D.Ed / Communities in a society consist of individuals within those communities. There are many individual members in those communities who are not effectively involved in serving that society. This study focuses on guiding individual members in a society to effective service in their community. Individuals who report for service in a community are referred to as volunteers. Many people don’t experience full spiritual health because they live selfcentred lives. People don’t realize that there is value in community service. Making a difference in the community by voluntary service leads to inner fulfilment and meaning. To accompany volunteers in finding their places of service, the following research question was asked: “What can be done to further voluntary community service?” The aim of this study was the description, implementation and evaluation of a Psycho-Educational Program to mobilize service in individuals to thereby further mental health. From a methodological viewpoint a qualitative research strategy was applied to realize the purpose mentioned above. A method of scouting and describing was further applied. The field - work was done by means of semi-structured interviews with volunteers. The results obtained were analysed and categorized. The findings of the data were justified by means of literature control. The trustworthiness of the findings was assured in this way. The following main themes were identified: · Points of departure to discover your place of service · Establishing healthy relationships The results of the data analysis show that the volunteer wants to know what value community service has to offer before he makes his time available for service. The volunteer’s involvement in the community should benefit his spiritual health by his experiencing meaning, peace and even health. The research indicated the fact that the volunteer should move through a process of self-discovery to find his place of service. When the volunteer discovers who he is and organizes his life accordingly, it should promote meaning to life. In the research it surfaced that volunteers in many cases experience that human relationships are inadequate. People from different backgrounds and with different types of personality form part of the community team. Therefore an effort should be made to further healthy inter-personal relationships. It is necessary that volunteers develop the social skills to promote healthy inter-personal relationships. In the research it also became clear that the facilitator plays an important role in the volunteer’s guiding process. He must guide the volunteer to find his place of service and to make him part of the community. Subsequently a service program for volunteers was developed. The program was developed out of the themes and categories. The program’s intent is to guide the volunteer in discovering his place of service. By being involved in the field of service which compliments his true “I” or identity, mental health will be attained. Secondly the program’s intent is to equip facilitators so that volunteers can be empowered for service. In conclusion the implementation and evaluation were discussed. Regard to the implementation, it was recommended that community leaders be trained during workshops to implement the service program in their communities. Thereafter they should develop facilitators in their respective communities who will guide volunteers in the process of finding their own places of service. The program was facilitated to a number of volunteers. Their experience was related during a focus - group interview. The data collected were analysed and categorized. The following conclusions were made: The program led to the fact that they realized the value of community service. The partakers discovered their true “I” or identity. This knowledge could be used to determine which type of service would lead to the greatest mental health. They also learned the necessary interpersonal skills for effective community service. The thesis therefore puts a community service program in place that will guide volunteers to find their place in service and to live to the full. In that way they will contribute effectively to society and will also benefit in mental health.

This thesis examines the Skills Strategy for England under New Labour as a contested project to govern workplace high(er) skill aspiration and behaviour. It analyses differentiated state strategies to promote and (re)produce responsible skills ambitions; the engagement of employer and employee representatives with these strategies to stretch and reshape, and resist and restate the project; and the implications for skills provision. The research involved interpretive analysis of policy documents, and in-depth interviews with policy-making elites; strategic representatives of business and worker/learner interests; and skills providers. To support my empirical focus this thesis is located within theories of the changing form and function of the state. Adopting a ‘cultural political economy’ approach, and drawing on critical governance studies, to illuminate the interplay between meaning production and practice, I challenge the conclusion that mechanisms for skills creation in England are premised on a misunderstanding of the skills motivations of employers and employees. Instead I expose state work through policy to produce and export a skills logic; constituting and positioning governable subjects in relation to their internalisation of these logics; and the role of differentiated policies to manoeuvre subjects towards preferential skills behaviours. The findings highlight that what is presented as a coherent ‘partnership’ approach to producing enhanced skills can be better understood as three distinctive state strategies, (demand-led; leading demand; circumventing lack of demand) , which are aimed at differently imagined and constructed workplaces, (enlightened; inert; or deviant), depending on their demonstrable degree of responsible skills ambition. I therefore term this project ‘state-steered voluntarism’. However, I also expose the limitations and limits of this project. Attempts to present policy coherence lacquers over latent tensions and contradictions between the different skills strategies, creating policy ‘opacities’ which serve as spaces for the strategic voices of employer/employee representation to talk back; disorganising the practices and processes of skills delivery.

In this essay, I discuss the merits of contestability in contrast with consent as a meansof legitimizing the state. Particularly I have been concerned with problematiccontracts: Contracts with undefined obligations and their implications on thelegitimacy of voluntarist consent. Through my argumentation, I have shown thatvoluntarist consent to political mandates has a hard time legitimizing politicalauthority in the presence of problematic contracts – and instead, that legitimationbased on the the ability to contest decisions may provide a better degree of politicallegitimacy. Contestability can seemingly also be combined with elements of voluntaristconsent to further cement the legitimacy of decisions.

This study explored the influence of motivations on the volunteer experience. The relationship among motivations. volunteer satisfaction, acceptance and support of the organizational goals, and outcomes of success in the volunteer role (pattern of participation and ombudsman effectiveness) were explored using Multiple Linear Regression analyses. Motivational Systems Theory (Ford, 1992) was applied to the investigation of relationships among these variables. It was proposed that alignment between the individual volunteer's motivations and the organization's goals should predict higher levels of satisfaction, organizational commitment, and success. Psychological aspects of the volunteer experience proved valuable to the explanation of certain indicators of success in the Ombudsman role. The rates of case reporting and the time devoted to the Ombudsman role seemed to be influenced by the importance of particular motivations toward volunteerism, the extent to which these motivations are fulfilled by involvement with the Ombudsman program, and the commitment expressed toward the organization. Communal (offering) motivations were rated among the most important for the majority of volunteers. However, satisfaction scores were higher for both agentic and affiliation motivational factors than for the communal motivational factor. Overall, Ombudsmen were least motivated by motivations characterized as agentic or self-oriented. Volunteers with lower importance ratings for agentic motivations had moderately higher reporting rates than did participants attributing less importance to self-oriented motivations. Volunteers expressed high levels of organizational commitment and overall satisfaction in the role. The more committed these participants were to the organization, the more likely they were to experience satisfaction in their roles, and the more likely they were to express high levels of importance for all factors of motivation in this model. A significant effect was found for the influence of organizational commitment on time commitment, case reporting, and the frequency of visits. Motivational Systems Theory was found to be a useful framework for analyzing the effects of personal characteristics and psychological aspects of the volunteer experience on success and satisfaction in the Ombudsman role. / Graduation date: 2000

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2007. / Abstract. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-254).

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb, 18, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Thesis advisor: Dr. Paul Bolls. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 214-222).

Thesis (M.A.)--Temple University, 2002. / Accompanied by: Service & inclusion: an introduction to the website (VHS) and Service & inclusion: a multimedia resource for inclusive community service (CD-ROM). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-52).

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Service Management / Master / Master of Social Sciences