History

The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (later known as the March of Dimes) was founded by Franklin Roosevelt in 1938 and immediately engaged thousands of volunteers in a two-decade struggle against the dreaded disease of polio. And it was successful, ultimately having to face the question: What happens to the energy and devotion of volunteers when their job has been accomplished?

In his 1957 book, The Volunteers, Columbia University researcher David L. Sills examined the phenomenon of the March of Dimes, particularly its devoted corps of volunteers, and raised issues still pertinent today.

Founded in 1904, the American Lung Association is the nation’s oldest voluntary health agency. Our work throughout our first century has been innovative – ours was the first disease-specific organization to couple the skills and expertise of the medical professional with the dedication and commitment of the lay volunteer, which is now the model most other voluntary health agencies follow. Volunteers were integral to the founding of our organization almost 100 years ago and still play a significant role in our efforts to prevent lung disease and promote lung health nationwide. With 1,300 staff and 130,000 volunteers working to achieve our mission in our 200 Lung Association offices, you can imagine the enormous challenges we face to stay connected and offer the essential learning needed to help those with lung disease.

As Director, Volunteer Management and Learning and a member of our organization’s Learning Center, the use of technology and e-learning techniques is an essential part of my efforts to enable idea sharing and learning opportunities no matter where our staff and volunteers may be located. The following article outlines some of the methods that we are employing.

One of the most basic and vital types of volunteering is citizen involvement in democratic political processes. All the elements of volunteering and volunteer management are here: recruitment, volunteer leadership, supervision, volunteer motivation, etc. Guest contributor Debbie Macon is uniquely qualified to help bridge the perceived gap between citizen involvement and volunteering. She has had 10 years in public service as an elected official, and is a 20-year member of the League of Women Voters. In addition, she is a member of the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA) and a member of the adjunct faculty of Wayne State University as co-instructor for "Managing Volunteer Programs" in the Nonprofit Sector Studies program.

Volunteer centers exist around the world, although they rarely connect with each other across national borders. In Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, the concept of a “volunteer bureau” – the most common original name – first gained traction to mobilize home front activities during World War II. In Japan, volunteer centers were (and to some extent still are) literally organizers of local community services. Newer in mainland Europe, volunteer centers evolved from the push towards civil society in formerly communist countries. Volunteer centers in the U.S. are transforming into “HandsOn Action Centers,” while centers everywhere are trying on new identities in a world of Internet access to volunteer opportunities. 

As volunteer centers continue to evolve, it seems like a good time to understand why and how they began. In this Voices from the Past, we reflect on their historical significance and consider where they might be going next.

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The Volunteer Probation Officer Law of 1950 formalized Japan’s unique and long-standing reliance on volunteers to assist professional probation officers and aid offenders of all ages with rehabilitation and to work on crime prevention. Today, just under 50,000 people from nearly every area of Japanese society serve as volunteer probation officers (VPOs), alongside less than 800 paid probation officers working with approximately 60,000 people on probation or parole. Half of all VPOs have been involved for more than 10 years and their average age is 62 – a development that is causing some concern.

In this Voices from the Past, we learn the history of VPO activity and why the Japanese believe that social and community support for offenders' rehabilitation are necessary as part of effective crime prevention. Granted, they have been extremely successful; according to a Stanford University study, “Fewer than 4 percent of Japanese criminals who have been assigned to a volunteer officer will commit another crime within a year of their release on parole or probation.”  In addition, we explore what other countries have learned from this Japanese model of volunteer involvement, and briefly review the issues affecting the future of VPOs in Japan. 

Most people know about credit unions but consider them simply as alternate banking systems. In fact, credit unions are volunteer-run cooperative credit agencies that combine idealism and practicality. In this Voices from the Past, we learn about this rarely discussed corner of the volunteer world. We explore the origins of credit unions in Europe and Canada in the 19th century and trace their evolution into the institutions that operate today and handle a significant part of installment credit in the United States and elsewhere. We review why credit unions speak of themselves as a “movement” and why credit unions openly use the vocabulary of members and volunteers.

In 1990, the Bethlehem Area School District in Bethlehem, PA., decided that every public high school student would perform 60 hours of unpaid community service during high school. The District gave students an open-ended list of approved organizations where they could perform this service, and named Phyllis Walsh, a teacher in the District for 21 years, as the first Community Service Coordinator. When the new program launched in the fall of 1990, two students and their parents filed suit against the District, arguing that the mandatory community service program violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments and constituted involuntary servitude in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment.  Three years later, the United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit Federal District Court ruled that a school district did not violate any rights by requiring community service. This lawsuit - Steirer by Steirer v. Bethlehem Area School District - set precedent for the rest of the United States and was a cause célèbre at the time.

In this Voices from the Past, Phyllis Walsh, now retired, gives a first-hand account of what it was like to be the center of attention in defending student service.  She notes that bumper stickers about the case can still be seen in the Bethlehem area, sporting the rallying cry: “End Slavery at Liberty and Freedom!” - a direct reference to Liberty High School and Freedom High School, the two schools involved in this landmark case.

 

It’s official.  YouTube isn’t just for silliness anymore.  The richness and variety of the videos that people now post online are quite amazing, and so it should come as no surprise that volunteering is among the subjects represented.  In this Voices from the Past, we’ll link you to some of the more fascinating online historical video clips and photograph archives and show how you can use the Internet to get a perspective on our mutual past.  You may find materials you can use for volunteer (and staff) training or as something different to show at a recognition event.