Volunteerism

Acomparisonofthemotivationforcesbehindyouth volunteerisminSingaporeandVirginia

DoneBy: PhuaRouYing JasmineTeoChiatMein FeliciaEeFangEn WinstonNgTengHui

Mother Teresa once said, We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a dropintheocean,buttheoceanwouldbelessbecauseofthatmissingdrop.Wecando nogreatthings,onlysmallthingswithgreatlove. Indeed,morepeoplearebeginningtorecognizetheimportanceofvolunteering and giving back to the society. The benefits of volunteerism are significant, and also widespread. In addition to helping the less unfortunate, volunteers will also find the experience a most rewarding one, whereby they gain valuable life skill. On a bigger picture, volunteerism not only boosts the economy of the country, it can also foster closebondsamongthecitizens,allowingforamoreunitedandgracioussociety. In our project, volunteering is defined as an altruistic act to perform services intendedtohelpothersinthesocietywillinglyandwithoutpay.Undeniably,theworld is seeing a rise in volunteering rates, especially among the teenagers. For instance, accordingtothereport,VolunteerGrowthinAmerica:AReviewofTrendsSince1974, older teenagers, aged 1619 have more than doubled their time spent volunteering since1989. Students are more motivated to participate in volunteering work, and schools haveundoubtedlyplayedavitalroleinencouragingvolunteerismamongtheirstudents. In the following chapters, we will be looking at the current situations of volunteerism anddiscussingthevariousmotivationsbehindvolunteering.

InAmerica
The United States is the most advanced country in philanthropy, in terms of percentageofincome(GDP)giventocharitiesandaveragenumberofhoursgivenfor volunteering.1According to our interview with Mrs. Jennifer Rodgers, a teacher at DominionHighSchool,ThevastmajorityofDominionstudentsengageinsomeformof volunteerism,fromjoiningclubsandsocietieswherevolunteeringisamaincomponent of the club's activities, such as the AthletetoAthlete (where athletes help disabled athletes in the community) and Future Educators of America (they volunteer in local elementary school classrooms), to providing their schoolmates with breakfast (The BreakfastClub). In order to explore the various motivations behind Americas volunteerism culture,ourgrouphasconductedasurvey2atDominionHighSchool,andhasarrivedat thefollowingpossiblereasons. Firstly, American volunteerism comes from religion. 46% of the respondents volunteered for activities organized by churches. Furthermore, the Volunteering in
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Volunteerism in America and Japan, http://heartsandminds.org/articles/volunteer.htm 25 male and 25 female students, age between 14 to 19, at Dominion High School, Virginia.

America 2009 report 3 found that more than one third of America's 61.8 million volunteers(35.9%)servedwithorthroughareligiousorganizationin2008,morethan anyothertypeoforganization.Volunteerswhoserveforfaithbasedorganizationsare also more likely to continue their services to the organizations for a longer period of time,thusexplainingthehighratesofvolunteerism. Secondly,studentsvolunteerbecausetheywanttoservethecommunityorhelp those that are less fortunate. In the survey, students gave various reasons as to why theyseetheneedtodovoluntaryservices,andthemostprevalentanswerwastohelp people, especially the less fortunate, as well as to give back to the community. Inculcatingsuchamentalitytostudentsfromayoungagehasundoubtedlycontributed tothehigh,andrising,voluntaryratesinAmerica. Thirdly,aminorityofthestudents(10%)surveyedrespondedthattheyvolunteer becauseitwilllookgoodontheirresumewhentheyapplytocollege.Intodayshighly competitiveworld,toprankedcollegesarenolongeradmittingstudentsbasedsolelyon their academic results, but are also looking at their leadership skills and community involvement. Dominion High School awards school letters to recognize students thataccumulate 100 volunteer hours. As such, in order to stand a better chance at college/scholarship applications, more students are volunteering to get community serviceletters.

InSingapore
VolunteerismratesinSingaporehavebeenonagradualriseoverthepastfew years,froma9.3in2002to16.9in2008.4Specifictotheyouths,percentageofyouth volunteershasincreasedfrom17%to25%between2002and2004.Inotherwords,1 out of every 4 youth today is involved in volunteerism.5Singapore adopts a three pronged approach to promote volunteerism, namely providing the following: information,accessandskills. Recognition of volunteers through awards, community involvement project hoursetcareamongstthemainavenuesofmotivatingyouthsinSingaporetovolunteer. A compulsory set of hours to be accumulated each year spent on community involvementactivitieshasbeenthebasicsofourpursuittoencouragevolunteerism. Also, for the same reason previously mentioned, our group has conducted a 6 survey onSingaporestudents,andhasarrivedatthefollowingconclusion.
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http://www.spiritual-politics.org/2009/07/volunteering_and_religion.html http://app.mcys.gov.sg/web/comm_comminv_volunteeraction.asp#6 5 http://app.mcys.gov.sg/web/corp_speech_story.asp?szMod=corp&szSubMod=speech&qid=2626 6 50 students aged 17 from various institutions and colleges in Singapore: 25 females and 25 males

Firstly, 34 out of 50 students surveyed volunteers occasionally for once off events,withonly5studentsvolunteeringregularly.Suchpresentsuswiththelackofor inadequacyofvolunteerretentionefforts,orsimplythatmoststudentsvolunteeronly toaccumulatesufficientCIPhourstomeettheminimumcriteria.Asurveyresponsetoa question about the motivation behind volunteering states: To help make the communityabetterplaceandservesocietyingratitudeforallitsgivenme.Hypocrisy aside;CIPhourslor.Thisstressesthat,despitemajorityanswersthattheyaredrivento volunteer for altruistic causes, it is certainly not the only or most fundamental motivation. Secondly, importance of volunteering has been geared not only towards altruisticvalues,butalsoforpersonalgain.Indeed,mostdonotfinditaproblemshould one volunteer to gain experience, learn the ropes of communication etc. Yet when youthsadmitthefactthatvolunteerismisimportantforreasonssuchas:lookgoodin portfolio;theyshouldatleastengageonce,withoutamentionofanintentiontohelp others in the society willingly and without pay, we begin to question the roots of volunteerism. As such, we see cause for concern in the fact that youth volunteerism in Singapore being largely motivated by the mandatory CIP hours implemented. Also, without the drive from altruistic values to guide volunteering efforts, the extent of impacttoreallyhelpthoseinneedisinquestion.

ConclusionandSuggestions
We believe that the system of mandatory CIP hours to ensure that youths are exposedtovolunteerismfromyoungonethatisnecessarythoughlacking.Itisessential toforceyouthstotakeupvolunteerwork.Yet,itislackingintheimpartingofthereal reasonstovolunteer.Hence,wesuggeststrongereffortsfromtheorganizingbodieslike individualVoluntaryWelfareOrganizations,studentorganizingteamsetctospreadthe messageoftheircausetomotivatevolunteersandfortheretentionofvolunteers. Also,webelievethatCharitybeginsfromhome.Itisfarfromsufficienttohave just compulsory hours, school initiated projects and so on to motivate our youths to volunteerfortherightcauses.Itisimportantthatvolunteerismisregardedintheright manner,andgivenpositiveapproachwithinthefamily.Parentsplayanimportantpart intheviewsofvolunteerismoftheirchildren.Incomparisonbyobservation,Americans place great emphasis on a holistic lifestyle, parents often offering encouragement for youthvolunteerism.Ontheotherhand,inSingapore,gradeshaveoftenbeenthefirst reason for opposition from parents about their children spending time on volunteer work. Hence, we see need to first convince parents of the need and importance of volunteerismtobetterconvinceouryouthstovolunteerwiththerightmindset. 4