In the 1970s, during what some people recall with nostalgic fervour as the ‘good ole days’ of voluntary service, Jamaicans turned out in droves to develop their communities without expecting a dollar, community groups mushroomed, and people actually did volunteer work on Labour Day.

It was a time of burgeoning national activism, and both non-governmental and government-sponsored volunteer programmes and organisations flourished with an intensity that has not been seen in Jamaica since.

A generation later, many of those same programmes still exist, but certainly do not attract the same numbers or generate the same passion they did in the 1970s. And yet, true volunteerism isn’t dead, say those who are involved in co-ordinating and assessing voluntary work.

First of all, they argue, participation in organised voluntary activity is cyclical, and to a large extent responsive to certain tempero-spatial factors such as leadership, external, financial and institutional support.

“We’re always harking back to Jamaica Welfare in the 1930s and 40s and to the activity of the 1970s and so on, but we need to understand that that volunteerism was happening at a particular historical moment,” says Dr Peta-Anne Baker, a lecturer in social work at the University of the West Indies, who serves as chief judge on the panel of the Michael Manley Award for Community Self-Reliance.

In that particular moment, said Baker, there was much more government support for voluntary service, as well as a nationalist movement afoot, all of which created a social environment conducive to volunteer service.

Today, the political and social landscape is different, and so too has the face of volunteerism, which is part of the reason, says Baker, that such activity often fails to command the deserved attention from the government, the private sector and the media.

“There is a lot of voluntary activity taking place, through institutional programmes, the church, and there’s a lot of community-based activity that starts spontaneously and isn’t necessarily registered anywhere,” she added.

Right now, the Jamaica Register of Volunteers, a database of people, their activities and interests maintained by the Council of Voluntary and Support Services (CVSS), has just under 9,000 registered volunteers. The register, which originally began with the intention to catalogue the available human resource, now serves primarily to connect volunteers with organisations in need of unpaid labour, and is open to Jamaicans who wish to give their time and talent.

Generally, when volunteers are needed, for example, to staff events such as the upcoming Cricket World Cup (CWC), which, according to Margaret Ferguson of the CWC local organising committee will require the services of about 1,500 volunteers, the CVSS is contacted, which then mobilises its volunteer force.

While the level of volunteer activity over time fluctuates with peaks and troughs, there may be reason to believe that it may be on the upswing, says Senator Delano Franklyn, who in 2004 conducted a study of volunteerism in Jamaica over the past century.

“Currently the voluntary involvement of our Jamaican people is not as high as it used to be, and to a very large extent it is subordinated to material demand,” confirmed Franklyn, noting at the same time, however, that volunteerism has nothing to do with economic status.

According to statistics compiled from the Social Development Commission, the Social and Economic Survey and the CVSS, Franklyn points out, Jamaica in the 1930s and 40s witnessed its highest-ever level of volunteer activity – even higher than in the 1970s. This was despite the fact that at the time the average Jamaican faced serious financial challenges.

But even though some seek reward for their contribution, said Franklyn, Jamaicans today are, in increasing numbers, finding their way into true volunteer service, through both established channels and new groups.

“When you look at, for instance, the number of persons volunteering to watch electoral proceedings on behalf of CAFFE, the number of persons has continually increased,” says Franklyn. “When you look at the number of persons who wish to get involved in neighbourhood watches, the number of police youth clubs, they all have increased. The church provides significant volunteer outlets, and most churches have, outside of worship, at least one activity per week, and there are things like our Festival movement and major sporting activities that are all staffed by volunteers.”

Although service in 2006 comes often with a ‘bus fare and lunch money’ bill attached, the head of the National Youth Service (NYS), Reverend Adinhair Jones, says sometimes that has to be a necessary evil. Volunteerism, Jones reminds, is a learned practice that many young Jamaicans miss out on, for whatever reason. As such, he says, organisations like his have had to hone their focus to conveying that to the youth, with results that he says look encouraging and promising.

“We have a particular interest in engendering the spirit of volunteerism,” says Jones. “We train annually and place several thousands of students in the JAMVAT (Jamaica Values and Attitudes Programme), in the regular NYS Corps programmes and in our other voluntary efforts.”

Over 10,000 youth between the ages of 17 and 24 pass through the NYS’s various programmes annually, and although during the programme they may be granted a stipend to assist with expenses, in the end, he says, many end up turning around and becoming volunteers or community activists, or looking towards careers in public service.

“I believe the NYS has paid off significantly, and if the story is told, a lot of these students are willing to work in a voluntary capacity beyond the hours that would be required of them in the programme,” says Jones.

Baker agrees.

“We have a tendency to say there is an attitudinal problem, and we always complain so about youth. But it is in the nature of being young to have a sense of being invisible yet feeling like you are the centre of the earth. It certainly has been my experience that if you go into the community and demonstrate a genuine interest in young people and in what they want to do and so on, you quite readily can get their support and involvement,” she says.

Another factor to which both Baker and Franklyn alludes, is that while in 2006 people are busier, more insular and self-concerned, there is a high level of sporadic volunteer work that isn’t necessarily recognised.

“You may not have people joining a programme or an organisation per se, but they will come out to help with certain events, or at certain times of the year,” says Franklyn. Those people’s work, he adds, is invaluable, especially in areas such as fundraising events and special projects.

“You have some people that may never go to a Parent Teachers Association meeting, for instance, but who will come out and give their time to serve at the barbeque, or on sports day, for example,” he adds.

campbello@jamaicaobserver.com