Volunteerism Are You IN or OUT?
Monday, July 7, 2008 1:20 AM
Volunteerism Are you IN or OUT
When the word Volunteer comes into your mind what do you think of? What exactly defines volunteer? According to thefreedictionary.com,
1. To perform or offer to perform a service of one's own free will.
2. To do charitable or helpful work without pay: Many retirees volunteer in community service and day care centers.
In our Context (Singapore) or for the youths to be a Volunteer means perform a service that which in then seek for a certain value in it. Which then this sentence relates back "there's a price for everything; Nothing in the world is free."
Lets take a deeper insight and evaluate whats going on in the minds of our current Youth's these days. Why youths aren't motivated to volunteer their services this days.(Examing mindset youths raging from age 13-20)
Is my time worth for this ? (i.e I could work somewhere and get Money for that amt. of hours I commit myself)
Are My friends in it; Most of them are being motivated by their surroundings and their environment they are in (i.e Are their school mates as proactive as it seems to be?)
Are the benefits able to satisfy me? (i.e goodie bags etc. Mainly are extrinic Motivations )
Is the location near my house I'm just plain lazy to travel down? ( Is it that far off? We pay so much tax for a proper infrastructure surely these days we can access almost anyway with convience)
What kind of position am I volunteering for? ( i.e They only want 2 kind of positions Either 1. High responsibility which get alot of reconition or 2. Either extremely less responsibility even better able to sit down and relax one corner)
These are the 5 main factors, there might be others please feel free to enlighten all of us if you do have a comment to comment on it or to add. But there are a handful youths who are labeled as "Elites" or Extremely Proactive when it comes to social services. These are the ones that would shape our Community, on top of that they know the importance of starting from young to developed themselves by being exposed to such golden experience and fully make use of the given opportunities.
It has noted in one of the speech our prime minister Mr. Lee that our government has to gear the next generation in mind "SHAPING OUR FUTURE AND THE ROLE OF VOLUNTEERISM" I for one agree with this statment that Volunteerism would aid in our character building, instills a certain degree of responsibility and which then gradually moulding the values and attitudes of people.
Apperently moving towards that line of direction is nearly impossible, take a good scenario on CIP(Community Involvement Programme) it is a requirement for every single secondary or primary student to fullfilled a certain number of points. I can assure you that 70% of our youths these days aren't motivated with the current National Education scheme that our government has introduced during the 1990s. We as Taxpayers are funding youths in their education how can we rely our future to the next generations.
My recommendations on how Volunteerism should be instilled in our youth community would be "EDUCATION" since every kid from the age of 6 - 12 have to go thru this, this would be the best platform to start volunteerism and carried on with their secondary level. There are many Community Centres out there aiding in the voluntery industry in other words opportunities are out there, open doors are open widely and they welcome anyone that is keen warmly, however so far what are the turnout rate? Wait thats not all I think parents should play their role as well, because they are like role models to their child so if the parents are proactive naturally their kids would be proactive as well.
In Conclusion Educators should really educate the young ones the importance of Volunteerism and have a different approach when it comes to social education some how CIP is not that efficient. Parents should start being proactive as well when I mean proactive it means being involved in community activities or events with their child as well and spread the word around to their friends. Last but not least, it all goes back down to how motivated the youths are to sacrifise their time into such carrying out such acts and having the right attitude which would then reflect on their personnal character.. Having said so much Are You In or Out?
Cheers Songie
Labels: Volunteerism
