Resilience implies the concept of buoyancy. Specifically, it denotes an individual's capacity to persevere and even do well in the face of adversity. Service-learning is pedagogy often used to enable students to apply classroom learning in a real world context. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of service-learning upon college student resilience. The study utilized a convenience sample of undergraduate students (N = 172) across three disciplines including counseling, social work and kinesiology. In a pre-post test design, the CD-RISC was employed to measure resilience of the experimental and control groups. Factor analysis of the CD-RISC was also conducted in order to explore interrelationship of the variables among the data. One undergraduate sample (N = 210) was used to conduct the EFA before determining a best fit factor structure for this study's population. A repeated measures analysis of variance was employed to detect any differences between pre-post test groups. No statistical significance was found across pre and post-test among the two groups (p=.49, η2=.00). However significant results were found between the experimental and control groups (p=.00, η2 =.09). Examination of mean score differences among demographic variable yielded interesting findings across the three disciplines as well as between age and gender of the participants. Findings indicated students given freedom of choice within service-learning logistics scored greatest gains in resilience.

No description available.

No description available.

During the span of 27 months, Peace Corps volunteers live and work in different countries and cultures all over the globe. The various projects that Peace Corps volunteers work on together with their host country nationals can prove extremely challenging due to many cultural differences. This research assessed the influences of cultural differences on Peace Corps projects that volunteers experienced while working with Guatemalan nationals. The literature review examined the issues of cultural differences and the effects 6 and influences that they could have on projects of host country nationals and Peace Corps volunteers. I have examined literature focusing on intercultural communication, cultural group membership differences, cultural identities, value orientations, and organizational value dimensions. I have also looked deeply into many of the differences between the collectivist culture of Guatemala and the individualistic culture of the United States. I have compiled data from interviews with Peace Corps volunteers that I served with in Guatemala from August 2007 until November 2009. During their service, the volunteers worked in the programs of Municipal Development and Agricultural Development. I hope for this research to provide detail into the influences of cultural differences between Peace Corps volunteers in Guatemala and Guatemalan nationals. I hope that this study can better prepare Guatemalan nationals and Peace Corps volunteers to have a superior understanding of each other's cultural identities to ensure that positive communication can lead to good outcomes for projects in the future. I also hope that Peace Corps facilitators and trainers can use the findings in this study for workshops and training sessions on intercultural relations not only in the Peace Corps Guatemala program, but for all other countries where volunteers are currently serving.

In this auto-ethnography, I use my experience of volunteering during the 'European refugee crisis' to pose a critique of how humanitarian aid is negotiated in its everyday practice. I identify four main groups of actors involved in the negotiation, namely the aid-workers, the volunteers, the locals and the refugees themselves. The goal of this work is to explore the mechanisms and causes of the marginalisation of the locals, and most importantly, of the refugees in this negotiation. Following De Genova's theory of migrant "illegalisation" I argue that the marginalisation of refugees is a result of the way the European border regime operates and I explore both the complicity of humanitarians in this regime and also how they challenged it. Following Agier's theory of the "humanitarian government", I argue that there is very little space for agency of people designated as refugees in humanitarian aid, and I analyse the power of aid-workers over the refugees. Last but not least, I use Pandolfi's concept of the humanitarian apparatus as a form of "migrant sovereignty" to show how humanitarians partly took over the local political practices in a setting of a humanitarian crisis on one of the Greek islands, and I describe the effects of this take-over on the local population.

This thesis focuses on the direction and coordination of volunteers in organisations with multidisciplinary teams working with homeless people, and the challenges faced by both these organisations and their volunteers. The results of the experimental section, which focuses on the motivation of volunteers and stimulation from the organisations, have their basis in practical research using semi-structured interviews with leading workers at the organisations, their volunteers, and volunteers from the Labre project, which represents an introductory characterisation of the problem in practice; one which the respondents then refer to in the interviews. Problem areas as identified by both the workers and the volunteers themselves include integration into the organisation, unsupervised activity, non-stimulating conditions, irregular contact, and apathy from the side of the target group. Systematic leadership by a volunteer coordinator is financially demanding for the organisations, and the workers attend to their volunteers in addition to other competences, making systematic leadership more difficult. A recommendation for workers in non-profit organisations working with volunteers is derived from the results of the empirical part. It is based on a careful consideration of the application of volunteer work,...

The present thesis focuses on the development of volunteerism as a part of the professionalization of a nonprofit organization. Case study took place in the organization Pestrá společnost, which is dedicated to the training of assistance dogs and provides social services to the owners of assistance dogs. The organization uses volunteers regularly and on long-term basis. Research in this organization confirms the fact that quality management of volunteerism effectively utilizes the capacity of motivated volunteers and reduces overall financial costs. The theoretical part focuses on the professionalisation of management of volunteering through the selection and training of volunteers with regard to their motivation. It describes how the motivation of volunteers links with the aims of the organization. An organization, which is interested in linking together the motivation of volunteers and its own aims during the process of their selection and training must undoubtedly benefit from this collaboration. The practical part in the form of a case study focuses on a concrete organization. The qualitative part of the research provides specific suggestions for changes and measures that are proposed as the part of the action research. These measures are also implemented and three months after their...

Previous work done on the vaccination of village chickens in the communal areas of South Africa demonstrated that the Nobilis Inkukhu® commercial thermostable vaccine was able to protect chickens against virulent Newcastle disease challenge when applied by eye-drop, water or in-feed (cooked maize meal) application. In the initial trial work, University staff or graduate students, rather than poultry owners themselves prepared all vaccines. In order for vaccination of the village chickens to be carried out on a more extensive scale it is obviously necessary for a larger body of people to be enabled to vaccinate chickens. It was also felt by the researchers that once community members had to make an effort to get their chickens vaccinated, it would be possible to determine somewhat more accurately the real level of enthusiasm for vaccination of chickens among the community. The trial work was carried out in the village of Disaneng, which lies in the Northwest Province of South Africa. Visual and practical training material was prepared and presented to community-elected and volunteer “vaccinators”. Vaccinators were then required to register all the poultry owners in their ward who wished to have their chickens vaccinated. Once an indication of the number of chickens to be vaccinated had been made available, Inkukhu vaccine was supplied to vaccinators free of charge. Vaccinators were responsible for the organization of the vaccination campaign, including the storage and preparation of the vaccine for application. Vaccine application methods differed between wards. After a focus group discussion to select methods of vaccination only two of the three methods were chosen. A training session was arranged for training volunteer vaccinators in the method of vaccination i.e. water and in-feed administration All nine wards in the village were initially involved in the vaccination campaign with a total of 482 households owning 6 141 chickens participating. Detailed survey work carried out in three of the participating wards indicated that this represented slightly in excess of 60% of the chickens in the area. Involvement in a second round of vaccinations, one month later, was far poorer with only 211 households owning a total of 1 636 chickens participating. Approximately one month after each vaccination campaign, blood samples were collected from a random sample of about 150 chickens that had been vaccinated and tested for circulating antibodies to Newcastle disease, using the HI test. These results showed variable levels of protection achieved, but were influenced more by the area (vaccinator) from which they came, than the vaccine application method used. An investigation was done as to find the reasons for the sudden drop-off in community participation between vaccination campaigns as well as to obtain further information about vaccine handling and preparation by the community vaccinators. It was found that a concurrent disease outbreak causing the deaths of chickens and the attitude of the owners probably contributed to the demotivation of volunteers used as community vaccinators Another unexpected finding was the rate at which chicken flock numbers appeared to alter between vaccination campaigns. The reason for this is yet to be established but may indicate that chickens are moved between homesteads belonging to a single family, depending on what forage is available, or other unidentified disease problems. It was concluded that probably volunteers are not ideal for vaccination of community poultry. They are easily demotivated; do not keep good records and left the project when offered permanent employment. / Dissertation (MSc (Veterinary Tropical Diseases))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Veterinary Tropical Diseases / MSc / unrestricted

Abstract Human trafficking is a worldwide crisis, and agencies rely on volunteers to help serve its victims. Past researchers have suggested that motivation to volunteer is multifaceted and that volunteer turnover hinders accomplishing mission objectives. The research question was to examine if there were any differentiating motivations of antitrafficking volunteers from the current literature. This study was a qualitative case study of an antitrafficking religion-sponsored agency in the United States. Self-determination theory guided the research consisting of 7 agency volunteers. Candidates met the established criteria of minimum age and duration of service. The interpretive phenomenological analysis process helped to assess individual data separately and then collectively with participants adding clarification and member checking through follow-up e-mails. The analysis process produced themes about relating to others, work competency, autonomy, sense of obligation, religious motivations, personal satisfaction, recognition, and agency leadership styles as motivators. Their religious affiliation with the agency produced a strong emphasis on spiritual motivations. An element of egocentric motivations emerged as differences from the current volunteering literature. The egocentric motivations emerged from the participant's view that God was watching and their actions brought God's favor to them. Agency leaders need to focus on helping potential and current volunteers feel important as contributors to the spiritual wellbeing of themselves and others. This finding was a key aspect of recruitment and retention of volunteers, who could help this underserved population and thus promote positive social change.

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service (2007), 33% of workers who volunteer in one year do not volunteer the next year. Retention of disaster and emergency services volunteers is a problem because permanent disaster volunteers save governments and society millions of dollars each year. The purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional study was to address the problem of retention of American Red Cross disaster and emergency services volunteers. The primary research question for this study examined the predictive strength of positive emotions, resiliency, coping, and post-traumatic growth, in the retention of disaster and emergency services volunteers. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions combined with the organismic valuing theory of growth through adversity created the optimal research foundation for driving the hypotheses for the research question. This study used a self-report survey to collect data from a nonprobability convenience sample of 120 American Red Cross Disaster and Emergency Services volunteers. Standard multiple linear regression analyses revealed that none of the independent variables statistically predicted retention. Independent-groups t-tests revealed that, a debriefing at the disaster location showed significant mean differences when examining retention. The American Red Cross and other disaster relief organizations can use the results of this study to develop strategies to address organizational factors that enhance the experiences of their disaster and emergency services volunteers and thus strive to improve retention.