Volunteerism Among Military Families

摘要

This paper on volunteerism among military families has a specific focus on military spouses. Spouses of military personnel have traditionally provided volunteer services to the military community. Voluntary activity can provide military spouses with satisfying experiences and often can enhance a spouse's employment skills. In addition, in geographic areas where employment is not readily available, voluntary positions can offer valuable alternatives to paid employment. This paper provides recommendations for promoting volunteerism among this population. The report offers an examination of the extent of voluntary activity in domestic and overseas military bases factors that promote volunteerism and, factors that serve as obstacles to volunteerism. This analysis is based on the results from the 1992 Department of Defense Survey of Officers and Enlisted Personnel and their Spouses. The feasibility of providing or enhancing those services/attributes identified as fostering volunteerism and the elimination of barriers to volunteerism are also examined. While this paper looks at volunteerism within a particular population, military families, many of the findings of this research are generalizable to the population at large. As such, this study furthers our understanding of factors that foster volunteerism and provides practical methods nonprofit organizations can employ to recruit and retain their volunteer staff.