Facilitating volunteering benefits for people with disabilities
Abstract
People with disabilities volunteer for many of the same reasons as those without disabilities — to forge new relationships, gain personal satisfaction and social status, hone marketable skills, and for networking opportunities. This effective practice, excerpted with permission from an article by Angela Novak Amado, and published in the online edition of Impact: Feature Issue on Volunteerism by Persons with Developmental Disabilities, addresses how program directors and supervisors can enhance the volunteer experience for people with disabilities, allowing them to gain the most from their efforts, and subsequently reaping the ultimate benefits for the communities in which they serve. Elesheva Soloff with the National Service Inclusion Project submitted this effective practice in June 2008.
Issue
While volunteerism for people with disabilities has historically been substituted for “real life,” with understanding and insightful planning the practice can be meaningful individually, as well as for the larger community.
Action
According to Angela Novak Amado, five areas of benefit for volunteers with disabilities, along with practical applications for volunteer managers, are as follows:
1. Social Inclusion, Community Membership, and Friendship
People with disabilities forge more meaningful relationships when volunteering as individuals.
The social lives of many people with developmental disabilities often consists of “activities” and “outings” such as shopping or attending movies, without genuine opportunities to get to know others. While people with disabilities may be physically located in community homes, they are often socially not really full community members; they often go visit “the community” (everything outside the front door) like tourists. Though community members may recognize and greet them sometimes, the degree of real friendship is often limited.
Typically, the only way any of us become friends with anyone else is that we get to know each other gradually — seeing the same people in the same place, over time, with some activity shared in common. Volunteering alongside a wide variety of community members is one of the best means there is to naturally promote people getting to know each other, appreciating and befriending each other, and experiencing true belonging.
Another customary way that people meet their current friends is through work. While efforts to promote volunteerism should never displace finding jobs and increasing the income of people with disabilities, many people with limitations in their abilities and vocational opportunities will not have the chance to befriend others through work; consequently volunteering can provide powerful alternatives.
Of course, relationship opportunities are maximized when community members get to know one person with disabilities at a time, rather than having a group thrust upon them. Programs congregating individuals with developmental disabilities at the recycling center all at the same time will not provide the opportunity for real social inclusion. Substituting congregated community “volunteering” for a congregated day habilitation program will not promote community belonging.
2. Contribution, Happiness, and Satisfaction
When people with disabilities have an opportunity to volunteer, especially when contributing unique talents and skills, they report the same benefits that persons without disabilities claim.
Freud wrote that love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness. “Work” here does not necessarily mean a paid job, but the sense that we are doing something that makes a difference for others, that it is meaningful activity that contributes. One man with developmental disabilities who volunteered dusting books in a library said after his first night there, “The books were really dusty, they really needed me.” How many people with disabilities have the opportunity to authentically know and say, “They really needed me”?
People with developmental disabilities often are on the receiving end of contributions. People without disabilities often report getting a great deal of satisfaction from volunteering for people with disabilities. When people with disabilities themselves have the opportunity to volunteer, they can receive those same benefits. The more opportunity they have to give― to contribute to others ― the more personal satisfaction is possible. Having these experiences is paramount for self-esteem and happiness.
Critical thinking regarding the volunteering situation is necessary to see whether people with disabilities are having those experiences. Simply “putting in time,” especially if one is not getting paid, is not sufficient. It makes a difference to find opportunities for individuals to contribute their unique gifts and talents (rather than volunteer opportunities anyone could fulfill), where others who are important to those individuals make sure they are acknowledged and appreciated, and where they receive the satisfaction of knowing they were “needed.”
3. Developing Marketable Skills and Job Opportunities
Volunteering provides many opportunities to learn and to practice skills that can be useful in paid employment.
Most day habilitation programs across the country can probably provide examples of starting someone out in a volunteer situation that became a paid job. Of course, one of the things to beware of is that volunteering cannot substitute for work that should otherwise be paid. A useful gauge is whether non-disabled community members volunteer in that particular way; if they do, then it is also a legitimate volunteering opportunity for people with disabilities.
4. Networking
In an equitable society, the advantages of social exchanges would be afforded all individuals.
We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, but who you know,” and there is some truth to this adage. For example, about 70 percent of all jobs are obtained through personal contacts. Volunteering in elected officials’ offices, chambers of commerce, and city, county, and federal public administration offices can provide very fruitful networking opportunities. For example, one man who joined the Sertoma Club (a community service organization with many business owners and professionals) networked with his fellow club members when he bought a home of his own — he knew an electrical contractor who helped with his wiring and an attorney who helped him with his deed.
5. Status and Reputation
For individuals who have historically been in the most socially devalued roles, volunteering can serve to shift their own view of themselves, as well as play a role in the changing perception by their community and the larger culture.
In any city or town in the country, examine the lives of the people considered the leading citizens. Almost invariably, these individuals are involved in some form of volunteering. Actors and actresses, politicians, and corporate executives receive accolades and recognition for their “charity work,” the benefits they put on or attend, the work they do for their own foundations, and the services they provide for a vast array of groups.
Even in smaller towns, those considered prominent citizens are involved in charity balls, fundraising events for the local theatre or opera, and local service organizations. Members of the Kiwanis, Jaycees, Elks, Lions, Optimists, the Sertoma Club, and dozens of other “community service” groups all volunteer to help with festivals, parades, clean-up and beautification efforts, and booster clubs. These organizations often include many of the leading business owners and influential citizenry. The involvement of people with developmental disabilities in these groups and efforts can stimulate more highly valued social roles, connecting individuals with more highly esteemed people, and therefore providing them with greater status.
Citation
Amado, A. N. (2001). "Why Bother? How Persons with Disabilities Benefit as Volunteers." in Impact: Feature Issue on Volunteerism by Persons with Developmental Disabilities, 14(2). 4-5. [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration.]
Outcome
One example of how volunteering can lead to genuine friendships comes from one of the most innovative programs in the country, the City of Seattle’s Involving All Neighbors program, which is run through the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods. People with developmental disabilities get involved in all kinds of neighborhood activities and programs with their neighbors, from painting murals to community gardens to cleaning up the river. Through these shared activities, many friendships between people with and without disabilities have blossomed.
For More Information
Resources
Citation:
Amado, A. N. (2001). "Why Bother? How Persons with Disabilities Benefit as Volunteers, " in Impact: Feature Issue on Volunteerism by Persons with Developmental Disabilities, 14(2). 4-5. [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration.]