Volunteering and youth services

their families, as well as to the ambition of national and local governments to decrease citizen dependence on public services.

Another reason, albeit less frequently mentioned, involves the current economic crisis and cutbacks in social services, including youth care. Professionals and managers are thus facing many complex questions. Which tasks should be performed by professionals, and which could be entrusted to volunteers? How can professionals and volunteers work together productively? How can institutions be reorganized in order to incorporate volunteers?

In Volunteering and youth services, we present essential readings on volunteering and volunteer management for students, professionals, managers, and board members in various fields, including community and youth services, social work, youth care, education, parenting, management, and public administration. Our objective is to help readers understand and cope with the complex phenomenon of volunteering.

The book consists of three major sections. Part I (Volunteering) presents a general introduction to volunteering and volunteer management, as well as current trends in these areas. Part II (Youth) provides an overview of the limited existing knowledge on volunteering and youth development. Part III (Special Topics) offers a glimpse of several specialized issues relevant to working with young people, including co-production and episodic volunteering.

The chapters in this volume are based on publications by the editors and various international experts.

VOLUNTEERING AND YOUTH SERVICES Linda Bridges Karr, Lucas Meijs & Judith Metz

The demand for volunteering in the context of childrearing is increasing. This is due in part to the disintegration of informal networks surrounding children and

VOLUNTEERING AND YOUTH SERVICES ESSENTIAL READINGS ON VOLUNTEERING AND VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT FOR SOCIAL WORK, SOCIAL POLICY AND URBAN MANAGEMENT

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Volunteering and youth services

Volunteering and youth services Essential readings on volunteering and volunteer management for social work, social policy and urban management.

Linda Bridges Karr Lucas Meijs Judith Metz

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Volunteering and youth services Essential readings on volunteering and volunteer management for social work, social policy and urban management.

Linda Bridges Karr, Lucas Meijs, & Judith Metz ISBN 978 90 8850 590 4 E-ISBN 978 90 8850 462 4 NUR 752 Š 2014 SWP publishers, Amsterdam All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of SWP Publishers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Content

Volunteering and Youth Services: Essential readings on volunteering and volunteermanagement Linda Bridges Karr, Lucas C.P.M. Meijs, Judith Metz

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PART I: VOLUNTEERING 17 1. What is volunteering?

Eva A. van Baren, Lucas C.P.M. Meijs 2. On contemporary volunteering and volunteer management as building blocks for the pedagogic civil society Eva A. van Baren, Lucas C.P.M. Meijs, Lonneke Roza, Judith Metz, Niek Hoogervorst 3. The value of volunteering: The economic perspective Lonneke Roza, Femida Handy 4. Different perspectives on the value of volunteering: Individual value, social value, and legitimacy Judith Metz 5. Organizing volunteer support for child and youth development: An introduction to volunteer management Lucas C.P.M. Meijs, Linda Bridges Karr

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PART II: YOUTH 89 6. Propositions concerning the use of volunteers to provide support to children and their parents Niek Hoogervorst, Eva A. van Baren, Judith Metz, Lonneke Roza, Lucas C.P.M. Meijs

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7. The pedagogic value of volunteering in child and youth development 107 Judith Metz, Niek Hoogervorst, Lucas C.P.M. Meijs, Eva A. van Baren, Lonneke Roza 8. The importance of volunteering and the civil society for at-risk youth 119 Debbie Haski-Leventhal 9. Volunteer motivation and the pedagogic civil society 127 Linda Bridges Karr PART III: SPECIAL TOPICS 143 10. Involved learning Lonneke Roza, Lucas C.P.M. Meijs 11. Coproduction: Exploring the concept and its implications for children’s services Jeffrey L. Brudney, Sarah E. Zarcone 12. Temporary participation: Episodic volunteering, spontaneous volunteering, and community-service programs Eva A. van Baren, Lucas C.P.M. Meijs 13. Congregations and the value of faith-based volunteering for their youth Ram A. Cnaan The next step Judith Metz, Lucas C.P.M. Meijs, Linda Bridges Karr

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Volunteering and Youth Services: Essential readings on volunteering and volunteermanagement Linda Bridges Karr Lucas C.P.M. Meijs Judith Metz

In recent years, increasing attention has been devoted to the idea that people within a society share responsibility for the upbringing of children. The education and development of children and youth is primarily the task of the family, but the state has an interest as well, and the commercial sector is playing an increasingly prominent role in the life experiences of young children (and their families). To the family (the private sector), the child is important as a unique person, as a legacy for the future. To the state (the public sector), the child is more important as the citizen of tomorrow. To corporations (the commercial sector), the child is important as a consumer, both now and in the future. As observed by Winter (2007, 141), “We should therefore wonder whether the public child has been abandoned in favor of the private child and the commercial child” (translation LBK).

Between these sectors is an area in which people join hands to achieve common goals: civil society. A portion of this social space is specifically oriented toward helping children and youth reach healthy, productive adulthood.

In many Western societies, the public appears to be increasingly calling upon civil society, philanthropy, and volunteering with regard to the education and development of children and youth. For example, in the Netherlands, these ideas have recently been developed into the theoretical and practical concept of the “pedagogic civil society” (Winter, 2011; RMO, 2009). Inspired by the well-known motto “It takes a village to raise a child,” this concept emphasizes the need for the broader, gener-

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al involvement of other adults, in addition to parents, in the upbringing of children (see Box).

Pedagogic civil society in the Netherlands In the Netherlands, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners have recently been calling attention to the importance of volunteering in the childrearing process. Their efforts are motivated in part by contemporary social developments that have made it more difficult to assume the availability of spontaneous involvement and support for those directly involved in this process (Felling et al., 2000). Parents have reported a lack of emotional and practical support in their day-to-day efforts to raise their children (Hoek, 2008; Blokland, 2009). The spontaneous social control that can prevent vandalism, roughhousing, and bullying appears to have disappeared from the street, the playground, the swimming pool, and other public spaces (Houkes & Kok, 2009).

Increasing use is being made of professional youth services. For example, the use of these services in the Netherlands doubled between 1997 and 2007 (Hermanns, 2009).

It is important to note that not everyone is convinced that spontaneous involvement is truly decreasing in the Netherlands (Metz, 2006; Linders, 2010) or, if it is, that this is necessarily a problem. International comparative studies have shown that children and adolescents in the Netherlands are among the happiest in the world (Curie et al., 2012).

These considerations aside, the notion of the pedagogic civil society is an attempt to breathe new life into the traditional involvement of social networks (which many believe to be in decline or to have disappeared altogether) with children, adolescents, and their caregivers. As defined by Winter, Horjus, and Kesselring (2012, 22), the pedagogic civil society is “the collective efforts of citizens in the upbringing of children, as characterized by mutual support, shared responsibility for childrearing, and informal social control, thus creating a positive pedagogic climate for all children.� The concept is thus aimed at the realization and increase of voluntary involvement in the education and development of children and youth.

Although the international literature does not appear to have elaborated the concept of a civil society specifically oriented towards childrearing, civil society has been discussed in relation to various aspects of child/youth development, in which the physi-

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cal, social, and emotional growth of the child is viewed as being embedded in a complex network of relationships within the community and society as a whole. Examples include the Wraparound Care model (Brown & Hill, 1996; Hermanns, 2009), Positive Youth Development (Benson, 2002; Lerner et al., 2005), the network approach in youth services, and the growing popularity of family group conferences (Clarijs & Malmberg, 2012). One common feature shared by all of these models and initiatives is that they are aimed at reinforcing the informal networks of care surrounding children and their caregivers, based on the conviction that the efforts of volunteers contribute positively to youth development.

Shifts in youth policy Government policies are also increasingly calling for the broader involvement of volunteers and social networks surrounding children, adolescents, and their parents. In the 1970s and 1980s, it became obvious that one undesirable side effect of welfare states is that individuals – and society as a whole – tend to become dependent upon the government (Doorn & Schuyt, 1978; Adriaansens & Zijderveld, 1981; Culpitt, 1992; Esping-Andersen, 1996). Since then, governments have made various attempts to activate citizens and society. In practical terms, these efforts have been aimed at encouraging individual citizens to become more active in society. On a more abstract level, the objective is to ensure that citizens and society become more self-sufficient and less dependent upon the government (Metz, 2011).

Since the economic crisis in Western welfare states in 2008, social services that have traditionally been provided by paid employees have been increasingly replaced by family support, community support, informal networks, and volunteering. Examples include the “Big Society” in the UK, the Social Support Act (2007) in the Netherlands, and the movements to enable active citizenship in the Nordic countries and in France.

The replacement of formal social services provided by paid employees with informal and unpaid services can be attributed to three separate developments: reductions in public spending, the activation of passive citizens who are dependent upon the government, and efforts to build social cohesion in response to the advancing trend of individualization (Newman & Tonkens, 2011). These developments are shifting the entire responsibility for welfare onto the shoulders of citizens and their networks. Citizens have no recourse to government facilities unless it has become clear that they are not able to manage on their own or with support from those around them (Metz, 2009).

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The principle that people should do as much as they can on their own (with support from their networks) has also been adopted in the context of formal youth services.

In practice, this means that social workers begin by talking with children and their families about what they can do to resolve their problems on their own, and what types of support are available to them through their own networks. If they have no network, they are offered assistance in building one. If they still need help, volunteers are sought. Paid social services are available only for matters that cannot be resolved through these channels.

Volunteering in public services One consequence of the increased demand for volunteers in the context of childrearing is that paid employees and youth-serving organizations are facing the challenge of involving volunteers (in many cases, for the first time) in their day-to-day work.

This requires them to understand what volunteering entails and how they should work together with volunteers and their organizations. Important public policy questions in this regard include how to encourage more non-profit organizations to engage volunteers and how to facilitate volunteering with regard to children and youth.

In the public sector, managers in youth and social services organizations are increasingly being confronted with the challenge of identifying which tasks could best be performed by paid professionals, and which could best be assigned to volunteers. A related issue involves how to support paid professionals in the transition from an organization consisting entirely of paid staff members to a hybrid organization that includes volunteers. In other words, it is important to consider how institutions can be reorganized in order to make room for volunteers.

With regard to the organization of volunteering, it is important to determine the most effective ways of supporting volunteering in the context of childrearing and to identify ways in which paid employees and volunteers can work together most productively. Given the wide range of sectors that are involved in this context, any discussion of the organization of volunteering should take the specific characteristics of the sector into account. For example, within the classic environment of volunteer-involving organizations (i.e., the non-profit sector), such discussions tend to be framed in terms of management, while the social work sector focuses more on supporting volunteers rather than on managing them. In addition to these sector-specific complexities, the task of “organizing the village� is complicated by the possibility that volunteers and

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their efforts have unique positive effects on the development of children, adolescents, and their caregivers.

To date, the dominant rationale for using volunteers (particularly in the public, social work, and care sectors) has been that it is a cost-effective way to deliver services (Brudney, 2011). In adopting this rationale, organizations tend to overlook the possibility that volunteers might actually provide unique benefits in the area of youth development that cannot be supplied by paid employees. Both scholars and practitioners have overlooked the unique potential benefits of volunteers for young people (see e.g., Hoogervorst et al. and Haski-Leventhal in this volume). Although research has demonstrated the cost-saving effects of volunteering (Brudney & Duncombe, 1992; Handy & Brudney, 2007; Handy et al., 2008), as well as its positive effects for communities (e.g., social capital; see Putnam, 2000) and for volunteers themselves (Musick & Wilson, 2008), few studies have actually examined and compared the respective benefits of volunteers and paid employees for youth development (for exceptions, see Haski-Leventhal et al., 2008).

Structure of the book In this book, Volunteering and Youth, we have compiled essential essays on volunteering and volunteer management for students, professionals, managers, administrators and board members in fields related to community work and youth work, social work, youth services, parenting, education, child development, management studies, and public administration. Our objective is to introduce students, policymakers, and practitioners to the complex phenomenon of volunteering, in addition to providing them with an array of theoretical tools for working with this material. The book is composed largely of scientific publications by the editors and international experts, adapted to the specific context of volunteering and youth.

The book consists of three sections. Part I (Volunteering) contains general introductions to the concepts of volunteering, particularly as applied in the context of youth-serving organizations. Part II (Youth) provides an overview of existing knowledge on volunteering and youth. As mentioned earlier in this introduction, very few studies to date have examined the contribution of volunteering to the development of children and adolescents. This section provides an overview of what we do know. Part III (Special Topics) offers a glimpse of several specialized issues addressed in research on volunteering that are relevant to the area of youth and youth services. We conclude the book with a closing statement by the editors, in which they

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outline the future of involving volunteers in the fields of youth services and social work.

Overview of the chapters Part I: Volunteering In Chapter 1, Eva van Baren and Lucas Meijs provide a detailed overview of what volunteering is (and what it is not). The discussion of differences between paid employment and volunteering should be particularly helpful to students and practitioners. Chapter 2 (by Eva van Baren, Lucas Meijs, Lonneke Roza, Judith Metz, and Niek Hoogervorst) provides an inventory of contemporary trends in volunteering. Topics addressed include various types of volunteers, patterns of participation, and developments in the organization of volunteering. Given that the most common reason for involving volunteers is to minimize costs, Lonneke Roza and Femida Handy devote Chapter 3 to the economic value of volunteering. They also demonstrate that it is not always less expensive to use volunteers than it is to use paid employees. In Chapter 4, Judith Metz discusses the individual and social value of volunteering, as well as its value in terms of legitimacy. This section concludes with Chapter 5 (by Lucas Meijs and Linda Bridges Karr) concerning volunteer management, focusing on specific characteristics of working with volunteers (as compared to paid employees) and presenting recent insights into ways of supporting volunteering in organizations.

Part II: Youth In Chapter 6, Niek Hoogervorst and colleagues address the question of whether it matters if tasks are performed by paid employees or by volunteers. The next chapter (Chapter 7, by Judith Metz, Eva van Baren, Niek Hoogervorst, Lucas Meijs, and Lonneke Roza) explores the possible effects of volunteering on the development of children and adolescents. The authors demonstrate that, although volunteering clearly offers opportunities to young people, the involvement of volunteers is also accompanied by risks. These authors are joined by Debbie Haski-Leventhal in Chapter 8, in which a case study is used to zoom in on the meaning of volunteering for at-risk youth. The section concludes with Chapter 9, in which Linda Bridges Karr addresses the motives that people have for volunteering, particularly in relation to the education and development of children and youth.

Part III: Special Topics The final section of the book is devoted to several areas within the field of volunteering that are relevant to youth services and youth-serving organizations, as well as to

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volunteering in general, both now and in the future. As a transition from the specific focus on the context of youth in Section II, Lonneke Roza and Lucas Meijs open this section with a discussion of “involved learning,� focusing on volunteering as an extremely useful and powerful instrument for societal and personal development.

Although volunteering experiences in educational settings are particularly relevant to young people, the potential of these forms extends well beyond this context to include applications involving job seekers, refugees, or even corporate employees. In Chapter 11, Jeffrey Brudney and Sarah Zarcone address the concept of the coproduction of services, elaborating two distinctive types of coproduction: direct coproduction, in which children are involved as coproducers of the services from which they also benefit, and indirect coproduction, in which parents and citizen volunteers act as coproducers of these services. The authors also formulate a framework for research on coproduction in children’s services. Eva van Baren and Lucas Meijs then provide an overview of three increasingly common types of volunteering and volunteers: episodic volunteering, spontaneous volunteering, and community service programs.

They provide detailed examples to illustrate each of these emerging types of volunteering (Chapter 12). Part III concludes with Chapter 13, in which Ram Cnaan presents an overview of international studies addressing questions related to the relationship between volunteering and faith-based congregations, formulating 12 hypotheses to be tested in future studies of young people who attend congregations and volunteer within these contexts.

It is our hope that this book will be a useful resource for those who are just beginning to explore the world of volunteering in the context of child and youth development, as well as for those who are involved with these issues on a daily basis. Although we have by no means addressed every topic and question that is relevant to this broad, multi-faceted field, we are pleased to have brought together what we believe to be a useful and accessible sampling of this relatively new body of knowledge.

References Adriaansens, H.P.M. & A.C. Zijderveld (1981). Vrijwillig initiatief en de verzorgingsstaat. Cultuursociologische analyse van een beleidsprobleem [Voluntary initiatives and the welfare state: A social-cultural analysis of a policy problem]. Deventer: Van Loghum Slaterus.

Benson, P. L. (2002), Adolescent development in social and community context: A program of research. New Directions for Youth Development, 2002, 123-148. DOI: 10.1002/yd.19

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Blokland, T.V. (2009). Het belang van publieke familiariteit in de openbare ruimte [The importance of public familiarity in the public domain]. Tijdschrift voor Beleid, Politiek en Maatschappij [Journal for Policy, Politics and Society], 36(3), 183-191.

Brown, R., & Hill, B. (1996). Opportunity for change: Exploring an alternative to residential treatment. Child Welfare League of America, 725, 35-57.

Brudney, J.L. (2011). Preparing the organization for volunteers. In: T.D. Connors (Ed.), The volunteer management handbook (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Brudney, J.L. & Duncombe, W D. (1992). An economic evaluation of paid, volunteer and mixed staffing options for public services. Public Administration Review, 52(5), 474-481.

Clarijs, R. & Malmberg, T. (2012). The quiet revolution. Amsterdam: SWP. Culpitt, I. (1992). Welfare and citizenship. Beyond the crisis of the welfare state. London: Sage.

Currie, C., Zanotti, C., Morgan, A., Corrie, D., Looze, M. de, Roberts, C., & Samdal, O. (2012).

Social determinants of health and well-being among young people. Health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study: international report from the 2009/2010 survey.

Copenhagen.

Doorn, J.A.A. & C.J.M. Schuyt (1978). De stagnerende verzorgingsstaat [The stagnation of the welfare state]. Meppel: Boom.

Esping-Andersen, G. (1996). Welfare states in transition: National adaptations in global economies. London: Sage.

Felling, A., Peters, J. & Scheepers, P. (2000). Individualisering in Nederland aan het einde van de twintigste eeuw, empirisch onderzoek naar omstreden hypotheses [Individualization in the Netherlands at the end of the twentieth century, empircal research of contentious hypotheses]. Assen: Van Gorcum.

Handy, F. & Brudney, J.L. (2007). When to use volunteer labor resources? An organizational analysis for nonprofit management. Vrijwillige Inzet Onderzocht [Voluntary Efforts Studies], 4, 91-100.

Handy, F., Mook, L. & Quarter, J. (2008). The interchangeability of paid staff and volunteers in nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 37(1), 76-92.

DOI:10.1177/0899764007303528.

Haski-Leventhal, D., Cnaan, R.A., Handy, F. Brudney, J.L., Holmes, K., Hustinx, L., Kang, C., Kassam, M. Meijs, L.C.P.M., Ranade, B., Yamauchi, N., Yeung, A.B. & Zrinscak, S. (2008). Students’ vocational choices and voluntary action: A 12-nation study. Voluntas, 19, 1-21.

DOI:10.1007/s11266-008-9052-1.

Hermanns, J. (2009). Het opvoeden verleerd [Childrearing forgotten]. Inaugural address on June 9, 2009. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.

Hoek, M.A.M. (2008). Ontheemd ouderschap, betekenissen van zorg en verantwoordelijkheid in beleidsteksten opvoedingsondersteuning [Parenting in exile: The meanings of care

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and responsibility in policy briefs on parenting support]. Doctoral dissertation. Utrecht: Utrecht University.

Houkes, A. & Kok, L. (2009). Effectiviteit informele netwerken [Effectiveness of informal networks].

In opdracht van de Raad voor Volksgezondheid en Zorg en de Raad voor Maatschappelijke Ontwikkeling. [Commissioned by the Council for Public Health and Care, and by the Council for Social Development]. Amsterdam: RMO. Lerner, R.M., Almerigi, J.B., Theokas, C. & Lerner, J.V. (2005). Positive youth development: A view of the issues. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 25(1), 10-16. DOI: 10.1177/ 0272431604273211.

Linders, L. (2010). De betekenis van nabijheid. Een onderzoek naar de informele zorg in een volksbuurt [The meaning of proximity: A study on informal care in a working-class neighborhood]. The Hague: SDU. Metz, J. (2006). De tweeledige werking van intermediairen voor burgerparticipatie [The dual functions of intermediaries for citizen participation]. Amsterdam: Humanistic University Press.

Metz, J. (2009). Over burgerparticipatie, welzijnsbeleid en de Wmo. Historiografie van de werksoort maatschappelijk activeringswerk [About citizen participation, welfare policy and the “wmo”. Historiography of the Dutch welfare work called “maatschappelijk activeringswerk]. Journal of Social Intervention, 18(2), 61-83.

Metz, J.W. (2011). Welzijn in de 21ste eeuw. Van sociale vernieuwing naar welzijn nieuwe stijl [From social innovation to the New Welfare]. Amsterdam: SWP Musick, M.A. & Wilson, J. (2008). Volunteers: A social profile. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Newman, J. & Tonkens, E. Participation, responsibility and choice. Summoning the active citizen in Western European welfare states. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

RMO (2009). Stem geven aan verankering: over de legitimering van maatschappelijke dienstverlening [An exploration of participation: Labor, volunteering, and informal care in perspective]. The Hague: SDU. Winter, M. de (2007). Het kind als publiek-private onderneming [The child as a public-private partnership]. In Koops, W., Levering B. & Winter, M. de (Eds.). Het kind als spiegel van de beschaving; een moderne antropologie van het kind [The child as a mirror of civilization: A modern anthropology of the child](pp. 139-150). Amsterdam: SWP. Winter, M. de (2011). Verbeter de wereld, begin bij de opvoeding. Van achter de voordeur naar democratie en verbinding [Improve the world: start with the upbringing of children. From behind the front door towards democracy and connection]. Amsterdam: SWP. Winter, M. de, Horjus, B., & Kesselring, M. (2012). Pedagogische civil society of pedagogisch vrijwilligerswerk? TSS, 7(8), 22-23.

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The next step Judith Metz Lucas C.P.M. Meijs Linda Bridges Karr

All around the globe, and even more in the Western welfare states, the youth services and social work sectors are becoming a focal point for a wide range of associations, occupational groups, and politicians. Traditional concerns about the negative consequence of parental neglect, substance abuse, and teenage pregnancy are being compounded by feelings of uneasiness regarding school dropout rates, youth gangs, and child molestation. More recently, apprehensions have turned to the unknown effects of social media and other new technologies, as well as the increasing popularity of street culture (particularly in urban areas), and the ongoing phenomena of loverboys and human trafficking. Questions regarding how to ensure that children and adolescents can grow up safe, healthy, and happy will therefore remain prominent throughout the coming decade.

Over the last decade, and particularly in the field of youth care, one approach has been developed to stimulate the quality and effectiveness of youth services: the implementation of evidence-based interventions. The aim of this approach is to disseminate scientific knowledge within the practice of social work and youth services. Evidencebased practice is defined as “(..) the integration of the best research evidence with our clinical expertise and our patient’s unique values and circumstances” (Sackett et al., 1997: 1). Recently, however, the quest for evidence-based interventions has proven vulnerable to several limitations. First, because few evidence-based interventions are available, guidelines calling for the exclusive use of “proven” interventions are likely to exclude many other interventions – both new and traditional – whose effects do not lend themselves well to systematic measurement. Moreover, many clients have multiple, complex needs that cannot be addressed with a single intervention (proven or not). The combination of interventions compounds the methodological challenges

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of documenting their effectiveness, however, leading to a tendency to use separated “proven” interventions rather than adopting a holistic approach. In addition, some clients require considerable guidance and support in order to benefit from these interventions. If such assistance is lacking, even interventions whose effectiveness has been established are likely to be ineffective.

Another way of ensuring the positive and safe development of youth involves collaboration with volunteers. The appeal to volunteering in the fields of youth services and social work has emerged from two separate developments. First, there is a common premise that the involvement of a wide range of adults is necessary for the upbringing of children and youth – “It takes a village to raise a child” – as discussed throughout this book. The second development involves the re-orientation of the welfare state, which requires the re-appraisal of the tasks that must be interpreted professionally and those that can be better performed by volunteers (Metz, Meijs, Roza, Baren, & Hoogervorst, 2012). In practice, the use of volunteering in youth services is increasing rapidly. The second part (Chapters 6-9) of the book addresses the roles that volunteers (both adults and youth) play in the lives of children and adolescents. The chapters show that these roles are diverse, ranging from adults providing informal support to children and families to volunteers organizing a local sports club, and from volunteers helping social workers to peer groups providing mutual assistance to each other. As clearly demonstrated in the first section of the book, the complexity of volunteering is equal to (or even greater than) that of paid work. Volunteering is done in a multitude of organizational settings, ranging from very informal (e.g., baby-sitting for a neighbor) to very formal (e.g., a strictly hierarchical paid-staff organization). These settings include volunteer-run organizations (in which paid employees have limited power) and volunteer-supported organizations (in which the dominant positions are held by paid employees), as well as mutual self-help, external service delivery, and stakeholderdriven political action.

Volunteer or paid youth services and social work The future of youth services and social work is likely to involve even greater use of volunteers as an integral part of professional interventions and as a link between professional interventions and civil society groups in order to achieve the desired results.

To ensure that children and adolescents can grow up safe, healthy, and happy in the future as well, it will be necessary to learn how volunteering and paid social work can collaborate productively. The contributions presented in this book reveal several handles, but there is a pressing need for additional research. For example, as demon-

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strated in Chapter 3 (Roza & Handy), the limitation of costs is a common reason for the use of volunteering. Although volunteering is often less expensive than paid work is, this is not always the case. It should also be obvious that volunteering is not free.

As observed in Chapter 4 (Metz), volunteering is also of social significance. Volunteering generates value in three ways: individual, social, and in terms of legitimacy. Less is known about the value of volunteering to beneficiaries (see also Chapters 6 & 7).

Exploratory research has suggested that acts that are carried out voluntarily can offer unique advantages over paid work, although such acts are subject to limitations. The benefits of volunteering have to do with such aspects as meaningful relationships, equality, and sincerity, while the limitations of working with volunteers include lack of expertise, lack of safety, and the risk of exclusion. As mentioned before, further research is necessary in order to determine the fundamental differences between volunteering and paid work.

Organizing the village As should be obvious from the contributions presented in this book, the integration of paid professional services and the efforts contributed by volunteers within the context of childrearing and youth development does not simply happen – it requires a considerable amount of coordination and organization. For example, one characteristic of volunteer settings involves the relationship of volunteers to practitioners in the fields of youth services and social work. In many cases, social workers are acquiring responsibility for managing volunteers, thus finding themselves in situations in which they have some kind of organizational or even hierarchical responsibility over and for volunteers. In many such situations, volunteers should be viewed largely as unpaid, part-time co-workers. Another challenge for practitioners in the fields of youth services and social work thus involves collaborating with volunteers within the context of an equal relationship, but with very distinct roles. This constitutes a structured approach to including volunteers as a part of interventions. The inclusion of volunteers can also take less-structured forms, such as when social workers involve the informal social systems of clients in the intervention. The ability to work with volunteers will also become important with regard to fundraising and maintaining the legitimacy of the profession.

The next generation of social workers will need to be able to link the knowledge that they have acquired through professional training to the experience-based expertise of volunteers. They must also be able to balance their professional distance and power against the civic values of volunteers (e.g., proximity and equality), in addition to ne-

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gotiating the boundaries between their professional ability to end relationships and the volunteer’s willingness to stay. Emerging practitioners in the field of youth services and social work must also be organizers of citizen involvement, managers of volunteers, and professionals who are dedicated to helping clients.

The contributions in this book clearly demonstrate that knowledge of volunteering is needed on the front lines of youth services and social work, where practitioners encounter volunteers on a regular basis. It is also needed by the politicians, policymakers, and managers who must make choices with regard to budget cuts and the assignment of tasks to either professional or volunteer services. In concrete terms, managers, policymakers, and politicians should be aware of the potential value of working with volunteers, as well as with its limitations.

Making better-informed decisions requires acknowledging that, in some cases, the contributions of volunteering can be of equal or greater value than are those of paid employees. Nevertheless, it is often difficult for professional organizations and paid workers to take volunteering that seriously. In many cases, volunteers are given tasks that are considered less relevant or too expensive to be carried out by paid workers. In order to reap the full potential of combining paid work and volunteering in the future, however, this situation must change.

In closing, the knowledge provided in this book can be used to raise awareness of the need to improve support for volunteers. Although volunteers are often perceived as cheap labor, they need and deserve proper management and support. Taking volunteers seriously requires dedicating time and support to them, preferably through a structural position (e.g., a volunteer administrator). It also requires transforming paidstaff organizations and the policy environment to make them more volunteer-friendly.

In many organizations, however, volunteers continue to be perceived as an appendage that can be left to its own devices without much managerial and organizational attention. To counteract this situation, governments will have to allocate additional financial resources to the professional support of volunteers. Moreover, the institutions that provide professional training in the fields of youth services and social work should incorporate volunteer management into their curricula, thereby ensuring that future generations of politicians, policymakers, and social workers are prepared for the future.

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We would like to thank the core RSM research team for the effort that they have devoted to many of the chapters presented in this book. The process of preparing this volume has been an interesting journey into the value of volunteering within the pedagogic civil society. We would also like to express our appreciation to the fine set of international scholars who were willing to participate in this project. In addition, the contributions of the growing community of researchers and pracademics who are willing to share their knowledge have been indispensable to this endeavor. We intend to continue our efforts – and we hope that our readers will continue theirs – to ensure that the efforts of volunteers are used effectively in order to create a village that will function well, both now and in the future.

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