YouthNet blog
An insight into youth issues, volunteering trends, charity life and more from the UK charity YouthNet
All | Events | Youth | Technology | Volunteering | YouthNet | Charity World
Thursday Jan 26, 2006
A challenge to current perspectives on volunteerism
In response to articles recently posted on the World VolunteeringWeb voicing concerns that volunteering may hold no place for theunemployed, indigent or disenfranchised, Jayne Cravens of CoyoteCommunications writes that current promotions of volunteerism should bebroadened to include individuals from across all socioeconomicbackgrounds.
Rather than seeing volunteering activity as a function of thegovernment and large corporations wishing to tackle social concerns,she argues that individuals have historically volunteered their time"to positive affect people and the environment in confrontationto or outside of the state or other power structures". She points tothe example of Americans in the 1950s and 60s who, in spite of -or because of - their socioeconomic exclusion, volunteered their timeto address a community problem: state-sanctioned apartheid in theAmerican deep south. Fighting for one's own civil rights as a volunteer?
As a call to reconsider what it means to be a volunteer,particularly in light of the promotions of volunteering activities onthe part of both the Government and opposition party, it's aninteresting perspective.
http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volunteer/realvolunteering.html
Articles on World Volunteer Web:
"Volunteer in Yemen? Please be serious!" http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/?id=9921
"Is volunteering just for the privileged few?" http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/?id=10032
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 1:08 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
