Service for Change: We Can Do Better?

Another Martin Luther King Day has come and gone, and the stats are in! According to National and Community Service spokeswoman Ashley Etienne, up to 70,000 volunteers registered for more than 1,000 projects around the Philadelphia area. Projects ranged from blood donation to community beautification to preparing meals for the needy. I was impressed! Given the region' social, economic, and infrastructure issues, I was quick to assume that Philadelphia must top the national ranks of volunteerism. I mean, we have so many colleges and universities ripe with students waiting to give back right?

To my dismay, I could not have been more wrong! In a 2008 report released by the Corporation for National and Community Service entitled Volunteering in America 2009: State and City Trends and Rankings (the data within the report is a supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) done by the US Census Bureau and the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics), Philadelphia (defined here as the "Philadelphia Metropolitan Statistical Area") was ranked 29th among 51 large cities with an average volunteer rate of 26%, below the average national volunteer rate of 26.4%. Another surprising find is that college students are the culprit.

Philadelphia Volunteering by Special Population and Gender   Philadelphia Volunteering by Age Group

Source: The Corporation for National and Community Service

With nearly 300,000 students attending approximately 50 colleges in the Philadelphia five-county region, it seems highly inexcusable for such to be the largest contributing factor for a low City volunteer rate.

Instead, the region's adults picked up the slack. According to the CPS, 100,751 individuals worked with their neighbors to fix a problem or improve a condition in their community but did not serve through an organization. This shows that adult Philadelphians are able and willing to volunteer on their own time.

The signing of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009 is expected to bring a much needed spike in regional volunteer engagement by tripling the number of AmeriCorps volunteers, leading the way for more college age individuals to get involved. Additionally, of the 50 cities that applied in a new effort to increase volunteerism, Philadelphia was among the 10 awarded a $200,000 grant by the Cities of Service Coalition which will allow Philadelphia to hire a Chief Service Officer, a senior-ranking official who will develop and implement a city-wide service plan. The Chief Service Officer will convene a strategic committee of service experts and stakeholders, conduct an assessment of existing service levels, and identify collaborative partnerships to deepen the effects of local volunteerism. The Coalition is a bipartisan group of mayors representing more than 38 million Americans in 80 cities dedicated to engaging more people in service and  in channeling volunteers toward each city's most pressing challenges. 

It seems like the city is moving in the right direction in order to combat the issue at hand, but it has yet to be seen what part universities will play. Because we are in trying times, universities need to take notice to match the efforts of both the city and national nonprofits. Come on Philadelphians! We can do better. I want you college students to put your ‘service hats' on, too! 

The figures below provide further detail. 

-- Robert Lee Gordon, IV, Research Associate