Considerations of community - The context and process of volunteerism

In this article, the authors examine the role of community in understanding volunteerism. First, the authors present a model of the volunteer process that identifies three stages (antecedents, experiences, consequences) and t hree levels of analysis (individual, organization, social system). Next, th e authors propose two features of community-community cts context for volun teerism: and psychological sense of community-and articulate the implicatio ns of these features for the processes cf volunteerism. Then, empirical evi dence from studies of AIDS volunteers and their clients is reviewed that su ggests (a) how communities and psychological sense of community encourage p eople to volunteer and connect with others and (b) how connecting to commun ities appears to be beneficial for the functioning of people living with HI V. Finally, the authors argue that explicit considerations of community can also contribute to understanding other forms of individual and collective action as well as broader civic and societal participation.