Blog 7: Statistics
1154 words by treece
To recap, my problem was based on the lack of consideration of people nowadays. I believe that people are very inconsiderate and the only people they look out for are themselves. One of my solutions was to give back to community in volunteering, something that a lot of people lack doing. I’ve been working with the Big Sister/ Big brother program and also the Adopt-A- grand person. Both projects are very helpful in getting me prepared for my profession in becoming a doctor. I get to work with all types of people from little kids needing a role model to elderly people who just need attention. In the article Seasoned Seniors by Lisa Hollis, individuals, corporations, and organizations came together to volunteer to help out with elderly people. They understand the importance of giving back to the community and helping the people who got to us to be where we are. From the News Bureau of Labor Statistics website they stated that about one-fourth of men and one-third of women volunteered in September, 2005 which was the same amount of the previous two years. They also said that women had a higher rate of volunteering than men. How is the world supposed to improve if no one can take the effort to volunteer? This is why I’m taking the initiative to try to volunteer and give back. The website also states that teenagers had a high volunteer rate 30.4 percent and volunteer rates were lowest among people in the early twenties. Volunteering with children takes a lot of patience and time and I think teenagers and young adults are better at this type of service than adults. Young adults can adapt to kids because their a little closer to their age than adults. Kids are also able to confide in young adults because they gain a better trust. From the Youth Service America website they stated a few reasons why young adults tend to want to volunteer. One reason is that they said youth feel compassion for people that need help. Another reason is that they can help out with something they feel real strong towards. One of the major reasons they said that I believe is the main reason is that they believe if that they help others, others will help them. One statistic from the website states that 73% of young people believe that their efforts could present a positive impact on their communities. A interesting fact that I found from the website was the National Youth Service Day. I never really knew about this . It states that on April20-21, 2001 three million young people across America from the ages of 5-25 came to participate in the largest youth public service event in the world. I thought that was huge, I never heard of so much volunteering and people who would actually want to do it with someone telling them to. It’s a program of Youth Service America. Some sponsors of the program include AT&T, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Corporation for National Service, Channel One, the Fannie Mae Foundation, and additional foundations were AOL Time Warner, Seventeen Magazine, and Cover Concepts, organizations that I didn’t even know funded something like this. I think if more teens and young adults new about this it would get them excited to also want to volunteer.
From the article Volunteering Statistics by the Centre for Volunteering website they had statistics on what type of people volunteer. One of the statistics that stuck out to me was people who were not in the labor force contributed slightly more hours of volunteer work ( 265.2 million hours a year) than people with everyday jobs (260.7 million hours a year) or part time (154.1 million hours). Also female partners with dependent children had a volunteer rate of 45% compared to female partners without dependent children that had 28%. They also had statistics on volunteer recruitment. They stated that over half of those that first become involved in voluntary work in the last 10 years were either asked to volunteer by someone (32%) or they knew someone involved. This is the main reason why I started this project. There is a lack of consideration of people who will work if someone pushes them to do it, and never on their own initiative. The other statistic was that volunteers are rarely recruited through the media; only 4 percent became involved in volunteering in response to a media report or advertisement. All these statistics show that volunteering really depends on the people and if they really have the heart for it. I believe that a lot of people more people need to try to volunteer and give back to the community. Volunteering with the elderly doesn’t take that much time but people don’t take to effort to even try. With the statistics showing that women tend to volunteer more than men baffles me because I think it should be equal amounts of volunteer. I think people should look beyond even volunteering with just elderly people and kids because theirs a lot of more things in the world that needs help. I found off the Institute for Volunteering Research young people’s attitudes and practice of volunteering. The 2001 Home Office Citizenship Survey (HOCS) found that 40% of 16-24 year olds had been involved in formal volunteering and 73% had been involved in informal volunteering in the 12 months before interview. They also stated that young people are involved in a range of voluntary activities. Young adults are best at organizing or helping to run a activity or event. The website stated that young people who do volunteer work have a wider appreciation of its scope and potential and are less likely to label volunteers according to traditional stereotypes. To my surprise a lot of young people share the same feelings as me in trying to improve the world. It seems that young people have their own way of showing their feelings about the world and how they want to improve it. My way is helping physically by taking my time to volunteer with the elderly and be a mentor to younger kids. Martin Lewis CBE found on Celebrity Quotations website stated “Volunteering in the 21st century is more diverse than ever before and offers opportunities for older and retired people to have fun whilst feeling valued and being engaged with their communities. Everyone has something to offer and can benefit positively from being actively involved with volunteering.” I believe people can get motivated by this quote and start feel the same way I do, that volunteering is important to improve our society.
God’s house the tabernacle tells that we are to keep it holy. It is said that there is to be one in heaven and one built on earth so he could dwell in it. Solomon is the one who built God a temple.
December 15th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Your project is going well it sound like. Your are accomplisjing what you set out to do. keep working with big brother/big sister and adopt-a-grandperson. Sooner or later people will get the hint and be considerate to those that are considerate and everyone else. We just have to treat people how we want to be treated and then our world will be a better placeErica