Community Service for College Students WHAT ARE CHARACTERISTICS OF A VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY WORTH DOING AGAIN?

Let’s ask the Volunteer Coordination Professionals on 10 Vermont campuses …

What are Characteristics of a Volunteer Opportunity

Worth Doing Again?

And the literature says… - That each type of student community service contributes to organizational capacity in specific ways and that student engagement depends on adequate volunteer management capacity.

- Student volunteers are influenced by a mix of motivations and benefits, with differences between those volunteering regularly, those volunteering occasionally, and those not volunteering.

- The relationship between the campus Volunteer Office and the non-profit is like personal friendship, it needs to be based on good communication, mutual respect and time together.

How do you unearth the qualities of a community services activity worth repeating?

Ask Vermont higher education administrators to describe student volunteer opportunities they have been involved in coordinating.

Qualitative Grounded-Theory Approach WHY?

A qualitative study is appropriate for “the identification of factors that influence an outcome”.

Creswell, 2009, p. 18

WHY?

Grounded theory is recommended when the goal is to “explore processes, activities, and events”

Creswell, 2009, p. 177).

10 Program Coordinators, individual one hour interviews.

Questions prompt them to describe past volunteer events, positive and negative.

Responses are recorded, then coded and cataloged by theme.

Method

•“Describe a campus-community partnership that you feel is successful.

•“What are the characteristics of a volunteer opportunity that make it successful enough to have been repeated?”

•“What role does your office play in a successful volunteer opportunity?

Hypothesized Results

1. High levels of project management improves the likelihood that an event will be worth repeating.

2. The quality of the event is related to the quality of the relationship between the coordinators at the non-profit and the University.