Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 9 (58) No. 1 - 2016

STUDENTS' INVOLVEMENT IN
SOCIAL VOLUNTEERING

C. BACTER1 C. MARC2

Abstract: Understanding the motivation behind getting involved in

voluntary activities has been the topic of several studies conducted in
countries with tradition in this field and not only. The purpose of this paper is
to present some relevant aspects of volunteers' motivations and the
advantages of volunteering as they are described in the scholarly literature.
It also includes a good practice example, along with the results of a quality
study carried out among volunteer students of the Faculty of Social-
Humanistic Sciences of The University of Oradea. The results of the study
confirm and complete the information found in scholarly literature. The
subjects of the study stated that altruism, self-satisfaction and the need for
involvement, as well as professional development, the experience acquired,
the results of their work/the progress of the beneficiaries, are only some of
the internal and external motives behind the decision of getting involved.

Key words: benefits, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, social involvement/

responsibilisation, students, volunteering.

1. Introduction

Volunteering is an important component for the development of any society. After

1990, the number of NGOs and of volunteers has increased in many countries, and a
particular attention has been given to promoting volunteering in order to involve the
citizens in the life of local communities and make them responsible, the young generation
in particular.
In 2011, the European Year of Volunteering, a great number of events were organised
to celebrate the activity of volunteers, as well as to reaffirm the role played by
associations within the European Union. On this occasion, a study was conducted at
European level to analyse relevant aspects of involvement in voluntary activities, in the
areas of the continent where volunteering is popular, the European public opinion on
volunteering, as well as the citizens’ expectations of it. The results of the study backed
up the fact that in countries with a long tradition of volunteering, such as the Low
Countries, Denmark, Finland, Austria etc, involvement in voluntary activities takes place
on a regular basis, while in countries such as Poland, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania etc the
scores are well below the average of the European Union. A relevant aspect of the study
results is the one which shows that volunteering does not depend on gender or age, but it

1
University of Oradea, [email protected].
2
University of Oradea, [email protected].
82 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series VII • Vol. 9 (58) No. 1 - 2016

should be mentioned that it is more popular among educated people. Regarding the main
field of interest, solidarity and humanitarian aid were placed on top. If we look at the
benefits, according to the respondents, volunteering contributes to the personal
development of volunteers, it facilitates the acquisition of knowledge and skills needed
for professional inclusion, while also giving the opportunity to develop civic participation
(TNS Opinion and Social, 2011).
The results of a study conducted in Romania in 2013 by the Centre of Marketing and
Social Forecasting, at the request of React Association, showed that the highest
percentage of the subjects included in the study who declared that they took part in
voluntary activities was that of students – 29%. The same study also showed that the
fields volunteers are most interested in are social services, those concerning the
environment and education, while the desire to help others (40%) is one of the most
important reasons behind their decision to get involved (CMPS, 2013).
As it can be seen from those presented above, in our country, even though we are
among the countries that are placed below the average of the European Union regarding
the involvement in voluntary activities, there are concerns in this respect, and changes can
be brought about by the young generation. Having regard to the past of our country and to
the fact that only after 1989 were the first true steps taken in this respect, it is of utmost
importance to raise awareness about the importance of volunteering for local
communities, about the benefits of volunteering, both for the volunteers themselves and
and for the communities, as well as about the potential of volunteering for increasing
social responsibility.
On the basis of these ideas, this paper presents some aspects of volunteers' motivations
and the advantages of volunteering as they are described in the scholarly literature. The
practical part of the paper deals with an example of good practice and it also includes a
qualitative study carried out among volunteer students of the Faculty of Social-
Humanistic Sciences of The University of Oradea. The questions which have provided
the basis for the study were: What makes the students to become volunteers? and What
are, in their opinions, the advantages obtained as a result of involvement?

2. The Motivations behind the Decision to Become Volunteers and the Benefits of
Volunteering

Volunteering is considered a noble activity, carried out of one's own free will, without
constraints and without getting any payment. Volunteering is defined as being “regular
unpaid work which benefits other people outside the immediate family or social circle”
(Haefliger & Hug, 2009, p. 3).
The number of studies on volunteering has increased in recent years, and what can be
seen in the scholarly literature is that several theoretical models have been proposed in an
attempt to explain how this phenomenon has developed.
Volunteering is seen “as an important manifestation of human help”. In their study
Understanding and Assessing the Motivations of Volunteers: A Functional Approach,
Clary et. al highlight three relevant aspects, namely: volunteers often seek out
opportunities to help others; they deliberate about whether to volunteer, their involvement
and the degree to which certain activities fit with their personal needs; and they may
make a commitment which may extend over long periods of time and which may involve
costs of time, energy and opportunity (Clary et al., 1998, p. 1516).
C. BACTER et al.: Students' Involvement in Social Volunteering 83

Given these aspects, the following questions arise: What makes people to become
volunteers, what makes them want to help?
The first models of the motivations behind voluntary involvement refer to intrinsic and
extrinsic motives of our decisions. If we look at extrinsic motives, social norms may
determine the decision of involvement to be taken. Regarding the intrinsic motives which
determines people to get involved in voluntary activities, the following have been
identified: the values that guide individuals, interests and the enjoyment activities bring
about. In addition to its important role in fostering the development of civil society, of
democracy and to being an evidence of people's kindness and commitment, volunteering
has positive effects on volunteers themselves. Research results indicate a positive
association between volunteering and the volunteers' health and well-being (Miljkovic,
Rijavec & Jurcec, 2013).
One of the theories used in the study of motivation is the self-determination theory,
which approaches human motivation and personality by using traditional empirical
methods. In order to explain motivation and the state of well-being, the theory refers to
basic psychological needs, and identifies three such needs: competence, relatedness and
autonomy, which are essential for promoting optimal operation, for growth and
integration, as well as for social development and personal well-being (Ryan and Deci,
2000).
According to Petru Ştefăroi, volunteers in social work are characterised by traits such as
altruism, sensitivity to the needs and suffering of people facing difficulties, desire for
personal development, flexibility, creativity, tolerance and ”even if there are very few
cases of people involved in voluntary activities who might not have any personal goal
behind the status of being a volunteer, their conduct should, nevertheless, serve mainly
the true humanitarian goals of the organisation they work for” (Ştefăroi, 2013, p. 143).
A study which included 400 students from ”Babeş-Bolyai” University and the
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca showed that the students' entering the labour market
is determined by economic, social and/or idealistic factors, the latter ones being intrinsic
factors, ”idealistic wishes”, which characterise volunteers who want to do good in the
world or to be useful to society (Tobias, 2014, p. 10).
The results of a comparative study carried out in five countries – Australia, Canada,
New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States – shows that students do recognise a
mix of motivations and benefits brought about by volunteering, but instrumental and
career motivations, such as job/career experience, provides references for employment or
college, leadership skills etc, are not statistically different from altruistic/value-driven
motives, such as self-satisfaction, opportunity to learn new things, build trust among
people in society, and social/ego-defensive factors (Cnann et al., 2010).
Another study, conducted in Great Britain, which had students as subjects and which
focused on the motivations and experiences of volunteers, showed that students are
motivated to take part in voluntary activities by labour market inclusion, and those
students who are motivated by employment criteria are much more likely to seek for
structured activities, in an organised environment. The subjects of the study also
identified the way voluntary activity could be associated with building self-confidence,
by interaction with others, but also by having to cope with new situations (Holdsworth,
2010).
A study conducted in Lithuania shows that volunteering as a form of non-formal self-
development creates benefits not only for society, but for the volunteers as well, which in
84 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series VII • Vol. 9 (58) No. 1 - 2016

the case of students are: development of professional skills, personal and social
development, acquisition of new knowledge and competences which help the integration
into the labour market (Repeckiene, Kvedaraite, Zvireliene, & Glinskiene, 2014).
A study carried out in Romania, with subjects students from the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza”
University from Iaşi, and which had as one of its objectives assessing the variables that
can explain the motivation for volunteering, shows that the highest percentage of the
respondents involved in voluntary activities claim that they get involved in such kinds of
activities in order to gain experience, followed by the desire to help (Netedu & Blaj,
2012).
As it can be seen, taking part in voluntary activities not only brings personal benefits
for volunteers, such as professional development, social development and personal well-
being, acquisition of new knowledge and competences needed for integration into the
labour market, but also fosters the development of civil society at large.

3. An Example of Good Practice

In 2013, a group of students from the Social Work Department of the Faculty of Social-
Humanistic Sciences of the University of Oradea, with the help of a teacher, founded the
CHARIS Association. The young people who had the idea of establishing this association
wanted to get involved in the life of the local community and contribute to solving the
problems faced by disadvantaged groups. During their studies, practical placement and
volunteering programmes the students identified the needs of several vulnerable groups,
and through their association they prepared and implemented projects to address them.
The first groups which benefited from support were those of children and youth living in
placement at Placement Centre No. 2 Oradea. The projects focused primarily on personal
development, on developing independent living skills, on discovering abilities and
involving the children in artistic activities, on organising leisure time activities.
Besides these interventions which benefited the identified target groups, a particular
attention was given to promoting the idea of volunteering within the community.
Thus, in 2015, the idea of a project, called ”Volunteering builds bridges for social
cohesion”, took shape. The project was funded by the Ministry of Youth and Sport,
through the Bihor County Directorate for Sport and Youth. Besides raising awareness
among pupils and students about the value and importance of volunteering in the life of
the local community and learning about the social problems existing within the
community, the project also aimed at responsibilising them for active involvement.
As a result of the project, the team of voluntary students who got involved in its
implementation was completed with 10 students from 5 high-schools from Oradea, who
expressed their wish to take part in the implementation of future projects of the
association.
The fact that year by year new volunteers join the initial nucleus of 2013 shows the
interest of young people in these types of activities. Changes can be achieved only with
the support of people willing to get involved, even though the steps are small.
In order to identify the motives behind the students involvement and the benefits they
gain from taking part in these kinds of activities, as they perceive them, we carried out a
qualitative study, which is presented below.
C. BACTER et al.: Students' Involvement in Social Volunteering 85

4. Methods

4.1. The Instrument

The method used in this research was the interview, and the data were collected by
semi-structured individual interviews. The data collecting instrument, the interview guide
used, was structured around three topics: Forms and areas of volunteering, The
motivation for being a volunteer and What did your involvement in the project
“Volunteering builds bridges for social cohesion” mean to you.

4.2. The Subjects

The subjects of the study were 12 students who were involved in the implementation of
the project “Volunteering builds bridges for social cohesion”.
Regarding their gender, age and background, the subjects belong to the following
categories: one is male, the other 11 are females; their ages are between 19 and 23 years;
three of them come from the countryside, the others from urban areas.
The subjects are students in years I, II and III from Social Work (10) and Psychology (2).
Regarding how long they have been involved in voluntary activities, that varies
between 5 months and 8 years.

5. Results

In order to interpret the result, thematic analysis was used.

Forms and areas of volunteering, positive aspects and difficulties. The fields in which
the subjects have been active as volunteers are the following: social, education,
environment, art and healthcare. The host institutions listed by the students included
secondary schools, high schools, faculties, associations and foundations active in the
social and environment fields, state institutions from the social field (example: the Social
Community Administration Oradea), the theatre. The categories of beneficiaries the
students worked with are: disabled children and youth, children suffering from chronic
diseases, children from disadvantaged backgrounds, older people, homeless people. The
types of activities they were involved in as volunteers were diverse: campaigns to raise
awareness among citizens about the problems faced by certain categories of the
population, organising specific activities with various categories of beneficiaries –
educational activities (tutoring) and recreational/leisure time activities with disabled
children and youth (games), activities in hospitals (beneficiaries: children suffering from
chronic diseases, older people), humanitarian activities (collecting food donations,
distributing clothes, preparing and distributing hot meals), promoting theatre
performances, environment protection activities etc.
According to the subjects, the positive aspects of their involvement in these activities
are: acquisition of knowledge, expansion of their social area, spiritual satisfaction,
personal development, spending free time in a useful way, the agreements they signed as
volunteers, developing teamwork skills, developing communication skills, understanding
the needs of others, discovering their own abilities and interests, the contacts with experts
and the chance to learn from them.
86 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series VII • Vol. 9 (58) No. 1 - 2016

Regarding the difficulties, the subjects mentioned the following ones: the attachment
relationships that develop between volunteers and beneficiaries, which can be sometimes
too strong and can lead to the beneficiaries' dependence on the volunteers, tiredness,
situations that are hard to manage in the relationship with the beneficiaries, too much
responsibility, lack of rigour in the way activities are organised within some host
institutions, too much pressure on volunteers from their supervisors, some volunteers'
lack of seriousness, failing to meet the deadlines of some projects.
The motivation for being a volunteer and personal and social benefits. Regarding the
intrinsic motivation, the subjects of the study said that the main internal motives behind
their involvement in voluntary activities are the following: altruism, self-
satisfaction/spiritual satisfaction and the need for involvement. They stated that the
pleasure of getting involved, of offering their abilities to others, the fact that by their help
they can make the others smile and the pleasure to work with people, the fact that they
play a part in the change of the community they live in, are all important aspects when the
decision of being a volunteer is made. In addition, the desire for personal development
and channelling energies to help others are also among the motives that make them to get
actively involved.
The respondents also spoke about the importance of extrinsic motivation, of the
external motivational factors. Professional development, the experience acquired, the fact
that volunteering may be considered as work experience, the contracts they sign as
volunteers, the possibility to meet people with similar interests, to build contacts with
other volunteers, the results of their work/the progress of the beneficiaries, the feedback
received from the beneficiaries of the programmes, the image of the volunteer within the
community, the shortage of staff in many institutions, are only some of the aspects
behind the decision of getting involved.
From the personal benefits of voluntary activities, the subjects mentioned the following
ones: professional and personal development, work satisfaction, skills acquired, personal
image, the relationships with the others.
As social benefits of volunteering, the students included in the study spoke about: the
collaborative relationships between the volunteers and the experts of various institutions
in the community and between various institutions, changes in mentalities, the
beneficiaries' self-confidence/self-esteem increases as a result of the services provided by
volunteers and experts, and due to that they become more aware of the problems they
face and capable to solve them.
The benefits of being involved in the project ”Volunteering builds bridges for social
cohesion”. To the question “What have you learnt from this experience?”, the answers of
the subjects revolved around the idea of team. They emphasized the importance of taking
part in team building activities so that its members get to know each other better and also
understand better the value each member can bring for success.
“I learnt that a united team can be built in two days and that each member has
outstanding qualities, which, along with those of the others, can make a whole”.
“I have learnt from this experience that no matter how different we are, we can still work
well together and that we should not get discouraged if things do not happen exactly as
we wanted”.
On a personal level, this project helped the students to open new horizons, to know new
people, to make friends, to relate to others, to better define for themselves their own ideas
on how they want to contribute to social development, to understand that any idea can be
C. BACTER et al.: Students' Involvement in Social Volunteering 87

used, to better understand the concept of volunteering. It was surprising to see that more
subjects mentioned that they noticed the desire of youth to get involved and one of them
even said “I regained my trust in high school students”.
The question “How do you intend to put into practice what you have learnt within the
project?”, proved to be a challenge for the students. The answers referred to the
involvement of the new team in the preparation and implementation of new projects,
participation in future voluntary activities, but also to the promotion of volunteering in
the local community.

5. Conclusions

The good practice example described above shows the students' interest in social
volunteering, the importance of projects which offer young people, and not only, the
opportunity to get involved, as well as an appropriate framework.
The results of the qualitative study confirm and complete the information found in the
scholarly literature on the motivations of becoming a volunteer and the benefits of
volunteering. The respondents perceive volunteering as a way of acquiring knowledge
and self-knowledge, a way of learning by practical action, which develops a series of
instrumental, communication and relational abilities and competences. The subjects'
answers highlighted, on the one hand, the role of volunteering in acquiring the experience
required on the labour market and for personal development and, on the other hand, they
revealed the internal individual incentives that are behind the students' involvement in
volunteering (self-satisfaction, spiritual satisfaction, the need/pleasure to help).
The benefits of volunteering are not only personal, but also social, as they foster the
development of civil society at large. Consequently, the organisations ”openness” to
receiving volunteers, the promotion of volunteering and the receptivity of youth to such
experiences are important for the development of volunteering in the social field.

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