Document Type

Article

Peer Reviewed

1

Publication Date

3-2014

Scholarship Domain(s)

Scholarship of Discovery; Scholarship of Community Application

Abstract

Youth In(VOL)ved is an 8 week youth volunteer program directed by the Grant Wood Area American Red Cross, which is located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The purpose of the program is to contribute to the American Red Cross’ goal of motivating and recruiting a new generation of volunteers, which supports the organization’s mission of alleviating human suffering in the face of emergencies. This paper examines the impact of Youth In(VOL)ved on participants’ attitudes toward volunteerism, which is information that can be used by the American Red Cross to apply for grant funding and to improve the program in future years.

The program met once a week and consisted of a half hour lesson on character and leadership development, followed by a volunteer project that was conducted at a local not-for-profit organization. Volunteer projects were held at a new organization each week. Participants came from a class of students participating in the Jane Boyd Community Center summer day camp and ranged from age 11 to 15.

The Social and Personal Responsibility Scale was adapted for relevance to the participants and was administered at the beginning and end of the program. The survey scores were analyzed using an independent samples t-test (as attendance at Jane Boyd changed from week to week) and a series of 2 × 2 ANOVAs to evaluate results along demographic characteristics. Results show that post-test scores did not differ significantly from the initial assessment. This could be due, in part, to low attendance on the day the post-survey was administered.

Comments

Honors Capstone Project completed in 2014 for Olivet Nazarene University.

Download

Share

COinS