Volunteering improves inner character, builds community, cures
poverty, and prevents crime. We've all heard this kind of
empowerment talk from nonprofit and government-sponsored civic
programs. But what do these programs really accomplish? In "Making
Volunteers," Nina Eliasoph offers an in-depth, humorous, wrenching,
and at times uplifting look inside youth and adult civic programs.
She reveals an urgent need for policy reforms in order to improve
these organizations and shows that while volunteers learn important
lessons, they are not always the lessons that empowerment programs
aim to teach.
With short-term funding and a dizzy mix of mandates from
multiple sponsors, community programs develop a complex web of
intimacy, governance, and civic life. Eliasoph describes the
at-risk youth served by such programs, the college-bound volunteers
who hope to feel selfless inspiration and plump up their resumes,
and what happens when the two groups are expected to bond instantly
through short-term projects. She looks at adult "plug-in"
volunteers who, working in after-school programs and limited by
time, hope to become like beloved aunties to youth. Eliasoph
indicates that adult volunteers can provide grassroots support but
they can also undermine the family-like warmth created by paid
organizers. Exploring contradictions between the democratic
rhetoric of empowerment programs and the bureaucratic hurdles that
volunteers learn to navigate, the book demonstrates that
empowerment projects work best with less precarious funding, more
careful planning, and mandatory training, reflection, and long-term
commitments from volunteers.
Based on participant research inside civic and community
organizations, "Making Volunteers" illustrates what these programs
can and cannot achieve, and how to make them more effective."
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!