volunteerism & civic engagement in America

From the press release issued July 27th by the Corporation for National & Community Service,

“…even during a time of prolonged economic recession, volunteering has remained steady, fueled by a compassion boom led by young adults and a wave of do-it-yourself volunteers working with their neighbors to fix problems.”

It’s interesting to learn that young adults are leading the cause. 16-24 demographic rose from 7.8 million in 2007 to 8.2 million in 2008.

“…other less-formal ways of serving in communities have dramatically increased. The number of people who worked with their neighbors to fix a community problem rose by 31 percent, from 15.2 million in 2007 to 19.9 million in 2008, suggesting an emerging trend of self-organized ‘do-it-yourself’ service.”

I’m curious to keep an eye out for emerging platforms that cater to and enable, the so-called “do-it-yourself” volunteers as described above.

• For the fourth year in a row, Utah was the top volunteer state with a volunteer rate 43.5%, followed by Nebraska (38.9%), Minnesota (38.4%), Alaska (38%), and Iowa (37.1%).
• Minneapolis-St. Paul once again ranked number one among large cities at 38.4%, followed by Portland, OR (36.7%), Salt Lake City, UT (36.5%), Seattle, WA (34.3%), and Kansas City, MO (33.4%).

Rock on Minnesota! Here’s the primary web page with all the juicy details

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