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Access our news feedBenefits of Volunteering (to the individual volunteer)
Articles/excerpts on this subject
- The Benefits of Being a Literacy Volunteer, Community Literacy of Ontario
- The Benefits of Volunteering, from the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP), Canada
- Benefits of Volunteering, from the World Volunteer Web.
- The Effects of Volunteering on the Volunteer, by John Wilson and Marc Musick (1999)
- Gaining Health While Giving Back to the Community, Johns Hopkins (2004)
- The Healing Power of Service, by Edward V. Brown
- Health Benefits of Volunteering, from the Corporation for National and Community Service (2007)
- The Health Benefits of Volunteering: a review of recent research from the Office of Research and Policy Development, Corporation for National and Community Service
- Helping Yourself, Helping Others, from The Women’s Center of Wake County
- Hopkins Researchers Find Experience Corps Boosts Student Learning, Adults Health, Experience Corps (2004)
- Outcomes Study: Volunteers, a 2003 study conducted by the Boy Scouts of America exploring volunteers’ motivations and highlighting the benefits of volunteering. (PDF, 260KB)
- There Are Real Benefits to Volunteering, by the US Administration on Aging
- Volunteer Vacations: The Health Benefits of Helping Others, by Patricia Kellicker, BSN
- Volunteering, from KidsHealth
- Volunteering as a Vehicle for Social Support and Life Satisfaction, Canadian Health Network Magazine (2005)
- Volunteering 'bad for the health', BBC News (2004)
- Volunteering for Mental Health, by the Institute for Volunteering research, UK
- Volunteering Has Its Benefits for Those in Later Midlife, summary of comments by Dr. Phyllis Moen at a 1998 Cornell University conference on volunteering and life cycles.
- Volunteering works: Volunteering and social policy by the Institute for Volunteering Research and Volunteering England (2007), which gives an overview of various studies on the benefts of volunteering.
- What Can Volunteering Do for You? by the TimeBank UK
- Why Volunteer? by Susan J. Ellis
Free electronic books on this subject
The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research
from the Corporation for National and Community Service (20-page PDF, 2007)Is Volunteering Rewarding in Itself? By Stephan Meier and Alois Stutzer; academic research study from the Institute of Empirical Research in Economics at the University of Zurich ( 34-page PDF, 2004)
Valuing Volunteering – A Route to Professional Development, by Petra Cook and Nicky Jackson. Explores how volunteering can help to develop the critical professional management skills of working with people who have different timeframes, values and interests. It assesses the personal experiences of senior managers and also their views on volunteering in their capacity as employers. The study also examines the views and actual experiences of returned VSO (UK) volunteers. (24-page PDF, 2006)
Volunteering and Mental Health: A Review of the Literature
Prepared for the Social Exclusion Unit (UK) by the
Institute for Volunteering Research, this 22-page PDF reviews the available literature on adult mental health and volunteering, focusing on studies identifying the benefits to be gained from volunteering by people with mental health problems.
Web sites with information on this subject
Benefits of Volunteeringhttp://www.serviceleader.org/new/volunteers/articles/archives/categories/benefits_of_volunteering/index.php
The Service-Leader site has reprinted several essays from the Focus on Volunteering KopyKit by Susan J. Ellis, plus added one about tax credits.
Public Health Agency of Canada
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/vs-sb/benefits/index.html
"
People may not realize, however, that volunteering can actually improve your own health. There are many indirect benefits for those who contribute time and energy through volunteering... The health benefits of volunteering are described in a set of fact sheets looking at the relationships between volunteering and health." Free fact sheet downloads.
Volunteer Work and Well-Beinghttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11467248?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Summaries and links to research articles on this subject, from the US National Institutes of Health.
Relevant Hot Topic essays
- Volunteers Just Want to Have Fun - Oct '05
- Save a Life, Win a Car! When Do Incentives to Volunteer Cross the Line? - July '05
7/24/09
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