As The Doobie Brothers song says, people are "takin' it to the streets" and while volunteerism rates have levelled off in many countries, the number of volunteers worldwide is impressive.
Since next week is National Volunteer Week, here are some insights that show how volunteering for a cause can make a difference.
I found some interesting statistics in the State of the World's Volunteerism Report 2011, published by the United Nations Development Programme. On the health front, since 1998 the battle against polio has been fought on a global basis by the World Health Organization, which trained 20 million volunteers to immunize 2.5 billion children around the world.
Some accomplishments start small, just like a small group of young volunteers who began in 1997 to build 350 houses for families living in slums in Latin America. Their organization, called Techo, undertook a 15-year expansion and mobilized 50,000 young volunteers to build homes for people in need. Techo has maintained operations in 19 countries across Latin America.
The United Nations report pointed out that, "Volunteer action is universal; it does not happen exclusively in one 'sector' but rather it permeates every aspect of life."
The report estimates that 93 million adults volunteer in the European Union, or roughly 22 per cent of Europeans predominantly between the ages of 30 to 50.
In Australia during 2007, 5.2 million people volunteered for a total of 713 million hours. It's not just middle-aged adults volunteering, seniors are also active volunteers. Since 1990 the Japan International Cooperation Agency has given seniors in Japan the opportunity to volunteer in developing countries. More than 4,400 Japanese seniors have volunteered time in 64 developing countries.
Even corporations are becoming more aware of the value of volunteering. The report highlighted that 90 per cent of Fortune 500 companies have formal employee volunteer programs.
For corporations, regular citizens and seniors, the results clearly demonstrate that volunteering builds a better, more caring society.
The report also highlighted the view that young people who participate in volunteerism tend to develop pro-social behaviours that mitigate delinquency.
Even though volunteering is more about giving back, helping others in need or helping to grow something in the community, there is an economic benefit. The Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project calculated the economic contribution of volunteers in the 36 countries to be $400 billion (U.S. dollars) annually. And, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean estimates the poverty rate in Latin America would be 10 per cent higher today without the voluntary work done by women.
In Canada more than 13.3 million people aged 15 and over volunteered in 2010, according to a Statistics Canada report by Mireille Vézina and Susan Crompton. Those volunteers provided just more than two billion hours of service to a wide range of causes and local community organizations. The Statistics Canada report found that 43 per cent of people volunteered as part of a group project with friends and neighbours, and some people joined members of their immediate family in their volunteer work.
Canadian volunteers seem to favour sports and recreation organizations as their primary choice for volunteering. But Canadian volunteers also strongly support religious, social, health and environmental causes. Young Canadians aged 15 to 24 were more likely to volunteer than Canadians in most other age groups.
Despite all of those encouraging statistics, not everyone is happy with current volunteering trends in the world. There are some people who believe volunteers take jobs away from working people. The detractors claim companies and governments can and should pay a fair wage for work done and stop using volunteers altogether.
In my experience, volunteers don't want to take away jobs, they only want to make a contribution, perhaps learn something new and help grow their community. However, the issue of paid staff versus volunteers takes on a whole new meaning when you look at the number of permanent volunteers in China. Those volunteers are trained and willing to volunteer in an ongoing manner at any time, especially for civil emergencies. And in China in 2006, 100 million people were estimated to be permanent volunteers. Their contribution is enormous in terms of societal well being. The cost to pay 100 million people would be enormous for any government.
Without volunteers, many public, private and university gardens would close or at a minimum, such gardens would be severely diminished. Community organizations, like the Edible Garden Project, rely on volunteers to operate their programs. It was supported by 4,000 hours of volunteer time in 2013. And the North Shore Community Garden Society, which operates community gardens across the North Shore, relies heavily on volunteers to support their programs. Please consider volunteering and become part of the solution. Visit volunteerbc. bc.ca to find a volunteer opportunity and a cause close to your heart.
Todd Major is a journeyman horticulturist, garden designer and builder, teacher and organic advocate. Contact [email protected].
