detailed information on
how to encourage youth volunteering. Here are just a few
of the findings:
- Being asked is the top reason motivating young people
to volunteer (closely followed by "because it makes
me feel good.")
- Young people who grow up in a household where someone
volunteers are twice as likely to volunteer regularly,
to be an active member of a group, and are more likely
to follow politics and vote.
- Young people who discuss a volunteer experience are
twice as likely as others to volunteer regularly. And,
they are also 16 percentage points more likely to try
to influence someone's vote!
Click
here for highlights and access to more detailed information.
The following trends are
interesting:
Volunteering Is Up Among Incoming
College Students Since 1989
Volunteering Is Up
Among High School Students Since 1990
However, closer
examination reveals that most of the increase has
been caused by a rise in episodic, rather than regular,
volunteering.
CIRCLE's analysis of the 2002 National
Youth Survey data shows that "efficacy,"
the sense that one can make a difference, often predicts
a tendency to volunteer:
Factors Related To Volunteering
Furthermore, young people do not say that
they volunteer because of requirements or in order to
get into college:
Reasons Why Young Adults Volunteer
Following young people from the high school
class of 1992 reveals that levels of volunteering increase
from 10th grade until age 20, but then fall off by age
26
Volunteering From 10th Grade to
Age 26
