Volunteering: an Evolving Paradigm

vital role in preserving the stability and cohesion of societies and makes a significant, but largely overlooked, economic contribution. It also brings considerable benefits to people who have the opportunity to volunteer. Moreover, volunteering helps to widen social, economic and cultural networks, enhances self-esteem, meets the need of people to learn from each other, facilitates acquisition of skills and experience thus widening employment options and builds up reserves of goodwill that can be drawn upon when needed. Young people who volunteer are better able to develop their potentialities, share knowledge and skills and secure employment; working adults, through social contacts, obtain opportunities for career advancement; and older people who volunteer can expect to live longer, healthier lives. The traditional view of volunteering as purely altruistic service is evolving into one characterised by benefits to everyone involved, in other words, reciprocity. Equally important is the shift away from the perception of poor people as sole beneficiaries of volunteering to one in which collective forms of voluntary action are a fundamental way they participate in society. Voluntary action, when undertaken together by those living in poverty and those who do not, leads to innovative partnerships and creates bridges between sectors of society. Voluntary action therefore is a major component in the fight against poverty and destitution. Indeed, the inability of an individual or family to access reciprocal ties of voluntary behaviour within the neighbourhood or community, as well as within their society and the world at large, is one extreme form of exclusion. Terms such as “neighbouring” and “active community”, which are beginning to find currency in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively, are helping to redress the image of the passivity of poor people in poor countries. Some form of volunteering can be identified in almost every society, but it has been largely overlooked as a vital resource in addressing issues of human development and human security. [...]