Fewer women than men serve on local school boards despite the fact that female volunteers in schools outnumber male volunteers. This paper presents findings of a study that explored the barriers and facilitators to women's participation on school boards, as well as women's motivations. Data were obtained from four focus groups composed of 7-10…

Volunteer work for nonprofit organizations should increase performance and yet be fun for the participants. This book draws on 40 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations. Presented in the form of board minutes, the book offers a humorous look at the board meetings of a fictional nonprofit organization. (LMI)

Students can learn the value of public service by participating in service learning projects. Through a service learning component, students gain a personal understanding of the public sector and experience with current public issues. In this study students and teachers were assisted by service coordinators who arranged for students to experience…

Preparation of instructors is considered to be one of the greatest needs in adult basic education (ABE) and English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) programs. Many ABE and ESL teachers and volunteer instructors receive little or no training, either in subject matter content or in the process of teaching English to adults. The challenge for the adult…

Section I of this paper notes that, because the mandate of this paper is to explore the potential contributions of older adults to adolescent development, its particular focus will be on elder service initiatives and on the practices and policies required to stimulate intergenerational cooperation. The argument is offered that engaging elders to…

Volunteering is a vital and widespread activity in the United States; in fact, volunteers perform many essential community functions. Those who believe that most volunteers are women with time on their hands, that volunteers just do "charity work," and that volunteers are a source of cheap labor who can replace paid professionals and…

The paratherapist training project was begun to increase training time provided to severely and profoundly handicapped students. Twenty-one retired persons volunteered to participate in a series of skill training modules that touched upon the following topics: observation, skill training, placement, individual or small group work, and daily and…

The functions and responsibilities of a school library and of the library personnel are presented in this handbook for parent library volunteers. Topics covered are: (1) the role of the library media center; (2) an outline of a volunteer's duties and daily routines; (3) the responsibilities of the district library specialist, the teacher, and the…

This paper examines the relationship between social class and both age-graded and non-age-graded voluntary association membership in a sample of 320 older people. Special attention is focused on one age-graded association with an examination of recruitments, participation, and attrition over a six-year period. Results are discussed. (Author)

Article considered the use of volunteers in the classroom and some important steps in establishing paraprofessional programs. (Author/RK)

Attempts to relate "successful" clinic handling of cases to various characteristics, including willingness to participate in research. Found that volunteers were less anxious and had greater sociability and self-esteem than non-volunteers. (Author/PC)

It was predicted that self-ratings of importance and influence for each voluntary worker in a mental health crisis center would be positively related to each worker's latency in the use of a mental health consultant. Positive correlations were found in both cases. (Author/PC)

Although activity theory proposes a strong relationship between social activity and life satisfaction among older individuals, little research has considered the salience of the activity to the individual. In order to consider the salience of the activity, using volunteer activity as a measure, survey results from the Myths and Realities of Aging…

The booklet presents suggestions for parents working as volunteers in their gifted children's classrooms. Parents are advised to allow the children to help plan and execute the activities, which are designed to be multidisciplinary, inexpensive, and adaptable. Activities described include explorations of the language, geography, and culture of…

This handbook was developed for volunteer group leaders participating in Brevard Community College's Project BEST-PAL (Basic Education Skills Through-Parenting Affective Learning). Project BEST-PAL was developed especially for low socioeconomic parents who are in need of an opportunity to explore effective parenting, with a primary objective being…