Tag Archives: empathy

Volunteer engagement is the pursuit of building empathy & many find that idea dangerous.

Can volunteerism repair a nation?

Can volunteering repair a nation? I don’t mean dealing with infrastructure after a war or natural disaster – we know that volunteers are terrific at repairing homes, clearing roads, helping at shelters, rowing boats, etc. I mean can volunteerism be an effective tool when a nation’s people are so divided that they don’t even see reality the same way?

Maybe.

I confess that I am not one for talking about volunteering as a way to access “warm fuzzies” – for optimistic, hopeful moments of restoration of faith in all humanity. Personally, I’m a skeptic at best and a cynic at worst. But I do believe in volunteer engagement as an amazing tool: to build awareness about an issue among a group or population, to give the community a hands-on experience regarding a cause, to educate a group about the realities of a topic, to build understanding among people who may not know much about each other, or might even be hostile, and maybe, just maybe, to restore faith in institutions and other people.

A lot of politicians are talking about coming together and unity among people in the USA, but, as we all are fully aware, that’s going to take more than just talking about it. It’s also only a matter of time before some of those same people start suggesting volunteerism as a salve to heal the nation’s wounds and “unify” the people. They are picturing people of different political parties working side-by-side to clean up trash or paint over graffiti or build something.

But here is what’s going to be missing from that call-to-volunteer-and-let’s-come-together rhetoric, and what it’s going to take for volunteer engagement to lead to bridge-building among people who are oh-so-polarized:

Nonprofits expected to involve volunteers, especially MORE volunteers, need MONEY. Why? Because volunteers are never free. Want nonprofits to create more roles and tasks for more volunteers? Give those nonprofits cash: for staff to supervise and support volunteers, for staff training in effective volunteer engagement, and for all of the snazzy tech tools you want nonprofits to use to engage with volunteers. And that’s just to start: these nonprofits will also need training in recruiting for diversity, in conflict management, regarding effective facilitation, in inclusive volunteer engagement and communication, and more if you want them to fulfill your dreams of unity – and that requires skills they may not have, and to get those skills requires classes and consultants and that costs money.

Ready to fund childcare? Because if you want more people to volunteer, and you want a greater diversity of people to volunteer, someone is going to have to pay for childcare for volunteers with children.

Government has to bring nonprofits to the table for discussions about how to bring disparate groups of people together. If the mayor is having a council on ways to create reconciliation among a diverse city, local nonprofits need to be in the discussions. If a regional or state government body is exploring methods, nonprofits have to be there – not just the big, major nonprofits but the small grassroots groups too. And a key segment that has to be there in discussions: ARTS GROUPS: theater, dance, music, literature and fine arts.

We all have to stop talking about volunteering only as a way to get tasks done. We have to talk about volunteering as a way for all participants – volunteers, employees and clients – to have a transformational experience. And that means that, often, involving volunteers means tasks will not be done as efficiently and economically as possible: it’s much easier to hire one person or involve one highly-skilled volunteer to do a task than to create a way for a group of dissimilar people with a range of skills and experiences to do it at a time when everyone in that group might be available. It also means making volunteering about learning about an issue related to the mission of the organization – climate change, the reasons people are homeless, the challenges faced by under-employed people, etc. – again, not just getting work done, and not all people charged with creating volunteering tasks and roles and managing volunteers have the skillset to do that.

Accept that some people aren’t going to be engaged as volunteers because of a requirement at many nonprofits and community groups regarding respect and conduct of employees, consultants and volunteers, because of requirements regarding safety, and because of the potential of volunteers to spread misinformation about the focus of the nonprofit or the cause it addresses. For instance, someone who believes and promotes misinformation about child trafficking on their social media is going to be inappropriate to help at organizations related to children. Someone who does not believe in the safety of vaccines or believes the Earth is flat or refutes other science, and let’s that be known, is going to probably be inappropriate in a range of volunteering roles related to human health, marine health, outdoor geological sites, etc., especially if they will interact with other volunteers or the public. Many nonprofits have a stated commitment to creating a work culture that promotes respect and prohibits words or actions that create a hostile work environment for others. Many nonprofits have a stated commitment to equality and inclusion, and a stated refutation of racism, sexism or hate speech, and a volunteer or employee engaging in actions or language outside of their work that is in contrast to that culture could, as a result upon discovery, be dismissed. Nonprofits should not be pressured to involve volunteers who engage in misinformation that would harm the clients a nonprofit works with or that runs counter to the mission of the organization. Nonprofits should not be pressured to engage volunteers who carry weapons if that nonprofit has a policy that prevents weapons from their workspaces. And all of that means some people are going to be excluded from volunteer engagement at some organizations. Before you decide that’s somehow wrong, that everyone should have a right to volunteer anywhere they want to, note that I myself am excluded from volunteering at some organizations because I cannot adhere to their religious belief requirements, and I accept that.

It’s a tall order to ask organizations focused on some aspect of the environment and outdoor spaces – wildlife habitat preservation, restoring wetlands, cleaning up trash at the beach, rescue groups, etc. – to engage in additional activities to counter misinformation among volunteers regarding climate change, but that’s exactly what nonprofits need to be funded and empowered to do if we are going for “unity.” The lack of science literacy is resulting in many of the divisions in the USA, and if governments and corporations desire nonprofits to address science misinformation and lack of trust through volunteerism, they need to be prepared to fund the activities needed to train staff to make that happen, and to give staff the time to make that happen. .

So, governments and corporations: are you ready to invite nonprofits to the table, as well as to fund all that’s necessary for this monumental task of unity?

Also, see:

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The Trust Crisis

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The world is experiencing a trust crisis. People don’t trust their national governments nor their local governments – not elected officials and not public sector employees. People don’t trust established media outlets. People are pushing back against science and historical facts being taught in schools. People will believe an unverified viral video or social media post shared by a friend or family member but not an article by a journalist or peer-reviewed academic paper by a scientist.

In addition, in the USA, there has never been a time where there have been as many opportunities to talk directly to elected officials, via council meetings, town halls, open houses, social media, email, surveys and citizens’ advisory committees, yet people are staying away from these. Officials are talking to largely empty auditoriums and rooms and getting low returns for any surveys inviting feedback about projects.

Skepticism can be a healthy thing: it can encourage people asking questions that very much need to be asked and force a project designer to improve a design before anything gets built or launched. Answering questions can make the reason to do something even stronger. But these days, people aren’t even asking questions: they are dismissing outright anything government representatives or academic institutions or news sources say. They are saying civic participation doesn’t really matter.

I grew up in rural Kentucky, in a civically-minded family: one of my great-grandmothers worked for a local county government, one of my grandfathers was a city council member and active member of and volunteer with a variety of civic groups (he even helped rally support for a school tax back in the 1950s), my other grandfather was a minister and outspoken in the community on a variety of issues, my mother was a deputy sheriff and then assistant to the head of the county government for many years, my father was the local head of a political party in Western Kentucky, and both of my parents sometimes attended and often talked about local government and school board meetings they had attended. I always knew who was running in every local election long before I could ever vote. Politics and values – but never facts – were frequently debated at family gatherings. No one was discouraged from working on a political campaign, from writing a letter to the editor of the local paper, from voting, etc. I never once heard It doesn’t matter. It won’t make a difference Why bother? from anyone. My family didn’t always like what local government agencies or public schools did, but they believed it mattered to use official channels to find out what was happening and to let their opinions be known. I also got my undergrad degree in journalism from a university that, at the time, was widely known for its journalism training, worked at a few newspapers, have worked with journalists for decades, and have idolized journalism, when it is at its best, for most of my life. I have always had a paid subscription to a newspaper, even if, now, it’s entirely online.

In the eight years I lived outside the USA, I was often working on initiatives that encouraged civic engagement in other countries, and people – particularly women – seemed hungry to take part, and encouraging their government to be more transparent via its own publications and via its interactions with the media. It was incredibly energizing to encourage the kind of civic participation I had grown up with and to see people from a variety of cultures and economic levels jumping in and doing it their own way. As a result, when I moved back to the USA in 2009, I was inspired to do my best to be a part of local government, as a citizen and resident and maybe as a government employee, if I found the right position. In the first town I lived in Oregon, I joined the local government’s bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee. In the next town I lived, I joined the local government’s public safety advisory committee, the county’s public arts coalition and the local chapter of the League of Women Voters. I also went through the county sheriff’s 12-week citizens’ academy. I attended city council meetings and political candidate forums. And I have, indeed, applied for a few government jobs.

I’ve known where to look for these kinds of opportunities to observe government, and participate in such, because of my background. And I’ve come to it with a trust in the people that staff government, public schools and media outlets, a trust that was long-cultivated. I’ve never thought of them as anything but people, with strengths and weaknesses just like anyone, just like me. But I’ve realized most people my age and younger aren’t like me: they have a built-in distrust of these institutions. They also need more than one post to a Facebook page or one tweet announcing a meeting to be motivated enough to attend. They need more than one notice in their utility bill to be inspired to do anything. They need more than whatever worked 20 years ago to get them to that meeting, that open house, that presentation. Because for every one official message from a government office or school, they have gotten probably a dozen from family and friends about how whatever it is that office is doing isn’t in the public’s best interest, isn’t trustworthy, has nefarious intentions, or just really doesn’t matter.

Governments and public schools: in your outreach planning, you not only need strategies for meeting your legally-mandated public communications requirements and for letting people know about your events and activities, you also need strategies for cultivating, even rebuilding, trust with the community. And this is something you need to hire someone to do – don’t think you can get an intern to manage your social media and make it happen.

Cultivating or rebuilding community trust takes multiple steps and ongoing efforts – not just one public meeting or open house. You have to think not only about how you will invite public comment on activities but also how you will regularly show how public comment has influenced decision-making. You have to have strategies to make yourself aware of misinformation campaigns about your efforts and strategies to address them. How will you leverage speeches, presentations and meetings with civic groups, social media posts, surveys, community meetings and more not only to share information but to also find out what trust gaps exist and to address those gaps? I research and compile recommendations for trust-building on my web site about how to folklore, rumors, urban myths and organized misinformation campaigns interfere with aid and government initiatives, and those recommendations, which come from a variety of organizations, can be adapted to help any agency craft its own strategy for addressing the trust crisis.

Here are my related resources, which aren’t just my own ideas, but ideas from a variety of resources, with an abundance of links to other articles and web sites (and I would welcome suggestions for other resources as well):

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

the growing youth & loneliness crisis (& lack of empathy crisis) – could volunteer engagement help?

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The results of a nationwide survey by the health insurer Cigna released last year said that nearly 50 percent of respondents in the USA felt alone or left out always or sometimes. Two in Five felt like “they lack companionship,” that their “relationships aren’t meaningful” and that they “are isolated from others.” And the loneliest demographic among respondents was young people: members of Generation Z, born between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s, had the highest loneliness score, followed by Millennials. Yesterday, CBS Sunday Morning did segment that mentions this Cigna study and on the growing loneliness epidemic in the USA.

And then there is this report: significantly large numbers regarding unemployment among young people worldwide: in 2017, it was reported by CNN Money that youth unemployment in the eurozone has been stuck between 19% to 25% for the past eight years. In Spain and Greece, it’s north of 40%. The number of people in Italy aged between 15-29 years that are not in education, employment or training rose by 21 percent from 2008 to 2012, to 23.9 percent, and that number hasn’t improved seven years later. In Arab states, youth unemployment is around 30%. The incidence of unemployment among youth in Northern Africa was at 29.3% in 2016, representing the second highest rate across all regions.

Economists and government officials focus on the cost of unemployment to the economy as a whole, but for the unemployed, it’s a personal issue. Young people need jobs for the obvious reason: they need income to give them employment to pay for what they need to survive, day-to-day. But studies have shown that prolonged unemployment harms the mental health of workers and can actually worsen physical health and shorten lifespans as well. Prolonged unemployment can lead to an erosion of skills and, more worryingly, lead to pessimism, resentment and anger. Those negative feelings can be targeted at anyone that an unemployed person blames for their situation – people not from the area, people who are perceived as not at risk for unemployment, people perceived as taking the jobs the unemployed want, government officials, institutions, and anyone who is perceived as different.

While promoting volunteer engagement does nothing to address the immediate financial needs of the unemployed, volunteering can help a person with skills development for a career change and eventual employment. Could volunteer engagement also address other issues, like disconnection from society, resentment and anger for certain groups of people, like immigrants or ethnic minorities, and growing distrust in institutions? Can volunteering can give a person a connection to other people and to society as a whole, help increase their awareness about people and cultures different from their own and help build or restore trust in people and institutions? I think so, though there’s little data that directly supports my position.

When an organization involves volunteers, it gives non-staff a first hand, in-person experience with programs that are trying to improve the community or the environment – anything from promoting the arts to helping children’s education to accommodating dogs and cats that have been found or surrendered. This volunteer engagement can help build trust in organizations, in institutions, in the community and among people. It can give a volunteer a sense of value and influence. Volunteer engagement can play a vital role in building social cohesion and intercultural understanding, bringing together different segments of a population in a setting that can help build relationships and community. Volunteer management is community engagement and, as such, I believe volunteer engagement can help to address youth unemployment, cultural conflicts, intergenerational misunderstandings, integration, community cohesion, social integration, and on and on.

However, I’m not at all calling for business and government to start yet another Get-Out-And-Volunteer campaign. Please, don’t do that. Rather, this is a call for business and government to realize that, if they expect nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other organizations to involve more young people as volunteers, they need to provide the funding for that to happen.

Volunteers are not free. I just don’t know how many times I’m going to have to say that for it to finally be understood. For organizations to involve volunteers effectively, to involve more volunteers and to create opportunities for volunteers that go beyond just getting work done but also to build civic engagement and greater trust in the community, these volunteer-involving organizations must have the expertise to do it – which may come from training (which isn’t free) or hiring staff (also not cost-free) – and they may need additional resources to support additional volunteers, such as software or physical spaces.

Are corporations, governments, foundations and individual donors ready to step up and fund what’s needed to increase volunteer engagement, especially among young people?

April 16, 2019 update: Since the late 1960s, researchers have surveyed young people on their levels of empathy, testing their agreement with statements such as: “It’s not really my problem if others are in trouble and need help” or “Before criticizing somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place.” According to this NPR article, Sara Konrath, an associate professor and researcher at Indiana University, collected decades of studies and noticed that, starting around 2000, the line starts to slide and young people are becoming less empathetic: more students were saying it’s not their problem to help people in trouble, not their job to see the world from someone else’s perspective. By 2009, on all the standard measures, Konrath found, young people on average measure 40 percent less empathetic than the previous generation. Again: could volunteer engagement help? Could exposing young people to those different from themselves help? And are corporations, governments, foundations and individual donors ready to step up and fund what’s needed to increase volunteer engagement, especially among young people?

July 16, 2019 update: US Teen and the number of suicide deaths among young people began climbing around 2008 and reached a new high in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide rates lately have been increasing in all age groups in America, in almost every state. The number of teens diagnosed with clinical depression grew 37 percent between 2005 and 2014. And suicide attempts are on the rise as well.

July 27, 2025 update: The headline proclaims Americans under 30 are so miserable that the U.S. just fell to a historic low ranking in the annual World Happiness Report. “If you were only to assess those below 30, the U.S. wouldn’t even rank in the top 60 happiest countries, the report finds.” It’s not at all a surprising finding: people are increasingly on their own, isolated from interactions with others. People are wearing headphones when and if they walk, listening to music or talking to someone, and not greeting anyone they pass, or talking to anyone when they stop. There are far less of us in face-to-face situations with other community members having any sort of shared experience, like watching a movie, attending a local sports event, participating in a pick-up basketball game, and on and on. Many students are taking classes from home rather than going into an actual classroom. And many young people aren’t volunteering, though they would like to do so, if posts to r/volunteer on Reddit are any indication; rather, they are being turned away, or are so sensitive to guidance that they feel like it’s criticism.

Also see:

Welcoming immigrants as volunteers at your organization

“Internet-mediated volunteering – the impact for Europe“, part of the ICT4EMPL Future Work project. This 2013 study on virtual volunteering in European countries includes information on volunteering as a path to employability and social inclusion, especially for young people.

Volunteering to Address Your Own Mental Health (Depression, Loneliness, Anxiety, etc.)

Deriding the monetary value of volunteer hours: my mission in life?

can volunteer engagement cultivate innovation?

Volunteer management is community engagement

hey, corporations: time to put your money where your mouth is re: nonprofits & innovation

Corporations: here’s what nonprofits really need

Sympathy for one group – but not the other?

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I had a conversation this week and, in trying to make a point to the person with whom I was speaking, these two narratives popped into my head, almost fully formed before I even wrote them down:

I am a Muslim. I love being a Muslim. So much of my identity is based in being a part of Islam. I love the camaraderie and fellowship of other Muslims. I make no apologies for that.

I understand that many people are afraid of me. That makes me sad, and, at times, very defensive, even angry.

It is completely unfair that people assume all Muslims are bad because of the violent acts of a small minority of Muslims in the USA. The vast majority of Muslims are good people who care deeply about their communities, they want to contribute positively to such, and they want all people to live in peace. Yes, there are Muslims that do not respect human rights and that have done horrible, violent, reprehensible things in the USA, like:

what happened in San Bernardino
what happened in Orlando
what happened in Boston
what happened in Garland, Texas
what happened in Chatanooga
what happened at Ohio State
&, of course, what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 and 1993

But I should not have to publicly condemn such acts of violence over and over and over. The assumption shouldn’t be made that I support these events just because I’m a Muslim.

We’ve seen social media posts and videos of Muslims, some of them considered leaders by other Muslims, celebrating or trying to justify these violent acts. But I shouldn’t have to apologize because an Iman with thousands of followers excuses or even promotes these violations of human rights. I want to be judged by my character and actions, not those of others.

I’m proud of my hijab, and when you see me in it, please don’t automatically assume that I am a bad person and that I am your enemy. Please talk to me. Get to know me. I welcome the conversations.

I am a police officer. I love being a police officer. So much of my identity is based in being a police officer. I love the camaraderie and fellowship of other officers. I make no apologies for that.

I understand that many people are afraid of me. That makes me sad, and, at times, very defensive, even angry.

It is completely unfair that people assume all police officers are bad because of the violent acts of a small minority of police officers in the USA. The vast majority of police officers are good people who care deeply about their communities, they want to contribute positively to such, and they want all people to live in peace. Yes, there are police officers that do not respect human rights and that have done horrible, violent, reprehensible things in the USA, like:

But I should not have to publicly condemn such acts of violence over and over and over. The assumption shouldn’t be made that I support these events just because I’m a police officer.

We’ve seen social media posts and videos of police officers, some of them considered leaders by other police, celebrating or trying to justify these violent acts. But I shouldn’t have to apologize because a police union with thousands of members excuses or even promotes these violations of human rights. I want to be judged by my character and actions, not those of others.

I’m proud of my uniform, and when you see me in it, please don’t automatically assume that I am a bad person and that I am your enemy. Please talk to me. Get to know me. I welcome the conversations.

These two groups are so similarly demonized, but I never realized it until the morning of the day I originally drafted this. Both of these groups can say the same thing, almost word-for-word, about how they are negatively perceived by many people.

There are going to be people who are going to read one column and totally agree – and read the other column and be outraged. There are those that believe all Muslims are potential terrorists because of the acts of a minority, but would never believe all police are potentially racist because of the acts of a minority of members. And vice versa.

If you read this and felt sympathy for one group, but not for the other, I hope you will think long and hard about why that is.

Comments are welcomed, unless such use what I consider misinformation or hate-based language.