Volunteer Involvement in Local Government after September 11: The Continuing Question of Capacity |
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| Authors: | Beth Gazley Jeffrey L Brudney |
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| Institution: | Beth Gazley;is an assistant professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Bloomington, where she teaches public and nonprofit management. She received her PhD in public administration in 2004 from the University of Georgia. She has conducted research on public volunteerism policy, government-nonprofit relations, and private philanthropic strategy, and has published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, E-Volunteerism, and the Book of the States 2003. E-mail: . Jeffrey L. Brudney;is a professor of public administration and codirector of the Institute for Nonprofit Organizations at the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs. He has written extensively on volunteerism, service delivery, research methodology, and public management. He has received several national and international awards for his research and serves on the editorial board of journals in public administration and the voluntary sector. E-mail: . |
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| Abstract: | The 1990s witnessed extensive promotion of volunteerism and the creation of a federal and state infrastructure to support government voluntary activities. What has been the impact on local governments? This article reports on a 2003 survey of volunteer involvement in Georgia local government, which followed a similar 1990 study and provides a rare opportunity to examine long‐term trends in public volunteerism. Volunteerism in Georgia cities and counties has increased during the past decade, with 81 percent of all jurisdictions now reporting some volunteer engagement. The events of September 11, 2001, have had a small but generally positive effect on volunteer utilization. However, political and labor resistance to government volunteers has not been resolved. And the increase in public managers' concerns that they lack the funding or staff to utilize volunteers suggests that governmental capacity remains the principal obstacle to greater volunteer involvement in local governments. |
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