Volunteer Services Fact Sheet
Our definition of “volunteerism” and how we came to be named Volunteers of America.
When Volunteers of America was founded in 1896, volunteerism in the modern sense of the word did not exist. To “volunteer” one’s time in service to others was a full-time commitment. Our founders, Maud and Ballington Booth, and other early members of our organization came to call themselves Volunteers of America because they volunteered their whole lives to help people in need. This included not only volunteering their time, but also their hearts, their spirits and their professional prosperity.
Today, most Volunteers of America programs are staffed by full-time, paid professionals who have adopted this same ideal of service as their full-time mission. But that doesn’t mean we don’t also depend on an army of modern-day “volunteers” who offer their free time to support our programs nationwide.
Number of volunteers working with Volunteers of America programs during the 2009 fiscal year: 70,738
Hours devoted by volunteers to Volunteers of America programs and activities in 2009: 935,747
Our volunteers range in age from young children to seniors and all ages in between*:
- Youth volunteers under the age of 18: 31,500 or 44 percent
- Adults age 18 to 54: 19,500 or 27 percent
- Age 55+: 10,000 or 14 percent
* 10 percent of volunteers did not identify themselves as being part of a specific age group
Volunteers perform a wide range of work for Volunteers of America’s 38 local offices, including:
- Deliver Meals On Wheels or provide other direct client services
- Act as committee and advisory committee members or serve on local boards of directors
- Provide administrative support such as answering phones, performing clerical work, research, facility maintenance, food or clothing collection, etc.
- Recruit and manage other volunteers
- Provide professional services ( legal, public relations, training, motivational speaking)
About the Action Team youth volunteerism program:
- In 2002, Volunteers of America partnered with the Major League Baseball Players Trust to create Action Team with a goal to promote the nurturing and well-being of America’s children and their families. The partnership features the personal involvement of Major League baseball players and high school student volunteers with a variety of programs conducted by Volunteers of America throughout the United States.
- To date, Action Teams of high school students and Major Leaguers across the country have inspired more than 19,000 high school students to help more than 90,000 people in need by volunteering in their communities.
- Action Teams are administered by Volunteers of America local offices in 20 cities and 110 schools across the United States: Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Mobile, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland (ME), San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa and Washington D.C.
- As of April 2010, an additional 40+ schools have joined a new online version of the Action Team program, in locations spanning from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Maui, Hawaii.