6–10 Jun 2022
Tübingen
Europe/Berlin timezone

Reciprocation and Responsibility – “Giving Back” to Children and Youth in Community Organizations

Speakers

Christine Dallaire Steph MacKay

Description

The Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa (BGCO) and la Société des Jeux de l’Acadie (SJA) are two Canadian organizations working to help children and youth become active participants in society. The BGCO provides programming for children and youth in need while the SJA organizes the Jeux de l’Acadie to strengthen the Acadian Francophone minority throughout the Canadian Atlantic Provinces. While they have distinctive missions, participant profiles and operate in different geographical locations, a key similarity is that BGCO and JA sports activities are run by former participants that continue their involvement as employees or volunteers to “give back” to their communities. Drawing on interviews with twenty-nine (29) young adult leaders and with seven (7) adult managers we explore these former participants’ impetuses for “giving back” using two theoretical categories, reciprocation and responsibility. Findings suggest that interview participants referenced reciprocation when describing their motivation as paying for what they received as participants and responsibility when they discussed feeling accountable towards future generations and/or for the survival of the BGCO or the SJA. The analysis was complicated when interviewees drew on both discourses to explain their experiences. Whether described as reciprocity or responsibility, interview participants’ commitment to and description of their acts of “giving back” matter because they suggest that organizations, such as the BGCO and the SJA, may be offering employees and volunteers a space in which to reflect on their actions and their place within their communities.

Primary author

Co-author

Presentation materials

There are no materials yet.