Families As The Foundation for Volunteerism

UN/DPI NGO Side Event:  Committee on the Family, NY

The Church Center, September 12, 2001, 1:15-2:45 p.m.

Prepared by:  Juanita Mendenhall, Vice-President for the Region of the Americas of the International Federation for Home Economics (an NGO headquartered in Bonn, Germany)

 and President of the IFHE-US.  juanitam@usit.net

Volunteerism Taught As A “Life Value”:

Training up children to incorporate volunteerism as a “life value” needs to begin and be practiced in and by families throughout the child’s formative years in order for the double benefit of volunteerism—the benefit to the larger society and the benefit to the individual and/or family doing the volunteering—to have its greatest lifelong impact.  Adam Smith, the father of modern economics wrote, “To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfish, and exercise our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature.”  It is also easy to find admonitions of this nature in the various religions.  The concept of mutual support is implicit in every major religion of the world.  The development of such “feeling for the well-being of others” is a learned behavior that is best learned within the family starting at a young age. Within the family, the basic unit of society, we nurture and model behaviors that will greatly influence the development of a ‘civil’ or an ‘uncivil’ society.  By nurturing volunteerism “professionally” we also nurture the development of strong families and strong individuals and strong communities.

Many professions do “nurture” volunteerism, but today I would like to share some of the ways that the profession of Home Economics (formally called “Family and Consumer Sciences” by most now in the US) has contributed to volunteerism that involves and benefits families, individuals and communities around the world.  It is interesting to note at the outset that this profession has formally educated leaders around the world, many with membership in our international organization, the International Federation for Home Economics.  IFHE has members representing over 80 countries worldwide. In the United States, the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences has over 13,000 members and the governance of both of these organizations is entirely accomplished by volunteers from the profession that believe in our mission of “empowering individuals, strengthening families and enabling communities.”  They volunteer BEYOND their daily work in a multitude of ways!

In the brief time we have today we will only have time to highlight a few of the programs that have been accomplished by volunteers through the training and encouragement of home economists, ultimately in a local setting, that benefits the family, the individual and the community where they live.  

Perhaps the best known area of home economics service worldwide is the “Cooperative Extension”  Not all extension professionals are home economists but many are.  Formal extension programs and their sponsorship varies from country to country, but most have some recognizable program with professional roots in home economics. As I have traveled internationally I have learned of the valuable work being done by “extension home economists” in countries like China (community nutrition,) South and West Africa, (“hay boxes for cooking safely; income generation projects); South and Central America and the Caribbean (solar cooking, disaster preparedness, child care and child development, community clean up) are some examples.  In each case, family members that were trained by extension home economists were encouraged (sometimes expected) to volunteer to teach or show others how to do what they had learned and take action for their family and community.  Not only were adults part of the volunteer approach, but so were children and teens.  Let’s look at some specific volunteer programs developed through “extension professionals” as examples of how families may become the foundation for volunteerism in their community.

The International Home Economics Services is a completely voluntary organization funded entirely by contributions.  IHES was founded in 1974 by international home economics “extension” pioneer, Helen Strow and colleagues committed to the development and welfare of families worldwide.  On a virtual “shoestring” IHES has provided many forms of assistance to others.  Their approach has been one of “train the trainer,” intended to spread the knowledge learned through communities to individuals and families that, as volunteers, will help educate others as they themselves benefit as well.  Some IHES projects of this nature have been:

Teacher Education through IHES as Volunteers:

For several years IHES provided home economics teacher education through Sir Arthur Lewis Teacher Training College in St. Lucia to many teachers from over twenty Caribbean Islands.  US professionals were asked to “volunteer” to help teach in the project.  The teachers that were trained in the program have worked with their knowledge in many volunteer settings beyond their regular “paying jobs.” As volunteers, many are teaching food preservation and nutrition, income generation skills, and parenting and child development community workshops as well as developing 4-H and other youth programs where families volunteer to lead or help out with community projects.  Lessons to be shared further by volunteers included “keeping food safe, maintaining safe water supplies, cleaning up communities, income generation from seedling gardens, sewing and craft making and selling and even tourism, etc.”  These programs have spread volunteerism, benefiting families both by being volunteers and being the beneficiary of the volunteering.

Responding Through Disaster Relief:

 

Another of the IHES initiatives was to help Antigua, W.I. home economists rebuild their programs and help their communities after the devastating hurricanes of the last several years.  Nearly all teaching materials for departments in schools needed to be replaced as well as their having many other needs met by not only the IHES volunteers but persons in the US that generously contributed needed items and also MANY hours of collecting and processing the donated items.  To date (and we are still collecting and sending materials as they are donated) the value of items sent is around $47,550.  School children in Georgia communicated with children in Antigua during this time as pen pals as well.  Youth FHA (Future Homemakers of America now has a new name) adopted the project and alone contributed approximately $8,000.00 in supplies and 5000 hours of volunteer time collecting and packaging the materials.  Many, many other individuals AND families also volunteered at both ends of this project.  The title given to this volunteer project was “Responding to the Needs of Children and Youth (and families) through Disaster Relief.”

“Trauma Counseling” Workshop:

An outgrowth of the Caribbean hurricanes and the devastation that our “friends” experienced was a training workshop held for the Caribbean Association of Home Economists in conjunction with their Bi-Annual Meeting, “Improving the Quality of Life for Caribbean Families,” held in Guyana.  Dr. Ruth Norman, long time IFHE NGO Representative at the UN in New York and member and chair of the NGO Committee on the Family, presented a train the trainer workshop on “Trauma Counseling.”  Volunteer participants planned to use their new knowledge when the need to help with “trauma counseling” developed in their countries.  

Liberia Refugee Resettlement Project:

Most recently, the IHES focus has been on assisting with the education of the Liberian refugees, returning to Liberia after their civil war ended in 1997.  Liberia had become a devastated country where buildings had been reduced to shells and the only safe water available was from wells maintained by relief organizations.  They were without electricity, phones, mail service, or a banking system.  They had no teaching supplies, books or equipment.  Life centered around finding food and shelter as Liberians struggled to survive.  One person, Dinah Barr, a former Extension Agent in her country that had a college degree from a school in the US, wrote to Helen Strow and IHES for assistance in helping families adjust to the stressful and sparse resettlement conditions.  Two IHES volunteers, Wanda Montgomery and Janett Gibbs, made a risk filled trip to Liberia to assess the situation in 1998.  

Working with Mrs. Dianh Barr, Director of Extension Home Economics in Liberia, the Deputy Minister of Regional Development Research and Extension, Dr. James Kaizolu and Dr. Elsie Guwor, Head of Home Economics at the University of Liberia, they developed a four year plan of action for home economists to help families help themselves and others to recover.  A major area of need was being able to secure, prepare and preserve safe, nutritious food for their families.

IHES was able to send six volunteers to teach food preservation, solar cooking, nutrition, quilt making and crocheting to 47 county home economics leaders who later held local volunteer trainings for families.  Supplies and materials were collected again from across the US, packaged and sent all by volunteers.  The first shipment was a 20 ft. ship container full.  Baptist, Lutheran and Methodist churches helped ship the containers and barrels of donated goods.  As of September 1, 2001, the value of the contributions has totaled over $45,390.  The volunteer hours contributed and benefiting families at both ends of the project number in the thousands.  A new shipment of materials is on it’s way as we speak.  The value of the work already accomplished and currently being done by this relatively small group of volunteers who use their professional training selflessly, training others to volunteer to educate and assist others, is a priceless contribution to the betterment of the world!  It is NOT POSSIBLE to give this volunteerism a price tag but all who have been involved would claim that they are richer for having participated! 

“Cooperative Extension” Programs Within the United States:

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the administrator of the Cooperative Extension within the US, and has a long, rich history of programs that benefit individuals, families and communities.  Many would be worthy of mention as we address the multitude of ways they encourage volunteerism as a model for strengthening communities and families.   Again, the focus will primarily be on home economics professionals that incorporate volunteerism as a key in developing and implementing  programs in communities with and for families.

CYFAR (Children, Youth and Families At-Risk), a Congressional Appropriation:

Since 1991, CYFAR has supported more than 600 communities in all states and territories.  State and local public and private organizations have contributed cash and in-kind resources that match or exceed the federal appropriation.  To assure that critical needs of children and families are met, CYFAR supports comprehensive, intensive, community based programs developed with active VOLUNTEER citizen participation.  CYFAR promotes building resiliency and protective factors in youth, families and communities.  Volunteerism is an important, effective part of their approach that strengthens the individual, the family and the community.  Initial funding currently comes through Land Grant University Extension Services to “State Strengthening” and “New Communities” projects. These community programs serve over 64,000 youth ages pre K-19 and over 19,000 parents.  Collaboration with lasting community partnerships is a key to long lasting sustainability in communities.  Projects incorporate volunteers from  across disciplines, program areas and a variety of community resources, particularly working with families and individuals to keep the initiatives going.  

The “Elgin Project”:

Let’s take a close up look at a local CYFAR project:  Elgin, South Carolina, a ‘bedroom community to Columbia, the capitol of the state. “The Elgin Community is a community where families have the opportunity to fulfill their dreams of living in a loving, caring and nurturing environment.  People of all ages are motivated, activated, and involved with each other in activities and actions that positively contribute to the well-being of all.”  Volunteers from the community have been involved from the needs assessment that identified the need for a community center to the ongoing operation of a broad range of programming for the community at the “Elgin Center.”

Clemson Cooperative Extension home economist from Kershaw County, Eleanor Jones, has been responsible for the CYFAR Elgin project, recruiting a number of volunteers from the community willing to dedicate their time and effort to make a difference.  Youth and adults spent a great amount of time determining what they felt they needed as a community and determining how they could do it.  They developed a plan to provide local programming and set out to involve other volunteers.  The Elgin Community Center went from being a ‘dream’ to becoming a reality through their efforts. Beginning in October, 2000, the following occurred:

REMEMBER, NEARLY ALL OF THIS ONGOING WORK IS BEING DONE BY VOLUNTEERS FROM THE ELGIN COMMUNITY!!!  This community will certainly benefit from the spirit of volunteerism that they are living and doing together as families!  When the Elgin Community Center-CYFAR project is multiplied by the 600 other communities also heavily involved in this kind of volunteerism, we begin to see the powerful contribution “teaching volunteerism” through families is making in our communities.

Some additional ways home economists promote and practice volunteerism:

Many other home economists/family and consumer science professionals are heavily involved in both teaching volunteerism and being volunteers.  Following is a quick mention of a few that come to mind:

FCL (Family and Community Leaders) across the country (also an extension program) do a host of volunteer work through their “homemaker clubs” as they used to be known.  Today, both men and women from communities take on projects that range from mentoring children and youth to collecting and/or sending materials where a need exists around the world.  They go to training workshops and learn skills that they can use in their families and communities.  An extension home economist is generally responsible for coordinating the FCL program for a county or area.

4-H is another valuable program that is mostly made operational by volunteers who run 4-H clubs with the help of the Cooperative Extension.  All participation is voluntary and children and youth have many opportunities to volunteer through the various project

and training opportunities.  In many instances, 4-H is a family affair, where everyone is involved together.  This is a great opportunity for families to “teach volunteerism.”

Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences across the country often sponsor “clubs” for young people, sometimes formal ones with national organization, other times just because this is “something they want to do for youth.”  Valuable information is shared with youth and youth often share what they have learned with others.  Teachers also have a great opportunity to instill in children and youth the value of volunteerism.  Courses such as Child Development, Family Living and Parenting are excellent courses to teach the value of volunteerism.  Service learning has been shown to be a very valuable approach for youth to learn to “give” to others.

Many home economists use their training in other ways to serve as volunteers.  Personally, I am the Executive Director of the Kershaw County Teen Health Promotion Coalition, a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition and a Technical Assistance Coordinator for 15 counties in South Carolina, a state with some of the worst teen risk behaviors in the country.  I started doing this work mostly as a volunteer when I first moved to South Carolina to RETIRE after teaching for 26 years in Indiana!

Nona Slappy from West Virginia spent 36 years advocating for families as a home economist. The last 5 years she has been using her skills to do Red Cross Disaster Relief work across the Americas.  She says that “being able to help from the start of the recovery process has been most rewarding—and that is why I volunteer—to make a positive difference for others.”  Nona has personally volunteered over 2,500 hours to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Program using her professional skills volunteering to help others. 

Drawing Our Conclusions:

Volunteerism as a concept and an ACTION, taught and exemplified from within families from the time children are small, will benefit everyone—INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES, COMMUNITIES--AND ULTIMATELY THE WORLD.  “SOCIETY” would certainly become more “civil” if volunteering became a more universal value!  Home economists and family and consumer science professionals have made and will continue to make tremendous contributions to the family and to the contributions families make to society through actively promoting volunteerism and in “practicing what they preach (teach)” by being volunteers themselves.

Volunteerism can have the most impact when it is part of a larger plan to address community needs.  Coordinated efforts make the strongest contribution. Many examples of projects and programs that involve families as volunteers have been presented here. There is a lot to learn about how to make the best contribution through volunteering.  But volunteering, in and of itself, has great merit.  The Royal Bank Letter (from Canada) had this to say in its June 2001 newsletter:  “Money is a common measure of one’s success.  If that is so, it makes a disturbing commentary on current social values.  For surely much of the work that is done for money is worthless to anyone but those who profit by it.  Voluntary service, on the other hand, is so valuable to its beneficiaries as to LITERALLY be PRICELESS!…  Real joy comes not from ease of riches or praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile”…for others!

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Unfortunately, the tragic events of September 11 in New York and Washington “stopped the world” as we saw unprecedented horror happening before our eyes.  This paper will be filed with the committee that it was intended to address in hopes that this story of teaching for volunteerism is heard at the United Nations.  Presently, each one of us must do all that we can to help bring about a civil society for the sake of all  humanity. 

Juanita Mendenhall, President, IFHE-US

IFHE Vice-President, Region of the Americas

                                    122 Point Lane, Ridgeway, SC 29130    juanitam@usit.net