Volunteer

From Book's Introduction: Firefighting continues to be one of the nation's most dangerous and hazardous jobs with heart attacks, high physical stress levels, and sprains and strains all too common. In the past five years, the fire service has focused its attention on overcoming these issues by working to change the service's culture. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has spent much time redeveloping and revamping their health and wellness standards, while career departments have been working with the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) and International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) on a wellness initiative that began in 1997. Volunteer personnel also face similar risks when it comes to health and wellness. The nature of member time constraints and tight departmental budgets in the volunteer service often inhibits the creation of comprehensive health and wellness programs. Implementing a comprehensive health and wellness program could overwhelm the resources of many volunteer departments. Time, lack of program leadership, and insufficient funding pose serious challenges to most departments, which often struggle to deliver basic fire suppression capabilities. This guide provides the rationale and suggestions for successfully implementing a health and wellness program volunteer service. It also addresses many common roadblocks.

Who tends to volunteer and why? What causes attract certain types of volunteers? What motivates people to volunteer? How can volunteers be persuaded to continue their service? Making use of a broad range of survey information to offer a detailed portrait of the volunteer in America, Volunteers provides an important resource for everyone who works with volunteers or is interested in their role in contemporary society. Mark A. Musick and John Wilson address issues of volunteer motivation by focusing on individuals' subjective states, their available resources, and the influence of gender and race. In a section on social context, they reveal how volunteer work is influenced by family relationships and obligations through the impact of schools, churches, and communities. They consider cross-national differences in volunteering and historical trends, and close with consideration of the research on the organization of volunteer work and the consequences of volunteering for the volunteer.

"One third of Australians volunteer on a regular basis. This means that more than 5 million Australians are regularly coaching local sports teams, working in the school P & C, planting trees in their local Bush Care group, managing email lists for political or community groups and so on. This book tells the story of volunteering in Australia since WWII across many kinds of organisations and argues that we have a unique way of volunteering in Australia. Using the examples of her grandmother who was one of the founders of the CWA and her mother who was very active as a volunteer in WWII, Melanie Oppenheimer shows that women have often been central to keeping communities going through their unpaid work. She also shows that volunteers need to be better recognised. The 2020 summit and Australia's first minister for volunteering shows the governments are starting to realise this"--Provided by publisher.

Volunteersis the first comprehensive look at the organizational behavior of volunteer workers, drawing upon both original research and the existing scholarly work in this field. Author Jone L. Pearce critiques the employee-centered theories of such subfields as organizational design, motivation, organizational commitment, workplace interpersonal influence, leadership, the role of values, and the effects of compensation. She proposes significant additions and modifications based on a detailed empirical analysis of two matching groups of seven organizations each, one volunteer-run and staffed, the other employee staffed. Much of the existing advice to volunteers or those employing them can be misleading or unhelpful. Pearce looks at successful and unsuccessful organizations in areas such as the arts, social services and health care. She discusses the implications of volunteers on general theories of organizational behavior and outlines the practical effects of an understanding of volunteer workers for all organizations employing them. Volunteerswill be valuable to managers, psychologists, and all interested in organizational behavior.

This volume provides a comprehensive view of the social, political and military aspects of the volunteer movement of the French Wars: the volunteer infantry, yeomanry cavalry and the armed associations in England, Scotland and Wales from 1794 to 1814 and in some cases beyond.