This practicum report describes a volunteer program that was established to resolve staff shortages in a high school media center. Three target groups were involved. The first target group was composed of the current adult volunteers. The second target group was made up of teachers who served their required duty in the media center. The third…

Social inclusion enhances the quality of life of young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). Young adults with ID continue to face prejudice and discrimination that limit their social inclusion. They experience limited social inclusion because there are not enough appropriate activities available and they have limited opportunities to…

A lot has been learned about effective approaches to realizing intended out-of-school time program outcomes. As program practitioners consider fostering evidence-based practices, program administrators, staff, and stakeholders must keep in mind that it is difficult to change behavior overnight, even among children. Efforts to improve outcomes for…

Few people are willing to admit that senior adults and young children share many common characteristics, including: (1) changes in development; (2) need for companionship; and (3) the desire to be understood. These two groups are connected mostly through direct interaction with middle-aged adults. One very practical way to build a greater sense of…

The December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami wrecked thousands of lives, homes, and livelihoods--losses that could have been avoided with timely and better information. A resource such as information is needed at a fundamental level much like water, food, medicine, or shelter. This dissertation examines the development of the Thai information…

We obtained data from 124 volunteer instructors in adult literacy, using an instrument developed to assess what the volunteers knew about providing reading instruction to adults. Results showed that volunteers with bachelor's degrees or higher and those who had teacher's certificates were significantly more knowledgeable about providing reading…

A "good society" has recently been portrayed as one in which citizens engage in voluntary associations to foster democratic processes. Arguably, such a good society is considered as one where people are content with their own lives as well as public life. We consider whether participation in civil society leads to more satisfied…

Recent research has demonstrated that older adult volunteers are more likely to be involved in relationship building with young people who are in difficult situations, in periods of transition, and in educational endeavors than volunteers of younger ages. Research also suggests that nurturing, giving to, and serving others contributes to greater…

Volunteers assume a wide variety of responsibilities in community organizations. In service-oriented activities, adult and community educators make extensive use of volunteers, asking them to fulfill a number of roles and giving them such responsibilities as tutoring, counseling, problem solving, and decision making. Issue- or cause-oriented…

The Cooperative Extension Service has become the largest adult education and human service program in the United States. It makes use of about 1.5 million adult volunteers who spend an average of more than 100 hours each conducting Extension programs under the guidance of extension personnel. Volunteers play a variety of roles including policy…

Three hundred volunteers have participated in nine training courses, eight weeks each, in a California Cooperative Extension Program for volunteers who are able to teach consumer homemaking information to families with limited resources. (AJ)

The implementation of Indian adult education programs will depend upon the establishment of adequate staffing and training requirements and ensuring that identification, recruitment, and training is adequate for the needs. (Author/AG)

The author examines the roles volunteers can assume in the school and the potential for conflicts with teachers before offering guidelines for the selection and orientation of volunteers. It is hoped that these general guidelines will apply to a volunteer program that uses older adults. (IRT)

To provide assistance to South Carolina schools in developing volunteer tutorial programs, the Competency Testing Project at Winthrop College created this manual on program development. This manual is designed to be duplicated and disseminated to coordinators and tutors; and although designed for an elementary school program, it can be used as a…

Suggestions for expanding and improving the volunteer participation in all local Head Start programs are provided in this manual. The primary aims of the volunteer programs are to: (1) provide additional staff in all areas of the program, thus increasing the effectiveness of the paid staff; (2) give interested local citizens, including parents of…