Older adults contribute to society through volunteer work, informal assistance, paid work, and self-care. Both individual and societal aging could benefit from increased productive participation of older persons, but institutions must provide more flexible options for them. (SK)

Argues the importance of academically based community service programs to provide additional incentive for student participation. Contends that interest and cooperation of faculty must be encouraged to develop such programs (Author/NB)

Reviews progress in the establishment of a nonprofit preschool at an orphanage in Bucharest, Romania. Topics include recruitment of volunteers, collection of supplies, integration of neighborhood and orphanage children, the use of Piaget's learning-through-play philosophy, children's responses, staff training, and current activities. (AC)

Describes Pasadena, California's, Young and Healthy Project, a program based on the belief that all children, regardless of income, have the right to high-quality health care and early preventive care. Funded partly by a large foundation grant, the program offers all elementary and middle school students in the district medical, dental, and…

An office of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind completed a project which updated over 5,000 client files through personal conversations with them or their relatives, using 7 sighted volunteers and 7 visually impaired volunteers. Hundreds of individuals whose service needs had changed were identified, and an ongoing process for…

Although volunteers serve many useful functions in fund raising, soliciting gifts should be left to staff. Volunteers are hard to recruit, keep, motivate, are unreliable, lacking in expertise, and they can balk at the realities of development tasks. Development offices should carefully think through the appropriate roles for these individuals.…

Elementary teachers from four schools nationwide describe how they partner with parent volunteers to enhance education through special projects, yearly events, and schoolwide programs. The activities address self-esteem, family-centered science, geography, and parent learning. (SM)

Comparison of a 1980 survey of college students and a recent study of five colleges and universities suggests changes in student attitudes, including greater optimism, less selfishness, greater participation in social action. Evidence suggests a rise in volunteerism precedes a period of student activism. Implications for colleges and universities…

A discussion of volunteers on the college campus looks at research on volunteerism in the United States in general and on campuses in particular, and reviews literature on volunteer motivation, the college campus as a context for transmission of values, and the importance of mentors in development of humanitarian concern. (MSE)

Brisk political winds are now converging behind national proposals for youth service. As several examples show, combining classroom work with service/social action projects can help produce dramatic improvements in student attitudes, motivation, and achievement. Learning through service succeeds because youth become active, needed members of their…

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York) has coordinated a comprehensive fund-raising campaign with special emphasis on several regions of the country. Each regional component is a miniature of the overall campaign. Planning strategies include regional analysis, adaptation of the usual development resources, volunteers and staffing, good…

Two veteran staff developers explore the challenges and lessons learned as they served as volunteer change facilitators on the school improvement teams in their children's schools. The article examines why they became involved, what they hoped to accomplish, what obstacles they encountered, what they accomplished, and what they learned. (SM)

A study surveyed 85 Israeli individuals with disabilities who volunteered in organizations for people with disabilities in relation to three components of empowerment: family, services, and community. Three organizational factors (patterns of activity in organization, representation, and participation in decision making) and two personal factors…

Discussion of techniques for college and university fundraising among international alumni looks at targeting prospective donors and their parents, keeping prospects connected to the institution through overseas student and faculty activities and alumni volunteers, communicating the importance of philanthropy, selecting a language to use, and…

Discusses multiple challenges faced by community-based English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and adult-literacy programs, explaining how to integrate ESL instruction into existing literacy programs, respond to diverse student needs, create community partnerships to support and fund the ESL program, contribute back to the community, and build capacity…