Date

5-2022

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)

Chair

Thomas Hudgins

Keywords

veterans, volunteering, recruitment, reintegration, supper volunteer, volunteer satisfaction

Disciplines

Counseling

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study is to understand and describe veterans’ perspectives of volunteering, including their values and motivation. Veterans are internally motivated and committed to helping others. Approximately 92% of veterans regard community service to be extremely important. Some researchers link military service with future volunteering in the community. Veterans possess essential skills and resources that are needed in the community. Current research affirms that social ties, religious involvement, and recruitment contacts promote volunteering. Scholars believe volunteering serves one of three purposes: sociability, self-interest, and/or altruism. It is an individual and collective empowerment with the public good, community spirit and inclusiveness, and a sense of well-being. The promotion of and reliance on volunteering validates an important and urgent need. More research is required on constituting and regulating volunteerism. The theories guiding this study are both Self-Determination Theory and Volunteer Functions Approach. The Self-Determination Theory aligns motivation on a continuum, and the Volunteer Functions Approach addresses volunteers’ motivations with respect to their reasons, purposes, plans, and goals. Both the proposed data collection and data analysis strategies are interviews and observations.

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