Nyd den ubegrænsede adgang til tusindvis af spændende e- og lydbøger - helt gratis
An inside look at how community service organizations really work
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 resumés, 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.
© 2011 Princeton University Press (E-bog): 9781400838820
Release date
E-bog: 28. februar 2011
Over 600.000 titler
Download og nyd titler offline
Eksklusive titler + Mofibo Originals
Børnevenligt miljø (Kids Mode)
Det er nemt at opsige når som helst
For dig som vil prøve Mofibo.
1 konto
20 timer/måned
Eksklusivt indhold hver uge
Fri lytning til podcasts
Gem ubrugt tid
Ingen binding
For dig som lytter og læser ofte.
1 konto
100 timer/måned
Eksklusivt indhold hver uge
Fri lytning til podcasts
Ingen binding
For dig som lytter og læser ubegrænset.
1 konto
Ubegrænset adgang
Eksklusivt indhold hver uge
Fri lytning til podcasts
Ingen binding
For dig som ønsker at dele historier med familien.
2-6 konti
100 timer/måned pr. konto
Fri lytning til podcasts
Kun 39 kr. pr. ekstra konto
Ingen binding
2 konti
179 kr. /månedDansk
Danmark