Derrick Z. Jackson’s column on national service in yesterday’s Boston Globe ties in nicely with some thoughts I’ve had concerning the difficulties that local first aid squads and fire departments are having attracting volunteers.
Jackson rightly commends both presidential candidates for encouraging Americans to play their part in making the nation a better place. But he also makes it clear that a rhetorical commitment is not enough. McCain, Jackson writes, “has made only vague pledges to support AmeriCorps,” while Obama is pledging
to spend $3.5 billion to bolster AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, the Foreign Service, and launch an Energy Corps for environmental cleanups and renewable-energy projects.
That’s a good start, but may not be enough.
While Obama, and eventually McCain, hopefully, duel it out on asking us to do our part, they should be clear with Americans that volunteerism is not, as it too often is couched, something for the young adult or the retiree. Obama says, “People of all ages, stations and skills will be asked to serve,” but often overlooked in the AmeriCorps/Peace Corps paradigm is the American in between in their late 30s, 40s, and 50s.
The sad fact is, the national rate of volunteerism has barely budged over the last four decades. According to the federally created Corporation for National and Community Service, the level of adult volunteerism, 23.6 percent in 1974, was 26.7 percent in 2006. That last number actually represents a slight decline from a post-9/11 spike that reached 28.8 percent. While it can be argued that today’s volunteering still represents higher levels than the 20.4 percent of the Reagan inspired me-myself-and-I 1980s, it also means that over the last three decades, three-quarters of Americans still do no volunteering in their schools, churches, and other civic organizations.
And no one knows this better than local fire departments and first aid squads. As we reported last week — in a story that we seem to have to write every couple of years — keeping enough volunteers trained and working is not easy.
”It’s really hard to find volunteers in the area because it can take a lot of time that people may just not be willing to give,” said Joe Erickson, a member of both the Monmouth Junction and Kingston rescue squads. “Especially with the economy the way it is some people just don’t have the money to put towards gas to go back and forth to the station.”
The crunch hits the day-shift hardest, which is why the township worked with the squads to create a paid service funded by health insurance.
In the end, unless significant changes are made in the way we treat volunteers — assuming what they do is secondary to their paid job and forcing them to balance their family life against their volunteer activities.
As Jackson says, volunteerism needs to be “but part of a larger plan to improve American family policy.”
It is difficult to see how much more volunteering Obama can inspire out of active parents while the United States has some of the developed world’s least developed family leave policies and shrinking vacation time. Obama has promised improvements on sick leave, but there also ought to be a national provision for
employers to give workers time for their volunteering. That way, everyone might have a chance in putting their foot firmly into the current of history.
Hank Kalet 