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Lasallian Volunteers by the Numbers: How Faith-Based Service Changes Lives
BY KENNY LATTA
In 2012, as I was finishing my two years of service as a Lasallian Volunteer (LV), the Catholic Volunteer Network (CVN) commissioned the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University to survey the alumni of CVN member programs. Researchers from CARA developed their survey, and in the summer of 2013 sent it via email to more than 18,000 men and women who had once served in a faith-based volunteer program. They received 5,051 completed responses – 138 of them from former Lasallian Volunteers. That is a quarter of all LV alums!
The staff of Lasallian Volunteers requested a summary report of the responses of only the Lasallian Volunteers alumni, which they received in 2014, the Lasallian Volunteers’ 25th anniversary year. I’ve spent some time with both reports – the one commissioned by CVN and the one requested by Lasallian Volunteers – and the data supports two conclusions: Lasallian Volunteers is an exceptional volunteer program, and it is excelling at its mission.
When the researchers at CARA released a report of their findings at the end of 2013, the Lasallian Volunteers staff was amazed at the breadth and depth of the information it contained. What kind of person joins a faith-based volunteer program, and why? What did they think of their term of service? How did it impact them? What are they doing now? How did their service influence their worldview? Their choice of career? Their faith life? The report hinted at the answers to these important questions and much more.
The CARA study data allows us to compare the responses of Lasallian Volunteers alumni with the responses of former volunteers from throughout CVN, letting us see where the Lasallian Volunteers stand out. It also, where appropriate, allows us to compare the responses of the former Lasallian Volunteers with statistics about the general population in the United States.
For example, we have a lot to celebrate in the area of diversity. The data indicates that Lasallian Volunteers have been more diverse by gender and racial identification than CVN member programs taken as a whole. We seem to attract more men than other programs – 39 percent of the former Lasallian Volunteers who responded to the survey were male, compared to only 28 percent of the general CVN survey responses. At a time when schools across the country are starving for more male teachers, mentors and role models, it is significant that Lasallian Volunteers – a program which, like the De La Salle Christian Brothers, focuses on education – has been able to attract such a high percentage of male volunteers and place them in schools as teachers, coaches, mentors and counselors.
Likewise, Lasallian Volunteers also seems to attract more people of color than faith-based volunteer programs as a whole. Only seven percent of the respondents who completed the larger survey reported a primary racial identification other than white. However, 18 percent of Lasallian Volunteers alumni who completed the survey reported a racial identification other than white. Though still not representative of the U.S. population – where the latest data shows that 28 percent report a primary racial identification other than white – the Lasallian Volunteers seem to be more representative than many other faith-based programs, which is something to be proud of and something we should continue to build upon.
For other demographic traits, Lasallian Volunteers alumni are not much different than the general population of CVN respondents. In general, Catholic volunteers are young and highly educated. Of the former Lasallian Volunteers who completed the survey, 57 percent are millennials, 100 percent have at least a bachelor’s degree, and 52 percent have attained a master’s degree or higher.
Unsurprisingly, CVN members as a whole are also overwhelmingly Catholic. Approximately 85 percent of the Lasallian Volunteers alumni who completed the survey were raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools. Seventy-seven percent reported that they are still Catholic today, and 48 percent reported that they attend religious services at least weekly. This last statistic is more impressive when we note that only 27 percent of the general population in the United States attends weekly religious services.
Additionally, former CVN members are much more likely to have considered a vocation to religious life than other Catholic adults in the United States. Of Lasallian Volunteers alumni who completed the survey, 39 percent reported that they had considered or were currently considering a vocation to ordained ministry or religious life. It is possible, in the future, as now, faithbased volunteer programs like Lasallian Volunteers will become increasingly important vehicles for introducing young men and women to religious life and the possibilities of a religious vocation.
The data also indicates – and this, too, is not surprising – that Catholic volunteer programs like Lasallian Volunteers have a significant impact on the lives of the men and women who join them. For example, 70 percent of the former Lasallian Volunteers and 63 percent of the former Catholic volunteers overall reported that their volunteer service was important for their future career choices. Likewise, the overwhelming majority of former CVN volunteers continue to volunteer their time and donate money to charitable organizations, and almost 90 percent of them attribute their ongoing volunteerism and philanthropy to their experiences in a faith-based volunteer program.
Perhaps most importantly, of the 138 former Lasallian Volunteers who completed the survey, 99 percent reported they enjoyed their experience in the program, 99 percent reported the program helped them become the people they are today, and 98 percent reported they believed their experience with Lasallian Volunteers helped them to become better people.
As I reflect on my own time as a Lasallian Volunteer and the choices I have made in the years since, I realize that this last set of statistics captures my experiences well. The two years I spent as a Lasallian Volunteer were some of the most formative years of my life. They gave me a deeper understanding of the issues facing those living in poverty, a deeper understanding of the value of community life, and led me directly to my current career in community organizing and development. Further, my time as a Lasallian Volunteer deepened my commitment to service and my belief that serving others is the best way to live a happy, fulfilling and faithful life.
The CARA report and the follow-up report prepared for Lasallian Volunteers contain a wealth of other statistics – far too many to include here – that paint a picture of former volunteers as successful, passionate, civically engaged, compassionate and faithful individuals.
In many cases, the data indicates that Lasallian Volunteers is exceptional – among the best of the CVN programs to participate in the CARA survey – which leaves me feeling even prouder to have been a Lasallian Volunteer and very confident that Lasallian Volunteers is truly changing the world for the better, one volunteer at a time.
Kenny Latta served as a Lasallian Volunteer from 2010-2012 at La Salle Academy in New York City. He is also a graduate of Christian Brothers High School and Christian Brothers University, both in Memphis, Tennessee.
