As we've done our various bits of community service and volunteering, I've started to realize a lot of things about community service in general that I never really pieced together. First of all, it's not very hard, especially if you're in a group. We're something like 6, 7 people, but we still managed to clean up an entire park pretty well, and finish a lot of tasks at the food pantry, both in under 2 hours. One would think that something so simple, easy to accomplish, and rewarding to both the community and the individual would be something that's a lot more common in adult society. However, according to a nonprofit organization website, only about 25% of Americans volunteer their time to community service, and that includes people who are doing it as a court sentence. Even though it's such a simple request, and something that can be a big help even when done in small quantities, the turnout is still quite low. I think that the reason people don't perform community service as much as they should is because as people grow older and go through higher education or get a career, they start losing time for even those kinds of activities. Volunteer work is something that's simultaneously extremely useful to society and inaccessible to anyone working a full-time job/going to school/some combination of the two. The only reason we were even able to make a contribution to Champaign-Urbana is because we were fortunate enough to have an administration generous enough to allow a class to spend a period doing those things. Or during the senior volunteer day, again, those activities were things that we probably would not have been able to do if we weren't doing it during school time. You can't take a day off from school to volunteer (I mean you can but you probably wouldn't get excused for it), and you certainly can't take a day off of work. And weekends are out of the question for most people; part-time jobs, catching up on homework, multiple things that people tend to prioritize. Even that is too much for some people to juggle, not to mention having to take care of yourself (cooking, cleaning, basic health management). There's a reason these tasks have traditionally been done by two people in the U.S: icky gendered aspect of the nuclear family aside, it was a useful way for a couple, romantic or otherwise, to delegate tasks, cooperate, and lighten each other's loads. Now that a single income is sometimes not enough to support a family of two (not even bringing children or dependents into the equation), that formula has broken down. People's lives are so oversaturated with tasks they need to do just to ensure a decent quality of life for themselves, that most can't even begin to think about the quality of life of other people.
The terminology of social justice has been a hot topic for a while, at least since the past decade. Some people are heavy supporters of the social justice movement, while others are both unsupportive and outright mocking of both the movement and the followers of it. While this is not a new concept, it's worth taking a deeper look at the meaning of social justice, both linguistically and politically, to find out why it's such a polarizing topic for many people. First, let's think of the meaning behind social justice. According to the Oxford dictionary, social justice is "j ustice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society". In terms of the rights being fought for, this doesn't sound like anything too bad; wealth, opportunities, and privileges. But the key factor in this definition, and the thing that is most heavily debated, is the definition of justice. In almost all dictionaries found online, the definition of ...
I absolutely agree with your observations here about community service. When I first learned that we would be doing it in this class my reaction was a little bit negative, partially I think because I associated it with punishment. But doing community service this semester I've realized the same thing you have--it really isn't that difficult at all. I definitely agree with your points about systemic factors in people's lives that prevent them from volunteering their time, but I think that negative association and the assumption that it's difficult and time consuming probably also prevents people who otherwise might have time and even enjoy volunteering.
ReplyDeleteI think you make some really great observations in this post. One thing that stuck out to me while volunteering was how thankful people were for the extra help. Even just a few more people with some free time can be majorly impactful in helping organization already involved in providing service to the community. It doesn't take a lot but even that can be hard to make time for and you bring up a lot of important reasons for why that is.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that volunteering isn't done enough and it's something many organizations truly appreciate. I enjoyed all of the volunteering opportunities we had this year and even though we were a small group of students we still managed to quickly and efficiently accomplish tasks. We even managed to accomplish some seemingly large-scale tasks in less than two hours. Its astonishing how much can get done by such a small group of people. This inspires me to volunteer with my friends as it can be a very fun and rewarding experience.
ReplyDeleteYour reasoning in this post is well thought out and communicated! I think you're right about lack of time being a primary cause of the lack of volunteerism; I'm sure many people who care about causes can't, or don't think they can, fit community service into their packed schedules. Organized service days through schools and workplaces could show others what our service learning experience taught you—that volunteering can be less time-consuming and more beneficial than they realize.
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