Overview

Volunteerism is a public health issue. Research has shown that volunteering for youth programs can increase attainment of skills (Grant, 2020). Further, volunteering can improve well-being and connection with others (Worker, 2020). Volunteering has important implications for the health and well-being of society.

In the 4-H program, volunteers play a critical role in supporting the positive development of youth. 4-H volunteers serve a myriad of roles, including club leaders, project leaders, camp chaperones, and volunteer enrollment coordinators. In these important roles, volunteers invest their time and expertise to support the healthy development of our young people.

Need for more understanding

While we know that volunteers play an important role in our society, more research is needed to understand:

1. What factors shape volunteer engagement in educational or youth service opportunities in the western region of the U.S.
2. Of these factors, which are most important in shaping volunteer engagement?

Through gaining more knowledge of the factors that can contribute to volunteer engagement, youth organizations such as 4-H can better understand factors that can shape the likelihood of volunteering in a youth organization. This knowledge can then help youth development organizations as they create strategies to increase the numbers of volunteers in their organization.

Methods

To research this topic, I conducted a study that used data obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2017 Current Population Survey on Volunteering and Civic Life, which is a probability sample of all civilian non-institutional populations age 16 or older living in households in the United States. The sample size (n=39,150) allowed for me to run a supervised machine learning decision tree to understand which factors shape volunteer engagement. Nineteen variables were added to the model, which measured factors pertaining to race/ethnicity, income, work status, education, citizenship, immigration, and retirement. The main outcome of interest what whether the person volunteered for an educational or youth service in the past 12 months (0=no, 1=yes).

Results

The results of this study were originally presented at the American Public Health Association annual meeting in Boston MA in 2022. Below are some of the findings.

1. The top five variables of importance (in order) included: monthly labor force, sex identity, educational attainment, marital status, and household type.
2. The likelihood of volunteering was 50-50 when people stated they were employed at work, unemployed, or not in the labor force due to "other" reasons.
3. Of those having the above employment status, females were more likely to volunteer (54%) compared to males (45%).
4. For those having the above employment status and identifying as female, more educational attainment was a factor that shaped whether a person was likely to volunteer.

So what does this mean?

These results have important implications for youth organizations, such as 4-H. First, when seeking to increase volunteers in 4-H, programs should consider targeting those who are unemployed. While the unemployed seek new job opportunities, having volunteer experiences can give them employable skills, such as leadership, communication, and mentoring skills. Also, allowing unemployed volunteers the opportunity to forge new relationships with other volunteers can provide an important buffer against stress and other challenges that someone who is experiencing unemployment often face.

Second, 4-H has an opportunity to further support female volunteers through providing support and other resources to increase their engagement. For example, some female adult volunteers may have young children of their own and may need extra support so they can volunteer in the 4-H program. Through helping female volunteers engage in the program, 4-H can provide a supportive environment that allows for the volunteers to thrive in their volunteer role.

Third, 4-H has an opportunity to further engage middle and high school students in volunteering. The 4-H program in California does this through various ways, such as their teens-as-teachers expanded learning opportunities. Also, summer camps often train high school students to serve as camp counselors. These experiences can provide young people with new leadership skills to help them prepare for college and their future career.

References

Grant, S., Maass, S., Vettern, R., Harrington, R., O'Neil, K., McGlaughlin, P., & Good, T. (2020). The impact of volunteering: A multi-state study of 4-H youth development volunteers. Journal of Youth Development, 15(4), 32-50. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2020.870 

Rodriguez, M. (2022). Using Machine Learning to Understand Volunteer Engagement [Poster]. APHA, Boston, MA. https://apha.confex.com/apha/2022/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/517822

Worker, S. M., Espinoza, D. M., Kok, C. M., Go, C., & Miller, J. C. (2020). Volunteer outcomes and impact: The contributions and consequences of volunteering in 4-H. Journal of Youth Development, 15(4), 6-31. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2020.847