Le chercheur et son assistance ont réalisé en 2006-2007 une recherche exploratoire sur le bénévolat en centre communautaire de loisir pour en comprendre les fondements et expliquer comment était promu, vécu et perçu le bénévolat axé sur la citoyenneté. Les chercheurs feront état de leur recherche.

Accès au document: A24_Paré.pdf

Moving from volunteer management to community engagement: Lessons from Dufferin Grove Park
Erin Sharpe & Martha Barnes, Brock University (St. Catharines, Canada)

The downward trend in volunteerism has increased interest in understanding factors related to increasing engagement and attracting and sustaining volunteers (Imagine Canada, 2006; McClintock, 2004). This study engages with these topics by investigating a site in which community engagement was high, productive, and sustained. Dufferin Grove Park (DGP) is a fourteen-acre park located in an economically diverse neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada. The park has a large group of ‘park friends’ who are highly engaged in programming and management, the results of which have been immense. Using a qualitative case study approach, the purpose of this study was to trace the key factors that have contributed to such sustained, active, and productive community involvement. Three factors emerged from the data. (1) A network approach. Although park friends were highly active, they had not established a conventional organization and were strongly opposed to such formalization. Instead, they were organized as a network with involvement growing around park initiatives. An extensive website, monthly newsletters, in-park encounters, and email lists sustained and extended this network. Advantages of this approach included high productivity, inclusivity, and easy recruitment. (2) A vocation approach. Park friends developed initiatives that were meaningful, self-directed, skill-based, and educational. Some friends also found ways to earn income for this work, from external grants, passing the hat, or small contracts. This approach created greater compatibility with life needs, and addressed some of the main constraints to volunteering. (3) Political engagement. Park friends increasingly moved into the political sphere, taking on a ‘watchdog’ role over the city and engaging allies to achieve their outcomes. Park friends had a strong and sustained sense of ownership over the park, and the power relationship between park friends and the city had been balanced if not inverted. The case of Dufferin Grove Park offers practical insights to municipal recreation agencies that are looking to build its citizen or volunteer base. Further, the case encourages us to examine the power relations in municipal recreation and the noblesse oblige exclusion that continue to influence contemporary volunteerism.