Analysis of a Volunteer Activity - Assignment Example

Volunteer Activity There are a lot of different kinds of volunteer work such as volunteering to help sick children, the aged, the victims of disasters, or perhaps volunteering to help a certain group in their livelihood and housing. Among all these, what I find most interesting and relevant would be the volunteers to provide housing and livelihood. First of all, volunteer work is a philanthropic activity that seeks to improve the condition of human life. There are two kinds of volunteer work: informal and formal volunteering. Formal volunteering is a kind of altruistic activity that is usually a group that is composed of teams or people with the same vision and mission that seek to continuously provide help through any kind of volunteer work that usually needs the help of third parties such as sponsors to help widen the reach of their service to society. On the other hand, informal volunteering is a kind of activity to benefit a certain group of people done by individuals or groups that do not have to be necessarily affiliated to a certain organization or perhaps operate in a continuous manner. Some examples of which would be charity events, self or group initiated activities to give food, clothing and etc. (Different Types of Community Volunteering. n.d.). My chosen volunteer activity would be volunteering to provide housing and improve livelihood. This for me is one relevant volunteer work as I believe that the whole well-being of a person starts with a good home and at the same time the ability to produce wealth on their own without having to depend on others. One of the big volunteer groups that I consider to be a formal volunteering group would be Up with People. It is a diverse volunteer group founded in 1965 that sets out to gather participants to join a program where they visit different countries and people to provide materials and manpower help to give homeless people a decent home and at the same time the knowledge to start and maintain a source of livelihood (Up with People | International Travel | Volunteer Abroad, n.d.). This kind of volunteer activity is a formal volunteering activity because of the fact that they continuously do volunteer work even without any urgency to provide their services, because of the fact that they do not stop offering their help after fulfilling a certain project, and at the same time is a permanent venue for anyone who has the same heart to help in enriching housing and livelihood programs all over the world to make a change. Today, because of the different and increasing need for volunteer work to be done, there are an arising number of types of volunteer groups and activities. Together with this are the demographic trends in volunteering being developed. First, one of the obvious demographic trend in the housing and livelihood volunteering would be the fact that volunteers today represent a diverse age, gender, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds (Volunteering Hawke’s Bay - A Volunteer Referral Service :: Trends of Volunteering, n.d.). This is totally a huge turn from the usual demographic trend of volunteer groups for livelihood and especially housing before as males comprise the big percent of population of this kind of volunteer group. This is because of the fact that males are seen as the stronger gender fit to do house building. However, today, males and females are now hugely involved in housing activities, which is the same for livelihood initiatives. Second, the usual members of a volunteer group for housing and livelihood are usually between approximately 25 to 45 which is the age bracket associated with those who have already finished school, are not under their parent’s control, and at the same time are physically fit to build a house. However, today, age is not that much of an issue already, welcoming those that are committed to do volunteer work regardless of whether they have already finished school or whether physical strength is not so much of a strength at all anymore. Senior population today also tends to be stronger and more able to accept paid employment or leisure time to spend for volunteer work (Reed, P., & Selbee, K., n.d.). They see everyone in volunteer work being useful for at least a certain task that would make a difference. Also, socio-economic backgrounds of members of a volunteer group is not relevant already in housing and livelihood volunteering because of the presence of sponsors that will help fund their public initiated activities. Volunteer work especially when it comes to housing and livelihood volunteering that requires so much hard work and dedication would require strong reasons to motivate the volunteers for them to be able to continue what they are doing. To better understand this, it is helpful to look at different motivational theories today that gets volunteers to sacrifice time, effort, convenience, and even family and friends to do so. Well, people join a volunteer group for so many reasons and there are certain levels to this. First level of reason would be self-serving (McKee, T., n.d.). They want to join a group where they could extend help to others to be able to benefit themselves. One strong motivational theory for volunteers in housing and livelihood programs derived from this level is that a lot of people today, including the highly educated and professionals look for meaning and value in life that their current career or well-appointed living provides them (Reed, P., & Selbee, K., n.d.). This is perhaps because of the fact that it is a human nature to not fully be able to enjoy a good home or perhaps a prosperous career when you are knowledgeable of all those people who are living in complete opposite conditions. Thus, when they provide homes and livelihood, they feel like they are giving back to the world. Another theory in this level would be to be able to view a different culture in one’s own direct point of view (Why Do People Volunteer., n.d.). This is because of the fact that with many housing and livelihood programs that set out to help not only in their country or cities of reach but actually go to the most remote areas and outside countries to help enrich other people’s lives, they get to spend an extended period of time in a new country they could explore, learn something new from, try new food from, and meet new people which is as good as traveling the world. Some of the people in the housing and livelihood programs get to stay with a local family so they really get to experience a traditional and culture-rich lifestyle. The second motivational level of why people volunteer is relational (McKee, T., n.d.). When it comes to building a house or develop a livelihood program, this clearly entails one to be in the roots where it is going to be established, thus, what could make them do all those sacrifice of being away from one’s comfort zone aside from doing it for a friend? A lot of people join this kind of volunteering usually when a friend invites them to volunteer for a certain cause that is hard for them to resist especially when they do not have any good reason to decline. Lastly, belief is a motivational level that is the strongest driving force to make volunteers in this kind of volunteering stay (McKee, T., n.d.). This theory that claims that people volunteer because of their passion to help make other people have better lives is pointed towards the benefit of others and not of self. With housing and livelihood volunteering, this is the strongest motivational theory, I could say, especially because of the great coverage of media on the need of a lot of people today for a home and a source of income whether it is because of a natural disaster or perhaps because they belong to poor countries that limit them access to this. With all these said, housing and livelihood volunteering indeed impact not only its direct beneficiaries but society as a whole. Of course, because of these volunteer works, people who have been victimized by natural calamities or accidents are able to rise back up again and be able to move on easily. For those people who belong to the low economic class, having a home and perhaps a business to grow would mean a healthy body, mind, and even spirit that follows the following generation and so on. However, the role of housing and livelihood volunteering goes beyond this. It also encourages engagement for citizen-developed construction of community where all kinds of people and sector are involved. Through a simple act of building, citizens contribute to determining their society’s vision and actually making them happen. People who are volunteers learn to see themselves not only as leaders but also learners from other people’s stories (Doing, Witnessing, Adults, Possibilities, K. R., & Teach., L.A., n.d.). Aside from that, the certain political sectors who seem to not be financial capable to solve housing and livelihood problems in their community now sees light and hope to have extra hands who can make small initiatives achieve a bigger thing. Australian society which has an increasing participation in this kind of volunteer work is sowing the fruits of this work. Today, housing projects has improved Indigenous health, education, and at the same time employment. We all know that having a decent home is fundamental to developing a healthy body and mind. Also, with the increasing number of houses being built for people who lived in less than a house, they now are seeing new hope and excitement to improve their lives in all possible aspects, thus, closing the gap in indigenous disadvantage. These programs did not seize to integrate environmental health and safety as part of their practices, trained indigenous groups practical handyman trade skills and community environmental health principles, addressed systematic housing problems, and most of all created real jobs in communities. With the support the government is now giving which is approximately $1.7 billion over 10 years to 2018, these programs would surely deliver more than 900 new houses or perhaps refurbish 2900 existing houses by the end of 2013 (Remote Housing in the Northern Territory, n.d.). With all these positive results that housing and livelihood volunteering work is causing are also the dim potential future issues for this specific volunteering activity. With the current demographic trend of this type of volunteering, where volunteers who present themselves for the job are as young as 20, their generation who is more willing to volunteer than actually enter into the workforce could pose a problem. This is because of the fact that volunteer work do not usually get one paid anything or perhaps enough to actually give one a good life, given that they are not getting any financial support from their families. Thus, though they do a really great job in solving other people’s problems which is good, wouldn’t they be the future problems who would be needing help from these kinds of volunteering? Also, volunteers are obviously people who feel better about having done something that they volunteered their time to instead of actually doing something they consider a duty. This is one of the motivational theories behind volunteering trend in housing and livelihood. With this in mind, the concept of work which implies being tied to a certain period of time or be under the authority of one’s boss could be something that diminishes the notion of the capability of following rules and bending for the status quo (Doing, Witnessing, Adults, Possibilities, K. R., & Teach., L.A, n.d.). Lastly, I could see another probable issue involving one level of motivation to do a volunteer job which is to gratify oneself in ways such as being able to travel different places. The issue that arises here is that if ever a reward from doing a volunteer job is out of the picture, would people still want to contribute to society or present oneself as a solution to achieve a bigger goal when they are now getting used to always getting something in return? Bibliography: Reed, P., & Selbee, K. (n.d.). Formal and Informal Volunteer and Giving. Publications GC. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/CS75-0048-5E.pdf Different Types of Community Volunteering . (n.d.). Volunteer Link Resources For Community Volunteers - St George Community Services . Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.volunteerlink.org.au/Types-of-Volunteering/ Up with People | International Travel | Volunteer Abroad. (n.d.). Up with People | International Travel | Volunteer Abroad. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.upwithpeople.org/ Volunteering Hawke’s Bay - A Volunteer Referral Service :: Trends of Volunteering. (n.d.). Volunteering Hawke’s Bay - A Volunteer Referral Service :: Home. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.volunteeringhb.org.nz/news/trends_of_volunteering McKee, T. (n.d.). Volunteer Power: Why People Volunteer. Volunteer Power. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.volunteerpower.com/articles/Why.asp Why Do People Volunteer. (n.d.). Gap year travel, Volunteer abroad, TEFL Courses and more from i-to-i. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.i-to-i.com/why-do-people-volunteer.html Doing, Witnessing, Adults, Possibilities, K. R., & Teach., L.A. (n.d.). A conversation on TED.com: Would society benefit or suffer from volunteering replacing employment?. TED: Ideas worth spreading. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.ted.com/conversations/7242/would_society_benefit_or_suffe.html Remote Housing in the Northern Territory. (n.d.). FaHCSIA Internet Home Page. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/progserv/housing/Pages/sihip.aspx Top of Form Bottom of Form Healthy housing worker program « Programs and projects « Key resources « Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. (n.d.). Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet - helping to close the gap by providing the evidence base to inform practice and policy in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/key-resources/programs-projects?pid=799 Search - Mission Australia. (n.d.). Mission Australia - Mission Australia. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.missionaustralia.com.au/search/housing/ Read More