We have reflected on how the concept of globalization came to us with an announcement of hope, hope for a more equitable environment and the promise of a sustainable future. But our most urgent human problems are not becoming lighter. Instead, the rich are getting richer, the poor poorer, and there is concern that the middle class is disappearing altogether.
The promise of new technologies in the information age has been one of hope that we will be able to build a better world. Civil society, however, continues its struggle to realize the social and economic rights of our people in this contradiction of experience.
Volunteer effort, it becomes clear, can be drawn upon in communities as a strong tool to reinforce the belief that it is only through true citizen participation that we can really build a better world.
Ordinary men and women have a deep capacity and even an innate desire to organize themselves for change and for betterment of them-selves and their communities. When they dare to volunteer to make a difference, this desire, together with the belief in the need for change, draws us beyond even our own survival need, into our fully intended stature in the public arena. It is something beyond, something outside of material pursuits, and is, instead, related to the enrichment of the human spirit, our own and others. It is neither the property of the rich nor the poor; it belongs to humankind and is available to all.
Volunteering is an act committed in free choice. It is a decision taken in response to our own personal value and belief system at the deepest point. The process follows a wish to change something, a free choice to consider the wish, a prizing or valuing of the personal wish and finally the decision to act upon the wish and to make it happen.
We do not have to "volunteer for good." The act of volunteering does not have a morality in itself. We could choose to volunteer for destruction, for harm, or for evil - and some do. We have the capacity to choose to volunteer as a crucial value decision to build up the earth.
Paulo Freire said: "Dialogue can only go forward when it is based on the hope of building partnership." Paulo's idea can be realized in the mandate of CIVICUS in civil society and in the motivation of the volunteer.
The modern volunteer is perhaps the new believer, that is, believing that the hungry can be fed and the earth saved from destruction we inflict upon it. The volunteer believes change is really going to happen and that I must change, you must change, and we must change together.
Volunteer Management for Future
Volunteer effort is a tool for change in civil society and volunteers, in turn, need additional tools to do their job well. Volunteers need to know they are needed. They need to be sought after, to know what jobs are required of them, and in turn, they may think of others. They need to know if there will be skills training and information about wider goals of the project. They need supervision of their work, including having it recognized and evaluated. They need to be trusted, informed, and, sometimes, transported and fed. Like others, they like it when someone says thank you.
One of the strong keys for building civil society for the future will be the deployment of competent, appropriately organized, and well-man-aged volunteers. Nations' action plans for building the social economy will need to give attention to developing clear policies and standards for volunteering, working to national competencies for volunteer management, and setting in place appropriate infrastructure for its establishment or continuity. Recognition of the volunteer movement in each of its communities at local, national, and global levels is essential.
Civil society needs recruitment strategies and training for those who work closely with volunteers, including civil society leaders, volunteer managers, and volunteers, themselves. Plans need to be put in place to support, measure, and evaluate volunteer effort. Recognition and celebration of volunteer effort is important, such as on 5 December -- International Volunteer Day. Volunteering needs to be measured in the national accounts and recognized as an alternative to, but never a substitute for, paid work. It should be measured and valued for the contribution it makes to social cohesion, and the men and women who volunteer should be recognized and applauded for their contribution to strengthening the communities of which they are a part.
Volunteer effort can make an enormous contribution to the growing strength of ordinary citizens, which is indeed on the rise, but is yet far from nearing its true potential. Too few know how much they are really needed and instead run the risk of leading unrewarding lives, because the volunteer movement lacks both the human and financial resources it needs to grow at every level.