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Publication Date

11-2024

Definitions of involvement in the volunteer literature vary from the simple binary metric (volunteering or not) to frequency (how often) to metrics that use additive or statistical indices to capture concepts like duration, commitment, and satisfaction. In this paper, we examine the connections between several dimensions of volunteer involvement and the characteristics and motivations of volunteers. Who participates in volunteer urban forest stewardship? What motivates individuals to sign-up and then to continue volunteering? Does volunteers’ involvement vary with demographic factors or their motivations? We examine these questions using the results of an online survey of TreeKeepers, volunteer participants in an urban forestry training and stewardship program run by the Chicago-based nonprofit Openlands. The typical survey respondent was white, female, over 61 years old, working full time or retired, college-educated, with no kids at home, and grew up in neighborhoods with trees either in the suburbs or a city. Respondents reported a high sense of personal efficacy and volunteered with other groups outside of TreeKeepers, both environmental and non-environmental. Yet involvement in TreeKeepers may mean different things to different volunteers. We defined six dimensions of involvement: self-declared involvement, frequency (# events per year), recency of participation, breadth (# of types of activities), leadership of TreeKeeper events, and specific involvement in activities (planting, pruning, mulching, advocating, etc.). We found the frequency or recency of attendance at TreeKeeper-branded events incompletely captured involvement. Our results can be succinctly summarized as: Sign-up for the trees; continue for the community; intensify involvement because of the program structure. This study furthers the scholarship on urban greening volunteering and provides practical insights for those interested in engaging volunteers in urban forest stewardship.

DOI

10.15365/cate.2024.170202

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