Volunteering for the least of these...

I have been discerning for some time what path to pursue in terms of doing a little volunteer work. I post this not to toot my own horn. Please don't take it as such. Some people's entire social media feed is filled up with how great they are by all their charitable work(s). I mean, it's great to do charitable work, and there are many fine charities and causes out there that need all the volunteers they can get. 

Volunteerism is something that really can make or break a society. As I was prepping for writing this particular blog entry, I dove a bit into statistics to see how prevalent volunteering is in the US and around the world. In my online research I found an interesting study put out by, of all places, the United Nations. It had the most recent numbers that I could easily access, as of this writing. (Only in a UN document of 154 pages would they not cite any useful stats or info until page 42, but that's a separate issue.)    

Now, I am going to cite the figures this document throws out as a baseline reference. I realize UN documents that come from committees are notoriously biased, but giving the benefit of the doubt, I will take them at face value. There are a lot of statistics on volunteerism in America, but worldwide numbers were much harder to come by. That being said, here are some interesting factoids this UN document threw out there:

• Globally, some 34.5 per cent of working-age people, or 2.1 billion individuals, engage in volunteer work each month.
• Africa records the highest rate of monthly volunteer work,with 58.5 per cent of working-age individuals in the region engaging in volunteer work activities.
• Volunteer work is estimated to be more prevalent among men than among women, especially in regions of the world where women have fewer opportunities to engage in activities outside the home. However, there are wider gendered patterns in volunteering more broadly.
• Most volunteer work continues to be carried out directly, as opposed to through organizations. Globally, 25 per cent of working-age individuals are estimated to engage in direct volunteer work, compared to only 11.7 per cent who engage in organization-based volunteer work.

It is at this point in the document that it gets back into methodology and general political hooey, as only UN documents can. But, if correct, those tidbits are food for thought. 

 Looking into US statistics about Americans specifically was a bit more of a challenge. There seemed to be a methodological divide in most of the sources I saw online between formal volunteerism is an organization and informal volunteerism. From what I could ascertain, I do not think there was a clear definition of what exactly constituted "informal" volunteer opportunities versus "formal" ones. Obviously regularly scheduled hours at some established charity like the Red Cross or the local Literacy Council would likely classify as "formal" volunteering. 

Definitions of "informal" volunteering seemed to range from "unpaid, voluntary activities performed by choice, to benefit others outside one’s household" to "unpaid help as an individual to people who are not a relative, something specifically not coordinated by an organization or institution."  Of course this begs the question of whether something under the auspices of some organization, but not specifically coordinated by the organization, would be formal or informal. For example, would a freelance volunteering at, say, your local parish church was informal? I am thinking of something like helping out occasionally to serve pancakes at the local Knights of Columbus parish breakfast. Technically an organization, but not specifically coordinated by the Knights of Columbus. That may seem a splitting of hairs, but one does have to take such definitions into account when looking as statistics because one definition can skew a number one way or another. 

This also begs the question of whether volunteering to help someone outside the household but related in some way to your family does not get counted. If I agree to help cook dinner for some family at church who is grieving the loss of a loved one, is that not volunteering? I doubt very much something like that gets reported or counted in volunteering statistics. Again, perhaps a splitting of hairs, but something you have to watch when reading statistics. If, say, a Department of Labor is counting anything that is "unpaid labor," that is going to be a wholly different number than those who are only formally committing X hours a week to a specific cause or benefit. 

 Regardless, it appears that about 28.3% of adult Americans volunteer regularly. That's slightly less than one in three people. By comparison, the workforce participation rate was 62.4% of all working age adults. This is totally different than the Unemployment numbers, which, frankly tell you absolutely nothing of use because unemployment is only the number of people actively looking for work divided by the total labor force. The unemployment rates can easily be fudged because anyone deemed "not actively looking for work" is factored out of the equation entirely even if they are perfectly healthy and able to work. If you have not been employed in 2 years, even if you are still looking for work, you are not counted in the unemployment rate. Stay at home moms who have been home with kids for over 2 years are not factored in to unemployment rates. The workforce participation rate tells you how many adults percentage wise are working, straight up. It does not factor out disabled or partially employed or those not looking for work. Workforce participation rate tells you 62.4 percent of all adults are working. So, quite literally, that number is telling you that 37.6% of all adults of working age in the US do not work at all. Some by choice, some by disability, some by retirement. 

I bring this up because while 28.3% of adults volunteer, 37.6% do not work a job of any type. That puts the volunteerism numbers in a different perspective. A lot of volunteers do not work because they are retired or physically disabled, and yet they stay engaged because they volunteer. I could not find reliable data on how many active volunteers are also actively retired, but I would imagine a significant number are in both categories. A lot of people want to retire so that they can do the volunteer work that they have never had the time to do when working full time. How many retirees actually go on to do regular volunteer work would be an interesting study. 

I have always tried to give back to the community as best I could with a small amount of regular volunteering. I have done mentoring and for a short time was a Court Appointed Special Advocate. I donate a lot of time to an orphanage in Uganda. Of late, I have felt the desire to do more. This may be the ghost of John Calvin speaking to me because "idle hands are the Devil's handiwork" and other such productivity for the Kingdom of God aphorisms of my youth that I had beaten into my head because "there is none righteous, no not one." While I never really bought into full stop Calvinism, the ghost of Calvin speaks very strongly to those brought up under his shadow even if they have long since fled his shadow. 

After a period of discernment for over a year and several discussions with various groups, I think I finally found something I can really get behind. For years when I was in seminary and up in South Dakota, I helped with various dog rescues. I have finally found one that I like in a nearby town. Sadly, the one here in the town I live in has some serious issues that I have never wanted to particularly be a part of. So, I am pleased to say that I will be volunteering at an animal rescue a few times a month. It's not much. And I know I could and should do more, but it's a step in the right direction for me. 

Please pray for me, as I pray for you. If you don't volunteer, consider doing so. There are plenty of opportunities in your community, but sometimes you have to search for the right fit. Keep at it. You never know where the volunteering wind may blow you off too...