Social Work with Religious Volunteers: Activating and Sustaining Community Involvement (Report‪)‬

Even as the call for volunteer involvement in many arenas of community service is increasing (Grube & Piliavin, 2000), research studies report a decline in volunteerism among those long known for their service: older women (Gallagher, 1994; Phillips, Little, & Goodine, 2002), long-term service volunteers (Macduff, 2004), and retirees (Caro & Bass, 1997). Social work administrators have difficulty attracting sufficient volunteers for caseloads that include people who are marginalized, such as intravenous drug users and people with chronic mental illness (Marx, 1999). In the face of this decline in volunteerism, religious congregations continue to incubate and offer significant volunteer resources to their communities (Chaves, Konieczny, Beyerlein, & Barman, 1999). Social workers have a growing body of research that describes the extent of involvement of congregations in social service provision (Cnaan, Wineburg, & Boddie, 1999; Wineburg, 2001). Few studies help social workers understand the motivations of congregation volunteers and the challenges of working with them, however. Consequently, social workers have little guidance for effectively engaging, rewarding, and sustaining this major segment within the shrinking volunteer pool. LITERATURE REVIEW