The question I have been asked is do the volunteers of the many holiday parades incur the same health benefits as the volunteers who are engaged full time with groups supporting charities? The answer is that I have yet to find studies or evidence to support this idea.

There is no doubt that the many volunteers for the various parades for so many holidays around the world contribute tons of effort and time to their parade day event. Their passion for the event is intense from my research, so they are focused and driven, just as other main stream civic groups or fraternal groups for their charity.

These temporary volunteers also benefit from the networking aspects noted in earlier posts on this site!

The intense pressure to produce some floats or other group presentations gives people practice in leadership and group organizing as well. Each member for these parades to work needs to subvert their own individuality for the greater performance, just as in many sports. To sum it up, everyone can benefit from the experience, but does it also translate into the health benefits of the group charity supporting volunteers?

It remains to be studied I think whether the health benefits already documented for the charity supporting fraternal, civic, and veterans groups also translates to temporary volunteering opportunities.

American Legion

Memorial Day parades by veterans groups in America which many veteran groups participate in are supported by members such as the American Legion, with the symbol above. Often these members engage in activities all year long and only rise to the public view during the parades. These are the types of volunteers which the health producing benefits have been documented.

Shriners

St. Patrick Day parades are  common in the United States. Very often you find a cooperation between well known fraternal groups to put on the parade. I have personally participated in a few as a member of the Shrine, a subdivision of the Freemasons.

The Roman Catholic fraternal group, The Knights of Columbus in my case was the main sponsor for the parade in the Tidewater area of Virginia. This certainly qualifies its members for the health benefits since they are serving all year long but raising their public awareness on this one day for the documented health benefits of volunteering.

Parades during the American professional football bowl games have short but intense opportunities for volunteers to help with float assemblies, the flowers and other aspects which are so amazing to see on the day the events are held. Other holiday parades also offer opportunities for volunteering on a short term basis. Many parades around the world function much the same way, except many of those have religious overtones attached which are for the most part absent from American holiday parades.

The caption above is from Volterra, a festival parade in Italy associated with a cross bow championship. Brazil also has a famous parade, Carnival. Parades from around the world often function with the participation of volunteers in some way or fashion. Most parades would not be what they are if volunteers did not participate.

Many of these parades in America rely on already established volunteer groups to step in and help with the events.

Knights of Pyhthias

FOE

In the above caption, the Order of the Eastern Star, a group associated with Freemasonry which has both men and women members, the very Christian theme is emphasized.

Church groups, youth groups, and in some cases the fraternal, civic, and veterans groups also volunteer their services. It is natural that a call goes out for temporary volunteers to help with a quick infusion of labor though, and these temporary members are the subject of our question in this post. Do they, even on a temporary basis gain the health benefits associated with those already documented for the main stream groups who focus mainly on supporting charities?

My gut feeling is that it is likely. But until the subject is studied properly, we can only speculate.

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I would ask you to consider the following quotes about human interactions and networking, called civic engagement and social capital by educators. We will then evaluate these concepts and how they apply to volunteering and the health of those who participate.

Joining and participating in one group cuts your odds of dying over the next year in half. Joining two groups cuts it by three quarters.

We’re not experiencing a Springtime of volunteering, but an Indian Summer, propped up by our nation’s seniors — who have been more civic throughout their lives.

Each 10 minutes of additional commuting time cuts all forms of social capital by 10 percent–10 percent less church-going, 10 percent fewer club meetings, 10 percent fewer evenings with friends, etc.

Civic engagement and volunteering is the new hybrid health club for the 21st century that’s free to join and miraculously improves both your health and the community’s through the work performed and the social ties built.

These factoids are quoted from The Saguaro Seminar, Civic Engagement in America, Harvard/Kennedy School.

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/saguaro/socialcapitalprimer.htm

Social Capital is what is gained when people exercise their human network or as we used to call it, use “hook ups” to get either others to help with a project or locate something of value needed for an objective. Many military individuals were sent out to locate a “hook up” to get a much needed part, promising to return the favor in the future if he could, thus allowing a machine repair when the needed part was located through the network when the proper military channels were either inadequate or money was not available. Social capital is not confined to reciprocation of mutual aid or favors, but this is certainly one area where it thrives.

For historical perspective, this situation mentioned above happened way too often when we were building a 600 ship Navy during the cold war. Mechanics and electricians were frequently forced into “out of the box” part recovery efforts when money and parts were unavailable, yet the command structure wanted to get underway, no matter what. Without hook ups, many Navy ships would not have set sail on time in the 1980′s. Barter was common, with the most valuable trade good being a 5 pound can of coffee for many parts or services which were otherwise unsupported by the regular supply system.

Elaborate  systems and networks were formed which often spanned entire careers as enlisted sailors were promoted and transferred. The term social capital was not universal back then, but it was in use all the same. Connections with people who could provide services or parts were a necessary part of being a senior enlisted worker on both surface ships and submarines in my experience. Social connections could produce effects which the regular system could not or would not.

The person who could get the hook up through his network would now be considered to have high social capital and a raised status among his peers and his superiors. Their status raised as they were able to help their group function in an often defective world where money was not available and hook ups were the only commodity in use.

To be clear, social capital has been around for eons but the term social capital as it apples to civic engagement studies is relatively new. It took more than just showing up with coffee to get things in many cases, you had to know someone. You needed a network. Social capital is easier to evaluate in the civilian community today but it has had many uses in all of aspects of society, where ever their was a need.

Social Capital as it applied to civic engagement and volunteer groups was a central premise of the book, “Bowling Alone”, by Robert D. Putnam, a Harvard Professor. He showed through data analysis that many volunteer groups which had thrived after the WWII years were in sharp decline in members, which resulted in declines for the help and aid given to the charities that relied on the volunteer groups for so much support. Groups like the Freemasons, Elks, Moose, Lions, and many others were part of his over all studies in declining memberships.

The secondary value of this concept of networking and social capital with regard to volunteering on an individual basis is not only the ability to get things done but also the health benefits to those involved. The bottom line is that many studies have verified that their is strong evidence for the positive health benefits for those individuals who exercise passion in their networks and their volunteering. Even expanding your social network has beneficial health benefits some studies have shown.

Another positive aspect of social capital is the ability of social scientists to measure it. The Saguaro Seminar has bench marked survey results from 2000 and again from 2006 on the same communities, with demonstrated changes and trends shown in the final evaluation. This kind of data analysis demonstrates the impact that social capital and civic engagement can have on individuals and communities.

Volunteering produces many health benefits for the individual but also produces, when practiced by a passionate volunteer a much larger effect than most people would believe. This win-win benefit between the individual and the group seeing the volunteering can’t be ignored.

This is the ideal of the empowered volunteer. When an empowered volunteer embraces the passion for the group and shares the news with the world, many from that previously uninformed world will want to participate. Thus all involved benefit and everybody wins.

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Freemasons, who started out building Christian churches

The purpose of this site is to arm individuals with the knowledge and strategy for success in volunteering and rebuilding various groups who support charities, thus in the process as more  and more people do this we will collectively rebuild America! Just as the Freemasons are the inheritors of a past in building the great Christian churches we now take for granted, so too are America’s great volunteer groups showing signs of being taken for granted. The Empowered Volunteers can be the builders for these great American assets before we lose something too big for words when you consider all the contributions they have made over our history.

Lofty purpose, tons of work by a huge number of people needed to pull it off. Every person counts, even if you don’t want to become an empowered volunteer. Join for selfish reasons and then as time goes on you’re likely to become much more open to the real values of the group and the charity you are supporting. When you combine passion with networking with face to face interactions with other humans you can’t help but see health improvements, according to many studies over many years.

Harvard professor Robert D. Putnam, in his book “Bowling Alone” published in 2000 showed on page 303 a Social Capital Index which provided data reflecting that kids watch less TV in high social capital states. As adults and parents, all of us should want to set a better example for our kids. Data analysis like this shows convincingly that there is a link between the way children are raised in different parts of the country and how they act as adults.

This book by Putnam is one of the big factors that encouraged me to start figuring out the empowered volunteer criteria and methodology. If we lose these groups which Putnam says are part of what made America great over our history, we really lose something of our American soul. We don’t have to let these groups die off.

Putnam provided concrete data to show the need for what I had been using as a life strategy most of my life. America’s many civic and fraternal groups are dying in what he claimed left American’s bowling alone, thus the name for his book.

Group with the Optimist Creed

To illustrate the huge issue, I will use numbers from one civic group, but rest assured that the book I wrote in 2006 had population data from many groups which also have seen a decline in memberships just like this one.

Optimists International in 2006 had 123,865 members according to the website at the time. Today the site shows 87,000 members in 2013. That is a huge drop off in members over 7 years, but the cause and need for help has not declined I assure you. Another data point is that in 2006 the number of Optimist Clubs was 3,918, today their site shows 2,900 clubs. This is nearly a drop of a thousand clubs! This group has the famous Optimist Creed, which is well worth a visit to their web site to copy and print out. I recite this creed out loud on a frequent basis as a motivational tool.

Another well known group, Moose International, a fraternal and service group had in 2006 1.5 million members, today their site reflects 800,000 members. In 2006 they had 2,000 lodges and today their site reflects 1,800 lodges. They are still doing a mountain of good work, but with the steady decline of members the amount of help they can provide is a bit harder than when they had 700,000 more people!

These two examples of groups with a history in the last 7 years of declining memberships is the normal rather than the exception when it comes to membership decline. Very few groups have shown an increase. Most show a sharp decline as outlined in Putnam’s book.

As I post more and more about groups and their needs I will reflect each groups past numbers and needs when known as well as current numbers when they are available. I will post about how to become engaged and involved, all while helping your own future and your individual health in the process! So you can be civic and yet benefit in several ways too.

New motivated volunteers are needed desperately in all areas of the volunteer network. That is what prompted me to write my book in 2006, with the help of a hugely successful and very professional writing coach near Philadelphia, PA. Unfortunately, my old coach has now published many of his own books while I could not get any publisher interested in my idea to rebuild America. Thus I am taking my cause to the people and I will cut out the middle man, or publisher if you will who did not see the potential of rebuilding America. It was not the fault of the writing coach or the publishers that my book did not see the light of day, it was my fault for not finding a way. Now I have found that way, this site. I may or may not compile new data on population declines and new information for a follow up book with current information, that is yet to be decided.

To construct my book back in 2006 I simply took some of my business graduate studies from Troy State University, combined that with my experience in several volunteer groups along with my training in Lean Manufacturing techniques, particularly the empowered worker concepts so that the result was the “Empowered Volunteer Rebuilds America, One Fraternal, Civic, and Veterans Group at a Time”. I will in future posts detail exactly how, step by step, a motivated individual should start to take back America, one fraternal, civic, and veterans group at at time. I hope to self-publish this book in both print as well as e-book format in the future.

To illustrate the incredible power of the data collected in Putnam’s book, particularly a concept called the Social Capital Index, I will quote a bit from “Bowling Alone”.

“States that score high on the Social Capital Index – that is, states whose residents trust other people, join organizations, volunteer, vote, and socialize with friends – are the same states where children flourish: where babies are born healthy and where teenagers tend not to become parents, drop out of school, get involved in violent crime, or die prematurely due to suicide or homicide. 

Statistically, the correlation between high social capital and positive child development is as close to perfect as social scientists ever find in data analysis of this sort. States like North Dakota, Vermont, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa have healthy civic adults and healthy well adjusted kids; other states, primarily those in the South, face immense challenges in both the adult and youth populations.”

Social capital by itself is not a cause for healthy kids or any other issue. It is a very big contributor but by itself it is only one factor. When combined with other factors the data suggests that when you do things to increase your social capital, you will incur increased health benefits.

How much for each individual and how soon all are individual characteristics that are very hard to determine without mounds of data from before you started and then followup data after you are fully engaged in the program. For our purposes we will rely on the various studies that show the benefits to those who have done similar programs. Basically, if it works for others over the years, we will strive to get the same results all while helping people in need and collectively helping our country.

By the way, there is no reason this pattern I will submit for the American citizens could not be used all over the world. The World Bank has encouraged many countries to engage in increasing the social capital of the citizens in the area involved. The concept is powerful and it has had success in many areas beyond helping American volunteer groups. In time if there is a demand I will study other countries and their issues and tailor this program for their needs. This program certainly can help others, but the massive data analysis from “Bowling Alone” helped justify the various techniques I have tailored for my Rebuilding of America program. Other countries might have different needs due to different conditions and populations.

To summarize, Empowered Volunteers are individuals who have a purpose, to increase the membership of their worthy cause or charity. In the process of helping their cause, they will contribute to the overall rebuilding of American volunteer groups, including civic groups, fraternal groups, and veteran groups. There are also many other worthy groups for empowered volunteers to help, youth groups, trade groups, garden clubs, church groups, and many others. No mater what worthy group you choose, you can be sure that when you hook up someone with a group that they feel passionate about you will be one step closer to rebuilding America’s volunteer infrastructure. You will be the next Empowered Volunteer who helps rebuild America, one volunteer at at time.

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Even knights need face to face time!

In this post we will examine why face to face time is beneficial and superior to interactions that are conducted through other mediums, like chat rooms or other social media.

Barbara L. Fredrickson, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill has written a new book about love. In it she goes through the data of love and its components. As a researcher she has followed that book with other publications in scholarly journals. The theme of her work is that positivity is good for individuals in multiple ways. She also looks at love from a science point of view and how to enrich the experience.

Humans view love in different ways, but one thing that seems to be true, love leads to social connections. Love also has a physical impact on our bodies. Some love is just connecting with others rather than romantic.

The kind of interaction the internet provides is very different from the face to face type of those who join fraternal or civic groups for instance. Physical interactions such as those found in volunteer groups, “ affects the cardiovascular system called the vagal tone”, she says in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science while writing in a recent Tampa Bay Perspective on March 31, 2013.

The brain is connected to the heart by the vagus nerve. This direct connection supports the old saying of a negative life experience in the area of love breaking the heart. The two are really physically tied together!

Fredrickson studied the health benefits and concluded, “In short, the more attuned to others you become, the healthier you become, and vice versa”. Furthermore, she writes, “This mutual influence also explains how a lack of positive social contact diminishes people”. If you can align yourself in a positive and passionate cause, you can’t seem to do anything but help your health and the cause in most cases, it would seem.

She goes on to explain that the ability to connect with people is a use it or lose it talent and can be strengthened or lost depending on how it is exercised. As any volunteer will tell you, interacting with others is one of the more frequent things that most do. To interact well and stay on course for helping the cause takes a lot of effort and attention. This is more often than not done face to face, with other passionate volunteers who also want to help.

The benefits of face to face time that volunteers get can be very helpful to the health of all participants. Positive interactions with positive people are the most beneficial it seems, which makes sense. However, connecting with other people is part of the human experience and that is what charity groups and the volunteer groups that support them offer in the volunteer experience.

Volunteers by definition are not paid so they must see other less obvious benefits if they are to justify their time and effort. With science hot on the trail of other health benefits seen in positive relationships, everyone should be considering somehow positioning themselves for more happiness as well as physical and mental health improvements.

Find a cause or charity that you can be passionate about and join. Make it a highly positive experience and the health benefits should show up, according to the research. However you might be too happy and busy to notice.

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