This Month's Responses
November 2001
Tackling Causes Not Symptoms:
New/Old Roles for Volunteers
By Susan J. Ellis
In August, a colleague shared the following provocative snippets.
In light of the present world political stage, I thought her thoughts
and a discussion about political activism and the role of volunteers
would be a great November topic:
- David Wagner in his book What's Love Got to Do with It? A Critical
Look at American Charity (New York Press, 2000) explores whether
charity exists as a substitute for social justice and posits that
charity signifies inequality and is more symbolism than accomplishment.
In a review of the book in the e-zine, Salon, the reviewer starts
out:
Just as I was finishing David Wagner's tightly argued essay
on the history of American charity, out came a poll that seemed
to confirm everything the sociologist was saying: Religion and
its do-gooder stepchild, volunteerism, have all but smothered
real political engagement in America.
- From the "365-Days-a-Year Dilbert" calendar comes a
cartoon of temporary CEO Dogbert cutting employee health-care benefits
while simultaneously joining the board of the local free clinic.
In the last frame he receives an award for having increased the
clinic's number of clients during his tenure on the board!
- A veteran activist observes that what started as a one-page resource
sheet for homeless services has evolved in 25 years into a multi-page,
glossy publication featuring innumerable such agencies. He ponders
that the one-page resource sheet was part of an effort to end homelessness,
not to develop services to "help" homeless people.
- The 1998 Virginia Volunteering survey asked volunteers in what
types of work they were involved (as opposed to the need or cause
addressed). Advocacy had the smallest percentage as indicated below:
direct service 47%
resource development 32%
leadership roles 30%
clerical work 22%
advocacy 14%
To my friend, all of these items raise an important question for
the volunteer field:
Are we engaging enough volunteers, enough of the time, in advocacy
and activism along with direct services?
As in the parable about the drowning babies floating down the river
(if you are not familiar with this parable, you can read it in
our Reflections area: Parables),
are we simply pulling more and more good swimmers into the water or
are we also sending adequate numbers of volunteers upstream to stop
whoever is throwing the babies into the river in the first place?
Have we in "volunteer management" spent so much time focusing
on support roles and helpfulness that we no longer foster activism?
Now more than ever, we as a people and as worldwide citizens need
to focus on root causes and prevention of new problems. Advocacy is
part and parcel of influencing policies and decisions that will address
the complicated issues facing us. Certainly the needs addressed by
direct services are impossible to ignore and the services important
to continue. But what questions, principles, challenges and resolve
do we as a profession need to deal with as we also engage volunteer
resources to go up the river…?
There are a number of issues to consider:
- Most social agencies and institutions were originally started
by pioneering volunteers who focused on a problem and invented creative
ways to address it. Many of these same agencies have now become
so vested in maintaining themselves that they have lost sight of
solving the problem they were created to address. They need to bring
back those pioneering volunteers! The power of volunteer involvement
is proven by the history of most of our organizations. This potential
for what is now called "civic engagement" is always present;
September 11th only made it more visible.
- Most established organizations want help, not input, from volunteers.
But this is an enormous missed opportunity. We need to harness the
diversity of perspectives volunteers offer. They are not
just like the paid staff - and that's exactly the point! Along with
hands and hearts, advocacy involves volunteers using their ideas
and voices as well. Are we designing specific advocacy roles for
volunteers? When we train volunteers, do we include such skills
as how to speak their minds in constructive and persuasive ways?
- Volunteer administrators face some ethical issues in mobilizing
volunteers as advocates. It is a tenet of a free and pluralistic
society that volunteers/citizens may stand on either side of any
issue. So, how do we encourage volunteers to be advocates without
exercising undue influence on their position or appearing to be
motivated by their own or their organization's self-interest? On
the other hand, how do we educate volunteers to choose positions
that strengthen the ultimate mission of our organizations?
- Engaging volunteers in advocacy provides a legitimate "career
path" for volunteers. Michael McCabe, in an excellent article
in a recent issue of e-Volunteerism,
speaks about a "continuum" of service in which volunteers
begin by hands-on involvement in direct-service positions and ultimately
advance to an intelligent understanding of the causes of
a problem and work actively to effect real social change. Advocacy
offers seasoned volunteers leadership and teaching roles, with responsibilities
that tap and recognize their advanced abilities.
Here's the challenge: As everyone else is paid to conduct business
as usual, how do we provide the environment in which volunteers can
step out of the forest, see the trees, and prevent fires? How do we
enable volunteers to:
- re-examine fundamental assumptions about why and how we give service?
- re-determine priorities in a changing world?
- analyze what is working and why, and what is not working and
why not?
- be political - not in a partisan sense, but in influencing legislative
votes on the issues that affect long-term solutions?
The word "war" is again in use. Terrorism, racial bigotry,
and fears of many kinds are worldwide concerns. I believe that volunteers
can be peacemakers and coalition builders. In fact, only private citizens
can do this quickly and locally. We may have to "free" volunteers
from some of the direct-service roles they may love to do so that
they can advocate for social justice. We cannot limit ourselves to
being concerned with "volunteer management." This is a time
for volunteerism as a philosophy of community life - the engagement
of citizens above and beyond the ordinary.
Read People's Responses
Sign up for our
