Community service

“ COMMUNITY SERVICE is the medium through which the residents of a community get together and really become members of that community with a consequent real interest in community welfare, prosperity and stability. ”

“ PURPOSE.— It is the purpose of this title— (1) to encourage every American and every American institution to help solve our most critical social problems by volunteering their time, energies and services through community service projects and initiatives; (2) to identify successful and promising community service projects and initiatives, and to disseminate information concerning such projects and initiatives to other communities in order to promote their adoption nationwide ”

“ Community service, community building, then, as a master motive, establishes the country weekly newspaper publisher securely in his position of leadership. It assures added community prosperity and the local development of the finer satisfactions of life in which he must share, and no other agency can take this from him, neither the city daily, coming in from a distance and concerned with the larger affairs of the larger community, nor the school, nor the church, nor any other. ”

“ We must do more as individuals and as a society to encourage all Americans-especially our young people-to share their time, skills, enthusiasm, and energy with their communities. Whether we teach children to read, mentor young people, work at a food bank or homeless shelter, or care for people living with AIDS, citizen service calls forth the best from each of us. It builds a sense of community, compassion, acceptance of others, and a willingness to do the right thing-all hallmarks of character. ”

“ Community service programs that use qualified school personnel to train and mobilize young people to measurably strengthen their communities through nonviolence, responsibility, compassion, respect, and moral courage. ”

“ This network of community service providers, faith-based organizations, tribal organizations, State and local agencies on aging, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers informs caregivers that they are not alone, and that help is always available through counseling, support groups, training, respite care, and supplemental services. ”

“ In the preceding chapters the effort has been made to outline some of the conditions and principles involved in organizing the rural church for community service. The field has been limited by distinguishing between that type of service which has to do with man's relation to his Maker and that which has to do with his relations to his fellow man. ”

“ National and community service programs should increase efforts to expand opportunities for, and strengthen the capacity of, faith-based and other community organizations in building and strengthening an infrastructure to support volunteers that meet community needs ”

“ VOLUNTARY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION In many New England towns the decline in popular control of town government has been largely counterbalanced by COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION FOR VOLUNTARY COOPERATION. Much community service is, and probably always will be, performed by private enterprise and initiative rather than by government; and the efficiency of government depends to a considerable extent upon the efficiency of voluntary enterprise. ”

“ Many public funded post-secondary institutions incorporate the mission of community service to serve the wider interests of the communities in which they operate by sharing expertise and scholarship for the benefit of society. ”

“ A more vital appeal to life service in rural work can now be made to young people who have objected to service in rural charges where efforts at community service have been handicapped and even nullified by the presence of competing religious organizations and pastors. ”

“ Where two or more religious organizations find a place in the same small community, no plan has yet been successfully tried whereby these organizations as such have been brought into harmonious and continuous action for community service. ”

“ Constructive community services, including education, public health, and medical services, the mental health services, the welfare of the blind, and the work of the Ministry of Labour’s employment exchanges and training centres. ”

“ TITLE III — POINTS OF LIGHT FOUNDATION Sec. 301. Short Title. This title may be cited as the ``The Points of Light Foundation Act ́ ́. Sec. 302. Findings and Purpose. (a) FINDINGS.— Congress finds that— (1) community service and service to others is an integral part of American tradition; (2) existing volunteers and volunteer programs should be praised for their efforts in helping and serving others; (3) the definition of a successful life includes service to others; (4) individuals should be encouraged to volunteer their time and energies in community service efforts ”

“ And so it may be in Garden City. There will be discovered many opportunities for public service which [87] neither the community as a whole, nor even a majority of its members, will at first recognise the importance of, or see their way to embrace, and which public services it would be useless, therefore, to expect the municipality to undertake; but those who have the welfare of society at heart will, in the free air of the city, be always able to experiment on their own responsibility, and thus quicken the public conscience and enlarge the public understanding. ”

“ The development of professional social service, growing out of the charity movement, but now embracing community work of every kind, will probably lessen the evils of the modern neighborhood, and retain its desirable features. ”

“ It is the writer's belief that a population can be improved by social service, that the community is the unit in which such service should be rendered in the country, and that by the vision and inspiration of the church in the country, this service is conditioned. He believes with those who are leading in the service among the poor in the great cities that the time has come when we have sufficient intelligence to understand the life of country people, in order to deal with the causes of human action ”

“ The first impression that may come to one not familiar with the vastness of the organized [Pg 148] movement for rural welfare may be that a large number of agencies have undertaken rural service for their own sakes rather than for the sake of the community. ”

“ Leadership for clubs was provided by college students training for community service. The result was that this group of young men, of exceptionally good [Pg 82] native qualities but spoiling morally for want of adequate provision for recreational life, came to the community center and for the time being avoided the lower forms of social and recreational activity.
These illustrations prove three things: first, the need of such equipment; second, the fact that young people prefer and choose the better when it is provided for them ”

“ Therefore, in Part II a study is made of public servants, both those who are directly in the employ of the community and those who, although employed by private individuals, are, through contract, engaged in public service. Among these are the policeman, the postman, the fireman, the street cleaner, the garbage collector, and the ash and rubbish collector. In the study of these various people the threefold idea of dependence, interdependence and co-operation through community agencies finds ample illustration. ”

“ Citizen service is a vital force in American life, helping to build a stronger sense of community and citizenship and engaging Americans to meet the obligations we all share. Whether tutoring children, mentoring teens, renovating housing, restoring public parks, responding to natural disasters, or caring for aging parents and grandparents, those who serve and volunteer are strengthening our communities for America's future. ”

“ In communities of over 1,500 inhabitants there should not be more than one Protestant church to every 1,000 population. In communities of over 1,500 inhabitants and of less than 5,000, plans should be worked out whereby the different denominations concerned shall cooperate in providing adequate building and equipment for community service. ”

“ We are indeed fortunate that, even as we face difficult problems in our streets, schools, homes, and communities, citizens are volunteering to help one another in numerous ways. Some spend a few hours every week. Others give entire days-even years-of their lives to service. Each makes a lasting contribution to the substance and the spirit of community in America. ”

“ The rural Christian Associations have been proceeding on the policy of using such buildings as are now available, but it is evident that in the vast majority of small communities, present buildings can at best be but a makeshift for complete community service. It is hoped that the time will come when the several denominations will find some way of pooling their financial resources so that as religious organizations they can provide a common building for community service. The writer knows of no village in America where this has yet been done. ”

“ It is as if the community entered into a sort of agreement with the worker to the effect that it will provide him with a living in return for definite service to the community or for the product of his labor. What we call "business" is SELLING A SERVICE. It may be personal service, such as teaching, or prescribing medicine, or nursing, or giving legal advice, or cutting hair, or driving a team, or running an automobile. ”

“ There, my mother headed the local PTA and school board and directed a volunteer services agency, all the while instilling in my sister and me the understanding that service to the community is a responsibility above all others. ”

“ Finally let us remember that community organization is not an end in itself, but that it is merely a means whereby conditions in the community may be made such that every individual in it may have the best possible chance to develop his personality and to enjoy the fellowship of service in the common good. The aim of all social organization is personality, but personality is achieved and can find its own satisfaction only through fellowship. The ideal community but furnishes the social environment in which the human spirit realizes its highest values. ”

“ The ability to make a living under conditions of freedom and justice depends in part upon the common wants of the community, and upon the willingness of members of the community to pay for the satisfaction of their wants enough to enable those who perform service for them also to satisfy theirs. ”

“ Offering a wide range of cultural, social, and recreational activities and services, these local institutions have been gathering places for people of all ages and all walks of life. By the turn of this century, community centers had become a haven for thousands of immigrants, who sought help learning English and adjusting to life in the United States. Now in their second century of service, community centers continue to offer the American people valuable assistance programs as well as rewarding opportunities for personal enrichment. ”

“ This consciousness was lost as soon as the pioneer days were past and the abundance of nature began to enrich mankind instead of antagonizing him. Now, again, the country community has come into prominence because men are confronted with a struggle to maintain an acceptable standard of living.
In dealing with a social whole, to accomplish certain purposes one must deal with it in social terms. Social service is not quantitative, but qualitative. Ministry to a community is not uniformly applied to all the members. In social service there is no such thing as equality of all the population. ”

“ For the most part this work has been financed by the wealthy, has been carried on by social workers who have had special training for such service, and is commonly known as charity. What social work has been done in rural communities has been introduced by city organizations and has usually been fostered by organizations of as few of the more progressive people at the county seats and the larger towns or small cities which have worked out into the rural communities from these centers. ”

“ It is for this reason that the advance of rural social work will depend upon arousing an active interest in the welfare of the community's "disadvantaged" through discussion by such organizations as the church, the grange, the farm and home bureau, lodges, women's clubs, instruction in high schools, etc. The work of the public health nurse will reveal many family problems with which she is unable to deal and which demand the help of one experienced in social work, and the nurse will be of service in educating the community to the need of such work. ”

“ This is one phase of community life in which it is easy to establish leadership, and in which young people can perform valuable civic service and contribute materially toward "transmuting days of dreary work into happier lives." ”

“ GOVERNMENT AS A PERFORMER OF SERVICE As our community life has become more complex, and as our dependence upon one another has become greater, we have gradually come to expect government to do many things for us, and to control our individual conduct in many ways, that were not thought of at an earlier time. ”

“ When it is ample for the needs of individual lives men move into it, and the average man finds there a contented and satisfied life. The decay of the community is indicated by the departure of individuals and of families in quest of a better centre for the supply of vital human needs. Some go to make more money elsewhere, some depart for educational advantages and some move away because social life is lacking or religious privileges are not suitable. But these four vital essentials, economic, ethical, educational and religious, make up the elements in the community's service to the individual. ”

“ Although a broader educational and social program is needed in the rural church, there is an equal opportunity for a larger service through a new sort of pastoral work by the minister who can serve the community as a social worker. There is an impression that there is no need for so-called social work, for the expert assistance of the poor, the neglected, the delinquent, and the mentally defective, in most rural communities ”