Browsing by Author "Virta, Marianne"

The aim of this study was to find out how volunteers working in reception centres around the capital area see the volunteer work in these centres. Volunteers have been studied mostly for their motivation to participate in volunteer work, and the experiential dimension as well as the reception centres seems invisible. In this study I used both phenomenology and phenomenographic approach to define the phenomenon studied and clarifying the actual object of this study. The used method was content analysis with some features from, phenomenographic analysis. The data was collected through partly structured theme interviews. In total six volunteers were interviewed, and they all volunteered in reception centres around the capital area. The youngest respondent was 22 and the oldest just over 60. The respondents were from different life situations, some still studying while others already graduated or retired. From the collected data four categories were formed: the motivational dimension, the functional dimension, interpersonal dimension and outsider's reactions. The most relevant motivational factor was the desire to help others and to influence and facilitate the situation. The reception centre employees and residents reacted mainly positively towards volunteers, but the interviewees felt that action should have been organized better from the start. Volunteering was seemed pleasant and volunteers were thinking about ways to continue activities after the centres are closed. From the interviews also problematic paradoxes raised between the volunteers good aiming willingness to help and attitudes interpreted as even racists.