When in Doubt, Help Out:
An Evaluation of Volunteerism in the United States Volunteer opportunities are ubiquitous in today’s era, some may be international and others domestic. Some people may offer services to their school, church, or city. Some may coach little league baseball, while others pick up trash on the highway. The opportunity to volunteer is available in every field of interest, but do acts of volunteerism truly make difference on a larger scale? People volunteer at many different stages in life and for many different reasons. The first philosophy of volunteering came from philanthropy, “the love for mankind,” this type of service usually took place in the form of a large financial gift (Aliprandini and Finley). However, the philosophical basis for volunteerism has turned
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Volunteer work can also develop off the job training for occupations. Communities have better outlooks when citizens and public officials work together. Lee states that social capital creates high levels of economic mobility. One example of this comes from a time after the Great Recession in 2008-09, states with high social cohesion regained jobs at a 20% higher rate than states that lacked social cohesion. Another example comes from an observational study on the town's Allentown, PA and Youngstown, OH. After the United States Steel Industry collapsed, Allentown rebounded quickly due to their overlapping associations. However, Youngstown did not recover quickly because the local organizations did not work together (Lee). Volunteer programs have been used as an economy fix for a long time. For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps to fix the high unemployment rate after the Great Depression. According to Aliprandini and Finley, the government does not have to spend as much money on social programs when volunteer programs are involved (Aliprandini,