Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 1985. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-115).

Thesis (M.R.E.)--Cincinnati Christian Seminary, 1987. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-193).

The research study was aimed at exploring the narratives of motivations and challenges that home-based health care workers experience in their voluntary service provision. It was conducted in East London in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. A total of seven participants who volunteer in home based care programmes were interviewed and their mean age was 30 years; all were females, two married, one a widow, one divorced and two single females. The narrative framework was used to explore the volunteers' interpretation of volunteering experiences, highlighting themes that emerged on what encourages them to volunteer as home based health care workers, and how they deal with challenges that arise during the provision of services. The research was also aimed at exploring the social factors supporting the volunteers' decision to continue volunteering. Narratives from the interviewed community health workers [CHWs] indicate that the motives for participating in CHW programmes are mainly altruistic although people are sometimes motivated by self-interest. Self-interest seems to be particularly relevant in the case of the younger volunteers as they expressed their hope that providing voluntary service may help to enhance their skills so as to facilitate future learning and employment prospects. The recurring themes within the CHWs' narrative indicate that they identify with the helping role and feel it empowers them as they participate in meaningful ways in their communities, and they gain strength to cope with challenges that come with community health work. This study highlighted the complex nature of home based care roles, which inevitably reflect the intervention approach, the mode of working, professional roles and relationships with communities.

M.A. / The role of volunteerism in South Africa and more particularly in the welfare system tends to be underestimated. Possible reasons are that the value of volunteers is lost due to bad management and utilisation, as well as misconceptions of what “volunteerism” is and who the “volunteer” is. Another reason is that the relationship between social workers and volunteers is based on preconceived ideas and distrust. Greater awareness and broadening of the concepts “volunteerism” and “volunteer” are needed to describe the nature of volunteerism. Welfare organisations are also forced by cutbacks in state subsidies as well as having a broader client system (communities) to find more creative ways to deal with these challenges. The transformation process regarding social work that came into being in 1994 led to the implementation of a national welfare policy in 1997. This shifted the focus to social development. On ground level the focus shifted to an integrated community development approach and intervention strategies that focus on prevention, empowerment and development to a level of self-help. The aim of this study is to explore the nature of volunteerism within the context of the new dispensation, since 1994 and develop guidelines for the establishment of a formal volunteer programme. A qualitative approach, using an inductive strategy, was followed to achieve the aim of the study. Since 1994 the scope of literature regarding the nature of volunteer work within the context of the new dispensation in South Africa, as well as the development of a national volunteer policy and a formal volunteer programme for the welfare system seems to be non-existing. The study focuses on the social work practice as departure point in exploring the research theme. A focus group discussion, in-depth interviews and semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers and management of welfare organisations on the West Rand and in Pretoria and also with two experts in the field of volunteerism, from Cape Town and Nelspruit. Results focused on the nature of volunteer work as part of the welfare organisations’ community development programmes and projects. Through the interviews and the focus group discussion, intensive explorations of the respondent’s own reality regarding the subject in the social work practice was possible. The data was gathered by means of transcribed audiotapes. The researcher and a co-coder both did colour coding and through the use of a schedule, categories were created. Patterns appeared from which central themes were extracted as the result of the study. The results were compared to a relevant literature control. Connections were made between the results and the literature control by means of direct quotations of the responses in the transcripts. / Prof. J.B.S. Nel

The purpose of the study was to explore the experience of crisis centre volunteers. The research sample consisted of 134 active and 105 inactive volunteers from five crisis centres in the Lower Mainland. To solicit descriptive and non-descriptive data, an instrument was constructed and pilot tested. The questionnaire contained 49 attitude items which were collected from the literature and interviews with crisis centre staff and volunteers. They were grouped into six subscales suggested by a modified latent partition analysis. These subscales were A: Doing Shifts, B: The Community, C: Personal Change, D: General Impression, F: Other Volunteers. The subscales were found to be internally consistent (Hoyt, 1941). Volunteers responded to a five-point Likert Scale for each item. The research questions were: are there differences among five crisis centres, and are there differences between active and inactive volunteers, on each of the six subscales? The volunteers' self-perceived success in dealing with specific problems presented by callers was also examined. Descriptive data from the sample were analyzed using simple frequency counts on variables from each of the five crisis centres. Data from the attitude scales were analyzed to further examine internal consistency of the attitude questionnaire. Finally a 5 x 2 (centre by level of activity) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) using Wilks1 likelihood ratio criterion was used to analyze the attitude subscales and Sheffe's multiple comparison procedure was applied where appropriate. Results of the statistical testing indicated differences, significant at .05 level between Crisis Centres #1 and #5 and between #4 and #5 on Subscale E: Staff. Significant differences were also found between Crisis Centres #2 and #5 on Subscale F: Other Volunteers. Active volunteers responded more positively than inactive volunteers at .05 level of significance on all subscales except E: Staff. Results indicated fairly narrow ranges in demographic variables however, tests of significance were not undertaken. The significant differences noted in the attitude subscales may be the result of differences in staff-volunteer contact with each other. In those centres where there was more opportunity for staff to relate to volunteers, the volunteers responded more positively to staff-related items. The crisis centre whose volunteers responded more positively to items pertaining to volunteers, has within its structure more opportunity for contact with other volunteers in the diversified activities in which all volunteers and staff participate. This factor together with the comparative isolation of this centre may account for the significantly more positive responses on this subscale. The attitude of volunteers appeared to be very positive toward their experience. They reported positive changes in self-perception and perception of others as a result of their crisis centre experience. It would appear that more focus on the experience of volunteers at crisis centres would be profitable. Several suggests for further research were discussed, particularly related to "burnout" and motives for becoming inactive. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

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