Volunteers America\'s Involvement Responsibilityto Community. Summarize Factors

¶ … Volunteers America's involvement responsibilityto community. Summarize factors influenced social responsibility

The social responsibility strategies of the Volunteers of America were shaped by a number of interrelated factors. The most eminent of these pertained to Christianity. The organization was conceived as a means of propagating Christianity's notions of goodwill towards all when it was initiated in 1897 by Maud and Ballington Booth. Christianity is a religion that focuses on social responsibility and is extremely community oriented. It was this aspect of this religion that led the founders of this organization to attempt to have a volunteer-based organization to carry out the goals of the religion, which became largely synonymous with the goals of the organization.

Specifically, factors relating to the strategies for social responsibility for Volunteers of America, have to do with social reform as conceived by Methodists during the 18th century. Social reform movements that were religiously inspired in the 19th century, such as social gospel, played an important role in the methodology and conception of reform and goodwill that the Volunteers of America strives for. The following quotation proves both of the aforementioned points. "Many of Volunteer of America's religious beliefs and practices can be traced in a direct line back to the Methodist reforms and revivalism of the 18th century, and the social gospel movement of the 19th and the early 20th centuries" (No author, 2013).

Additionally, this organization has functioned as a means for Christians and those moved by the Christian spirit or who adhere to its core ethical principles and values to actuate those beliefs. This fact is indicated by the reality that despite the aforementioned different denominations of Christianity, Volunteers of America actively embraces and recruits from all aspects of this particular religion and does not necessarily favor one over another.

Volunteers of America definitely has a social initiative which, in its idealized form, is extremely powerful. This social initiative is believed to be a direct charge from God to better the lives of people within America who are disadvantaged. There are a number of different people who fall into the category of disadvantaged and which have been targeted by this organization throughout its history. The includes the indigent, those in need of proper housing, military and veterans, at-risk youth (McGee, 2012) and those who are in need of health care.

Additionally, the social initiative for this organization is intrinsically linked with the religious affiliation and conception that the group's founders and many of its core members have in God. Its mission statement alludes to this fact and posits the view that "Volunteers of America is a movement organized to reach and uplift all people and bring them to the knowledge and active services of God" (No author, 2013).