DSMG290006 Volunteerism and The Community Report Sample

DSMG290006 Volunteerism and The Community

Part 1) Library search strategy

In Part 1) you will provide a detailed account of the search strategy you use to locate the sources for Part 2.1 (see below), that is, the section of the discussion paper dealing with the concept of community (see Part 2.1 below).

Using the CQUniversity Australia seven (7) step process for searching databases as a framework (the process can be found in the ‘Assessment Resources and Help’ section of the DSMG29006 eReading and the Moodle site under Assessment), you describe the steps taken to search the CQUniversity library catalogue. Part 1) library search strategy is to be presented as a table showing the actions, results and rationale for these actions. You must use the CQUniversity library catalogue for assessment task one. A template, which includes the table, has been provided on the Moodle site under Assessment. You must use the provided table.

Part 2) Discussion Paper

Scenario

You have recently been employed as a project officer in a government department and have been tasked by your supervisor to develop two sections of a discussion paper, which will go to an oversight committee. The discussion paper informs the oversight committee about trends in voluntary participation during disaster events and strategies for enhancing voluntary activity. The oversight committee includes emergency and disaster management experts, community members, academics and researchers. To support the discussion paper, the oversight committee has asked that the discussion be framed around a local event, that is, the discussion must use a recent emergency or disaster event (of your choosing) and give examples from that event. The two sections that you have been tasked to write are to populate the trends section of the bigger discussion paper and include:

Part 2.1): a discussion, including a contemporary definition of the concept of community, and

Part 2.2): an analysis of the types of voluntary activity performed by members of the community during a recent emergency or disaster event (of your choice), and its alignment or otherwise to a formal organisation or agency. Part 2.2 will consist of the following:

a) name and a brief description of the event,

b) examples of the activity that community members contributed to that particular event,

c) identification of which contributions were part of formal volunteer role and which were not,

d) using the scholarly literature, align the formal and non-formal contributions from part c) with the models identified in the volunteerism literature. Your two sections combined can be up to 750 words and must include the following:

1. minimum of four (4) different references

2. minimum of two (2) references for Part 2.1, and two (2) references for Part 2.2

3. the four (4) references must be peer-reviewed sources. You are free to use additional non-peer-reviewed sources.

Solution

Part 1) Searching the Literature: the concept and definition of community

Part 2) Discussion Paper

Part 2.1: Concept of Community

The term ‘community’ focuses on a group of people for MBA Assignment Expert who are related according to their area of residence, activities, preferences, and beliefs during and after the occurrence of calamities. Modern definitions focus on the aspect of space metaphor and imply the idea of people working and helping each other in both physical and cyberspace.

According to Robertson et al. (2021), the concept of a community is a shared ability to manage emergent events irrespective of disasters and in the wake of such incidents relevancy and cooperation. Local people sometimes self-organize themselves to respond depending on the available resources in the community. The above definition is compatible with current theories that highlight the adaptability and community’s actions in response to emergencies.

Part 2.2: Voluntary Activity in a Recent Disaster Event

Event Description

Event: 2019-2020 Australian Bushfires

The summer of 2019-2020 proved to be a particularly damaging bushfire season in Australia, and it was also called “Black Summer.”

Examples of Community Voluntary Activity

Members of the community became involved in many activities carried out without asking for any monetary return from the government, but rather for the sake of helping the society, some of which included; performing firefighting tasks as well as the provision of other support services to people who had been affected.
Formal Volunteering: Some people participated as per group formations like the Rural Fire Service (RFS) and the State Emergency Service (SES). They undertook drills and engaged in organised exercises such as fire fighting drills and evacuation drills.

Informal Volunteering: Some of the actions taken by the community were in a volunteer and unstructured manner that they were engaged in providing food and water to the affected members of the community, shelter for those who had been rendered homeless, and helping in the rescue of wildlife.

Formal vs. Informal Contributions

Formal volunteering activities were defined as having a formal structure with a list of duties that one is expected to perform in an organization. For instance, RFS volunteers had tasks to perform for which they were assigned; they followed the command structure to be precise, specific and organized in their responses and use of resources (Feuerstein-Simon et al., 2022).

On the other hand, informal volunteering was a more irregular form of volunteering, which involved actions prompted by the need and a voluntary person’s desire to perform such actions. People assisting their neighbours, isolated companies providing services for free, and people creating groups on social networks to coordinate help were considered (Ntontis et al., 2022).

Alignment with Volunteerism Models

Taking formal and informal volunteering into consideration this study’s models correspond to the models described in volunteerism literature. Minárová et al. (2021) described that formal volunteering is driven by structured ways of volunteering and it is usually a long-term volunteer. Thus, it can be discussed that it falls within the scope of functional theories of volunteering, which presupposes that people pursue choice experiences and social obligations. Informal volunteering on the other hand falls into emergent and spontaneous volunteerism since situational influences and actual needs in the existing communities occasion it. It is mostly characterized by short duration, informal, and tends to adapt quickly to the changing environment as determined by disasters.

References

Feuerstein-Simon, R., Strelau, K. M., Naseer, N., Claycomb, K., Kilaru, A., Lawman, H., ... & Cannuscio, C. C. (2022). Design, implementation, and outcomes of a Volunteer-staffed Case Investigation and contact tracing Initiative at an urban Academic Medical Center. JAMA network open, 5(9), e2232110-e2232110. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2796647

Minárová, M., Mura, L., & Malá, D. (2021). Corporate Volunteering and Creating a Quality Culture. Quality-Access to Success, 22(185). https://scholar.archive.org/work/c74gmm53xzaczmahbaqjgxrjf4/access/wayback/https://admin.calitatea.ro/assets/Documents/Archive/PDF/20211202_f0590ae9-9811-4122-99bb-3c939d101645.pdf

Ntontis, E., Fernandes-Jesus, M., Mao, G., Dines, T., Kane, J., Karakaya, J., ... & Drury, J. (2022). Tracking the nature and trajectory of social support in Facebook mutual aid groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 76, 103043. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221242092200262X

Robertson, T., Docherty, P., Millar, F., Ruck, A., & Engstrom, S. (2021). Theory and practice of building community resilience to extreme events. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 59, 102253. https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/32556/1/IJDRR_July2020_final.pdf