Volunteers Gain More When Provided Perspective

The best trip I ever took was with an educational travel company that wrapped its itinerary around the subject of French Impressionism. Everything we saw, did and heard on that trip helped us develop an understanding of the roots, progress, and influence of the French Impressionists.

I could have done the trip alone, but I wouldn't have understood what I was seeing, much less be able, at the end, to tell my friends back home the "story" of Impressionism...how it happened, who the artists were, how the movement developed and how it has influenced the history of art.

It comes as no surprise then, that a volunteer opportunity that includes the study of the issues being addressed is more valuable than a one-off without guidance or discussion of the underlying meaning of what one is doing.

Alina Tugend, writing in the New York Times this past weekend, sketched out the differences between the volunteer experience that might fill out a resume and one that fills out a life. Here are the points that I took away from her excellent article:

• Volunteer service does make a difference for young people. Researchers found, after following more than 500 high school students who engaged in community service, that they were more likely to volunteer or be involved in later civic activity. It didn't matter whether the volunteer service was mandatory or not.
• Context does matter. The researchers found that volunteer programs that included a way for young people to examine and discuss the larger issues that they worked on were more likely to understand how public policy affects societal issues and to see a role for it in developing a more just community. Programs that do not do this create citizens that do not understand the need for political engagement.
• Bad volunteer programs turn people off...perhaps permanently. A study of New York students found that when students were told they were going to help people and then ended up doing "make work" or menial tasks, they were turned off to community service.
• Required community service has a positive affect on students. You would think that voluntary community service would have the greatest impact, but researchers have found that the biggest impact is often made on students who are required to do service work. They were the most likely to say that they would, in the future, vote and volunteer.
• Young people don't have to go abroad to volunteer in order to impress. A survey of admissions officers from top colleges and universities found that they put more value on continuous volunteering over several years in the local community than a short-term volunteer experience abroad.

One of the researchers, Joseph E. Kahne, a professor of education at Mills College, distinguished three types of volunteers:

• those who are "personally responsible," helping people they know and giving blood or engaging in other rather passive activities.
• those who are "participatory citizens," active in community projects.
• those who are "justice-oriented," delving into and examining causes and solutions for social problems.

Professor Kahne said, "We believe that all three dimensions of citizenship are important, but found that most [volunteer] programs do not address all three and generally pay least attention to the last."

Most of the research cited in the NY Times article had to do with establishing the worth of volunteering for young people. However, putting volunteer work into a context and helping volunteers understand the social issues they're working on is important for all ages. But, really, how often does this happen? The lessons to be learned by volunteer managers and program designers are 1) provide meaningful work 2) and incorporate discussion and learning about the deeper issues.

How does your volunteer program stack up? Or what volunteer experiences have you had that do this? Let us know in the comments.

Related:

• 7 Ways to Get the Most Out of Volunteering
• 10 Ways to Make Volunteers Happy

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