Hardly anyone can have failed to pick up on the recent flurry of stories in the national press about the Big Society, sparked off by Dame Elisabeth Hoodless's remarks that funds for volunteers are disappearing at an alarming rate, and that this is undermining the very idea of a "Big Society". At the same time, under the government's…

This article synthesizes research on social capital, school outcomes, internet use, and volunteering to argue that e-mentoring--which is commonly practiced over long distances--could become a powerful way to build greater cohesiveness in local communities. Realizing this potential will require a larger-scale and more coordinated approach to…

Summarizes the principles of asset-based community development and indicates that it is more relevant than traditional methods. Explains its characteristics and requirements and identifies critical barriers. Encourages volunteer administrators to apply current knowledge and practices to asset-based community development. (Author/JOW)

While volunteers are important for Cooperative Extension Services, Extension agents encounter problems in the training of volunteers, the supervision of volunteers, and the completion of reports on volunteers. The use of middle management level volunteer coordinators can alleviate these problems. Extension agents can train their best volunteers as…

Increasing demands for human services and current government fiscal policies may make volunteerism the major way of improving the individual living conditions and society as a whole. Extension agents are in the front line of persons capable of developing volunteerism at the local level. They have a direct link with local citizens and are familiar…

This study investigates how 40 working-class women participate as volunteers in the service, political, and social action arenas of their community--Carondelet, on the South Side of St. Louis. The purpose is to show that working-class women who live in transitional areas are capable of politically addressing the urban problems intruding into their…

This report of the proceedings of the Third Annual Lifelong Learning Research Conference held at the University of Maryland, February 6-7, 1981, contains abstracts of forty-eight papers, three symposium papers, and the plenary address. The conference focus was on nonformal adult education. Papers deal with environmental/leisure education issues,…

Opened in 1963, the Swaneng Hill School in Serowe, Botswana, was an experiment for its untrained founders whose objectives were to reduce the exclusiveness of secondary education, equip students with skills and knowledge needed for development, make the school a focal point for community development, and instill a sense of social justice in the…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on life-affirming work and social justice that was conducted as part of a conference on human resource development (HRD). "Doing Good or Doing Well? A Counter-story of Continuing Professional Education (CPE)" (Laurel Jeris, Linda Armacost) reports on an exploratory study in which a…