Baltimore's tradition of voluntarism reflects national trends -- and defies tough demographics

The Baltimore Sun

The percentage of Baltimore-area residents who volunteered their time dropped slightly last year, mirroring a national trend as educated baby boomers grow impatient with unskilled volunteer tasks, according to a federal report being released today.

Across the Baltimore metropolitan area, 27.1 percent of the population volunteered at least once in 2006, according to the report by the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent federal agency. That's a 2.2 percentage point drop from 2005.

Of 50 major metropolitan areas, Baltimore had the 26th-highest volunteer rate, based on an average from 2004 to 2006, the report concluded. But Baltimoreans averaged a higher level of time commitment - the average volunteer worked 41.3 hours a year, putting the area at 16th in the nation.

Those rates appear to defy the city's general characteristics, said David Eisner, chief executive officer of the federal agency. Baltimore has comparatively low education levels and high commuting times, both of which usually deter volunteers, Eisner said.

"Being at the national average is something that Baltimore should feel good about," he said. "Baltimore has a pretty strong sense of civic engagement and a pretty strong sense of community. That continues to be an important presence despite those challenging demographics."

Baltimore's setup as a collection of smaller neighborhoods helps foster that sense of community pride, said Earl Millett, volunteer coordinator for Civic Works, a city branch of AmeriCorps.

"Everyone says that Baltimore is the biggest small town or smallest big city in the country," Millett said.

Yet the area's voluntarism rate is declining, mirroring that of the United States as a whole, which saw a 2.1 percentage point drop in voluntarism, the report shows.

The agency officials attribute the downward trend to 2005 volunteers who did not return in 2006. In Baltimore, 63 percent of 2006 volunteers were repeat participants; nationwide, the retention rate was about two-thirds.

"The increase in the loss of volunteers almost completely accounted for that drop," said Robert Grimm, director of research and policy development for the Corporation for National and Community Service and an author of the report.

Many of the volunteer dropouts are baby boomers and middle-aged professionals who grow bored of simple tasks like food preparation, Grimm said. Most of those who keep volunteering are involved in more challenging activities like professional advising, marketing or teaching, he said.

City resident George Allgood, 43, exemplified that trend Friday as he helped job searchers of all ages use computers and fill out online job applications at the Our Daily Bread Employment Center.

Down the hall, about 40 volunteers were serving free lunches to the needy, but Allgood, a former job search assistant on the West Coast, preferred his method of helping.

"This is my skill," he said.

Older professionals often start volunteering through company programs, Millett said. Accustomed to a fast-paced business environment, many get frustrated if their tasks do not produce quick results, he said.

"If you're trying to move a pile of dirt and you can't see where that's going to go to, it just feels like labor," he said.

Although Baltimore-area residents between the ages of 45 to 54 volunteer at the highest rates, volunteers ages 75 and older work the most - an average of 152 hours a year between 2004 and 2006, the report shows. Volunteers ages 65 to 74 come in second at 90 hours a year.

That reflects the scene at Our Daily Bread, said Dennis Murphy, the program manager for volunteer outreach.

"Our regular volunteers tend to be old because a lot of them are retired," he said.

Evelyn Kamanitz, 67, a Baltimore retiree, joined the Friday lunch crew at Our Daily Bread 11 years ago after a friend did.

"I said I would love to do that, but I can't stand to see hungry children," she said. "And I went home and told someone that, and they said that was no excuse."

Now Kamanitz is happy to serve food to the family section - made up of people with hungry children.

"I never had any ideas that I could change the world, but if I could speak to one person, that would be OK," she said.

While the regulars are older, Our Daily Bread gets a regular infusion of student volunteers, Murphy said, in part by those required to complete community service hours for graduation.

Service learning requirements ensure that today's young volunteers will continue to serve, said Linda Federico Kohler, executive director of Students Sharing Coalition, a city nonprofit that coordinates youth volunteers.

"Once they get engaged in something, they feel good about it," she said. "It's addictive, and they come back."

Voluntarism jumped nationwide after the Sept. 11 attacks, Eisner said, because of an increase in patriotism as well as other factors - an increase in education and research that connects voluntarism to falling crime, dropout and teen pregnancy rates.

"There's a lot of different factors that are combining to create a perfect volunteer storm," he said.

The Corporation of National and Community Service started working with the U.S. Census Bureau in 2002 to collect data on volunteers on a national level. The census surveys more than 100,000 people every year about their volunteering habits, and the corporation analyzes the data, Grimm said.

This is the first year in which data have been broken down by city, Eisner said. The data include trends in volunteer activities and dollar estimates of what those activities are worth, helping communities understand how valuable their volunteer corps is.

"After 9/11, it just became clear to us that volunteering isn't just a nice thing to do, it's necessary," Eisner said.

Although Eisner said there is always a need for more volunteers, he expressed satisfaction with current rates.

"We're at a pretty much 30-year high," he said. "We have to be proud of ourselves as a country."

alia.malik@baltsun.com

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