Project Grant 17REHGA001

PUBLIC POLICY INCREASINGLY DEPENDS UPON VOLUNTARY ACTION TO ADDRESS LOCAL ISSUES, YET LOCAL CAPACITY FOR VOLUNTARY ACTION DIFFERS SIGNIFICANTLY ACROSS PLACE. AT THE SAME TIME, ONGOING SHIFTS IN THE SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNITIES AND THE DRIVERS OF VOLUNTEERISM MAY BE CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE OF VOLUNTEERING, PARTICULARLY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES WHERE THESE SHIFTS ARE CREATING GREATER BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION. HOWEVER, MANY CONTEMPORARY STUDIES OF PLACE-BASED DETERMINANTS OF VOLUNTEERISM ARE BASED UPON DATA FROM METROPOLITAN RESPONDENTS, LEAVING SIGNIFICANT GAPS IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF VOLUNTEERING IN RURAL PLACES. SO THE QUESTION REMAINS: HOW DO COMMUNITY CONTEXTUAL FACTORS (E.G. DIVERSITY AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS) INFLUENCE VOLUNTEERING BEHAVIORS ACROSS RURAL AND URBAN COMMUNITIES? THIS PROJECT EXPLORES THE PLACE-BASED DETERMINANTS OF DIFFERENCES IN VOLUNTEERING BEHAVIOR BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN RESPONDENTS BY ACCESSING THE CONFIDENTIAL CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY (CPS) VOLUNTEERING DATA, SUPPLEMENTED BY EXISTING ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS AND COUNTY-LEVEL CENSUS AND DEMOGRAPHIC DATA. WE WILL ANALYZE THIS UNIQUE DATASET IN A SECURE CENSUS BUREAU RESEARCH DATA CENTER (RDC) USING A MULTI-LEVEL MODELING APPROACH WITH LAGGED COMMUNITY VARIABLES. ANALYZING THE FULL POPULATION OF CPS RESPONDENTS ACROSS MULTIPLE YEARS WILL ALLOW US TO UNDERSTAND HOW CHANGING COMMUNITY DYNAMICS AFFECT VOLUNTEERING AND GENERALIZE OUR RESULTS TO BOTH RURAL AND URBAN CONTEXTS. WE THUS MAKE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE SCHOLARSHIP OF VOLUNTEERISM AND THE PROFESSIONAL DISCUSSIONS ABOUT BUILDING ENGAGED COMMUNITIES BY EXPLORING THE COMMUNITY-LEVEL DRIVERS AND INHIBITORS OF VOLUNTEERING. WE WILL DISSEMINATE OUR RESULTS TO ACADEMICS, PROFESSIONALS, AND THE PUBLIC THROUGH A VARIETY OF TRADITIONAL AND WEB-BASED MEDIA. WE WILL ALSO COLLABORATE WITH OUR LAND GRANT UNIVERSITIES' EXTENSION SERVICES TO HELP THEM USE THE RESULTS OF OUR PROJECT IN THEIR WORK WITH COMMUNITIES IN OUR STATES.