Volunteerism in the wake of the recession

I am still following how the recession has affected the desire of Americans to volunteer. In a previous blog entry, I referred to two articles which reported there was a decrease in the number of people doing charitable works, both in terms of time spent volunteering and donations to charity. However, a few other articles I have viewed briefly (I will read them more carefully later on) seem to indicate that there was, actually, an increase in volunterism in recent months: specifically an article in The Bangor Daily News, called "Expert says recession has boosted volunteerism"; another article in The Columbia Chronicle, called "Volunteer numbers spike since recession"; and a press release from a site called Press Release Point, which comments on volunteer work internationally or in other countries. In either case, it does appear that volunteerism will pick up because of the nearing holiday season and will likely continue into winter and spring as the economy continues to emerge from recession.

Updates to site

I have visited a number of sites recently, some of which I have updated on the blog. Since I learn a great deal from simply exploring different resources on my own, I have added the free mitopencourseware site so I can occasionally browse topics, books and other information of some of the college and graduate level courses I may be interested in. Secondly, I have added a number of sites on volunteerism and social trends, including Lutheran World Relief; volunteermatch; Volunteering in America; and Pew Research Center. Third, I have updated a widget of the blog of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called "Our World. Your Move." The widget is a great resource for international volunteer work and features "Stories," video clips from Youtube, twitter updates and photographs from flickr.

And finally, I visited a blog called Back Issues on The New Yorker site; I was intrigued by an interview posted there of Maya Lin, an artist and architect I have read about and whose career I have followed for quite some time. Although I have not added the site to this blog, I think the idea behind the blog is an interesting one and I plan to visit the blog periodically in the future. Until next time.