Volunteerism Is Integral Part of U.S. Culture
USINFO, February 28, 2007
Volunteering is “built into the fabric of who we are,” says Desiree Sayle, director of the USA Freedom Corps, a White House initiative to expand community service throughout America.
Most Americans believe “that there is an obligation, because of the freedoms that we enjoy, to give something back,” said Sayle, who noted that more than 61 million Americans volunteered for charitable and national service organizations in 2006. This includes volunteering overseas through organizations such as the Peace Corps and Volunteers for Prosperity, she told USINFO February 27. Read more ...
Sharp Hike Reported in Volunteering by U.S. University Students
USINFO, November 16, 2006
The number of American university students who volunteer for community service projects in the United States has risen nearly 20 percent since 2002, according to a new study.
University students “represent a large and growing source of the nation’s volunteers,” according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent federal agency that provides grants and other support to volunteer organizations throughout the country. The agency’s latest study found that three in 10 university students, or 3.3 million people, volunteered in 2005 – a gain of 600,000 students above the 2.7 million reported in 2002. Read more..
Articles & Reports:
 National Service: Should Community Service be Required? Greenya, John - CQ Researcher, June 30, 2006
Giving: U.S. Philanthropy (U.S.Dept.of State/IIP, Electronic Journal) CD
Helping America. Building Active Citizens: The Role of Social Institutions in Teen Volunteering - Corporation for National and Community Service. November 2005.
The United States: A Nation of Volunteers (U.S. Dept.of State/IIP, Electronic Journal) CD
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AmeriCorps members and volunteer work together at a Playground Build in New Orleans, LA. More than 35,000 national service participants contributed more than 1.6 million hours of volunteer service during the first year of hurricane relief and recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast.
© 2006 Corporation for National and Community Service. Photo by M. T. Harmon, Office of Public Affairs
U.S. Students Use Vacations To Volunteer in Community Service
USINFO, March 19, 2007
Although many university students in the United States use their spring break to soak up the sun on the beach or catch up on school work, more and more are using their brief time off campus to do the world some good.
Alternative spring breaks, known as ASBs, are programs that place students in needy communities to perform volunteer community service. They take on a wide variety of challenges, from helping neighborhoods ravaged by natural disasters rebuild homes, to tutoring migrant farmworkers, to working in homeless shelters. Other ASB programs send students abroad on projects such as working in wildlife conservation or helping communities devastated by HIV/AIDS or poverty. Read more....
Statistics:
Volunteering in the United States 2006 - Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, Web-posted January 2007
Volunteering in America: State Trends and Rankings 2002-2005. Corporation for National Community Service, June 12, 2006
Volunteer Service by Young People. Statistics in Brief, 2004 (National Education Statistics Center)
Links:
Volunteerism & Philanthropy (Dept. of State/IIP)
Peace Corps
USA Freedom Corps
Volunteers of America
more organizations...
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