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For love or money: volunteering and unemployed people
Marc Levy
University of Melbourne
Contact Email: ml_ideaworks
bigpond.com
Volunteering can have significant benefits for unemployed people. It is said to combat social exclusion, build confidence and self-esteem and help put people on a path to paid employment.
Income support recipients can meet their participation and mutual obligation (MO) requirements by signing up for the Voluntary Work Initiative (VWI), delivered by Volunteering Australia, Community Work, which is facilitated by Commonwealth-funded Community Work Coordinators, or Work for the Dole. In the past decade, hundreds of thousands of unemployed people have been involved in these and other volunteering and community participation programs.
This paper will explore three questions:
1. Do these programs compromise voluntary principles or the value unemployed people get from volunteering?
2. If these programs do present such compromises, does the end - more unemployed people getting a volunteer-like experience - justify the means?
3. Based on the above, what kind of volunteering program might work best for unemployed people in the future?
Paper
Download Information (if available):
Paper179.pdf
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Copyright © 2007 Social Policy Research Centre.
