NCOC Featured Discussion
 Supporters of the Act say the volunteer activities are important to build the morale, skills, and networks of job seekers. Additional volunteers can also supplement gaps in support felt by nonprofits. “When you're helping our citizens serve other people and serve charities, only good can come of it,” Senator Albers told CNN. Opponents say the unemployed can’t afford the time away from their job search, and the required transportation costs could add undue financial stress. "I do charity work," Joyce Wilson told CBS Atlanta. "I don't need anyone to tell me to do it and if they are going to make it mandatory, they need to give me a little something for my gas.” CBS Atlanta asked job seekers how they felt about the proposed bill. One job seeker who supported the measure, Arnie Isaacson, commented "If you are unemployed, 24 hours is nothing - you have 80 hours just sitting around. If it helps the state, if it helps the system, we all need to chip in. These are very difficult times." Another job seeker, Kezia Holston, seemed unsure, saying "community service is a good thing, but I don't know if it is the right thing at the time." Georgia is currently experiencing unemployment rates above the national average (10.2% statewide vs. 9.0% nationally in October). This is an ongoing trend for the state-- Georgia has surpassed the national unemployment rate for 51 consecutive months. Civic health research found that Georgia is one of the bottom-ranked locations when it comes to volunteering; it is ranked 41st out of 50 states with a rate of 23.9% (national average is 26.5%). NCoC research has suggested a connection between civic engagement rates and a community’s unemployment levels. A 2011 issue brief, “Civic Health and Unemployment: Can Engagement Strengthen the Economy?” found that areas with high civic health had experienced a smaller overall growth in unemployment. While these preliminary findings are encouraging, NCoC plans to explore the data and this connection further. We want to hear from you... Are bills such as this a win-win for the unemployed, nonprofits, and communities writ large? Or is it an unfair mandate on citizens already experiencing great personal challenges? If you like this kind of content, sign up for an NCoC.net account and we'll customize your homepage recommendations based on your interests..
By Jayne Cravens at 11:54 AM on Dec 15th, 2011
Did the people pushing this idea talk to nonprofits and government programs that involve volunteers and ask if they could involve an influx of new volunteers, putting at least one person to work for 24 hours a week?
No. Do the people pushing this plan know how much staff time and resources are required for a program or agency to involve volunteers, that volunteers are never free - and, therefore, will the government be providing funding to nonprofits and other organizations in order to fund the staff time and resources to involve volunteers in such large blocks of time each week? No. Did the people pushing this plan do any research on how difficult it is for people who want to volunteer to find opportunities, that people report applying for multiple assignments on web sites like VolunteerMatch, over a period of weeks , sometimes over a period of months, before they ever actually end up volunteering? No. I'm all for people who are unemployed looking into volunteering as a way to build their skills for employment, as a way to make contacts that might lead to employment, as a way to get some accomplishments under their belt that would look great on their résumé, and as a way to counter the negative emotional pressures of unemployment. But finding volunteering activities is hard. VERY hard. Much of my web site has been primarily focused on the organizations that involve volunteers, but I had to create pages focused on people who want to volunteer because of the OVERWHELMING number of people that post again and again to places like YahooAnswers, people who are trying to find volunteering activities and cannot find such. Why do I get hired again and again to do training on how to involve volunteers? Why does Susan Ellis keep writing and selling so many books on volunteer engagement? Because thousands and thousands of nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), schools, government programs and many others do not know how to involve volunteers. So, reality check, John Albers and others pushing this: If you want organizations to involve more volunteers - and to involve volunteers in such huge chunks of time (24 hours a week - three full work days a week!), then start looking for money to give to these organizations - they will need it to fund the time (and perhaps even the training) of a full-time manager of volunteers who will screen, train, support and supervise all these thousands of volunteers you want to send their way. (This is adapted from a blog I wrote on this subject, here: http://coyoteblog.posterous.com/requiring-jobless-to-volunteer-reality-check) |
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