For Volunteers Themselves
Behind the Scenes at Engage: A Conversation with Editor-in-Chief Rob Jackson
What is Engage? How can we best describe its new, exciting content – including two new columns called Ethics and Ahead of the Curve? And what happens now to e-Volunteerism.com? Can the Volunteer Engagement community continue to access content from this beloved professional journal? And how can leaders of volunteer engagement from across the world contribute to Engage?
e-Volunteerism’s Co-Founder Reflects On A Shared Vision
One of the interesting things about getting older is that memories become a bit more elastic and you find yourself thinking about things that you have experienced and realize that they occurred an age or so ago.
Good and Bad: Musings on the Complexities and Nuances of Volunteering in Real Life
Volunteers can make the world a better place - but it behoves us to ask the question, "Better for whom?" In this Points of View, Rob Jackson and Erin R. Spink put this question front and center by challenging leaders of volunteer engagement to look at volunteering in real life from every conceivable angle. Jackson and Spink boldly note that “volunteering is not simply a nice thing to do: volunteers are directly shaping the world with their choices and actions.” As they write:
It would be naïve to proclaim that volunteering is always objectively good. The socially acceptable view of volunteering being for the greater good isn't wrong per se, but it has never demonstrated a true understanding of the complexities and nuances of volunteering in real life. In today's world, this overly simplistic conceptualization is actually a hindrance to understanding the power of volunteers and why our role as leaders of volunteer engagement is so critical.
Volunteers Plant Trees to Fight Global Warming and Climate Change
When faced with challenging world problems, volunteers’ resilience and resourcefulness have historically come to the fore. Consider the volunteer response to global heating and the damaging effects of climate change, which can seem overwhelming. Since scientists reported in 2019 that trees reduce carbon dioxide in the air – and that 900 million hectares more of them planted in the right places could cut the amount of CO2 by two-thirds – volunteers have responded with renewed commitment to planting trees.
In this Along the Web, writer Arnie Wickens explores how tree-planting projects and reforestation programmes have acquired renewed purpose and significance. Granted, tree-planting projects are not necessarily new, nor are they the only climate change action that volunteers will embrace. However, they are highly effective for and uniquely suited to engaging volunteers from every segment imaginable – from each and every age group, large corporations to small businesses, individuals to families, and to social and friendship groups of all kinds.