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PROFILE OF CHILDRENS NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS LEADERS: CASE OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH ASSOCIATIONS IN RUSSIA

M. Pevnaya

Abstract

In recent times volunteering became more diverse. Its various types and manifestations can increasingly be reflected in different spheres of modern society’s life. The importance of the study of child volunteering is determined by the social meaning of this activity and its educational potential. The study of children and adolescent volunteering is also useful in the context of understanding volunteerism as a broad social phenomenon. The purpose of the article is to examine the child-teen volunteering as local practices to describe the leaders of children's non-profit organizations that work actively with young volunteers. Children's volunteerism has a more complex structure, internal frameworks, psychological, demographic and pedagogical age boundaries. The report is based on 12 informative semi-formalized in-depth interviews with heads of children's and youth volunteering associations, directors of children's institutions, social educators who have accumulated a rich experience in organizing volunteer projects for children and adolescents. The study is implemented in qualitative strategy using focused axial coding. Analysis of sociological studies of this problem allowed us to assume that the success of children's volunteer projects depends on the characteristics of the mentor who organizes them. In the conditions of the education system’s long-term transformation, constant changes in the structure of social institutions, on the basis of which, as a rule, children's and youth organizations work, organizers of child volunteering are constantly experiencing organizational difficulties (lack of resources, changes in the interests of the institutions’ management etc.). In these conditions, mentors and leaders are distinguished by certain personal characteristics such as love for children, love for the Motherland (patriotism) and altruism. Their activities have a certain background, activism was transferred to such leaders by their parents, and was raised in their childhood due to active inclusion in public life. Leaders are ready to comprehend something new and to enjoy it. Leaders-mentors are looking for opportunities of self-development, gaining new knowledge, experience and skills. Leaders-organizers have their own characteristics in terms of interaction with children in a particular project. They implement a role behavior of the family type. Ability to implement the project in equal status positions with children is an important professional competence of such people. For this, in a specific project, children are delegated a certain level of responsibility and independence in their decisions and actions, but on the condition of professional mentoring and control without the use of power.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2017/33/S12.071

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