Volunteering in Community as a Form of Implementation of an Individual's Social Interests

The article analyzes internal motivation of volunteering as a form of implementation of an individual's social interests in community through prosocial activities. In the tradition of analyzing the internal motivation for volunteering, it is possible to single out at least two heterogeneous areas of study: focus on motives of help and focus on motives for volunteering. At the same time, the problem of motives for help is examined through the opposition of altruism/ egoism, and the motives for volunteering are viewed through the opposition of help as a situational spontaneous act/ volunteering as a continuous activity. However, these two contexts of analysis are united by the problematization of selflessness as a direct motive for help; at the level of activity, selflessness becomes an essential feature of volunteering. At the same time, such problematization is not sufficient to provide a theoretical basis for analysis of social-work specialists' work in community in order to involve people in volunteering as a form of implementation of their social interests. Instead, a more complete basis for the analysis can be provided if we take into account a volunteering object, which means another activity and there is a need for help to achieve the goal of this activity. Thus, selflessness indicate the way volunteering is carried out by its provider; and the conditions of the activity which the aid is directed to indicate these conditions as volunteering topic; additionally, the activity goal correlate with motives for volunteering. In this way, the goal of SWS work, namely, to organize support for implementation of an individual's social interests in community coincides with purpose of people involved in prosocial activities, because it promotes awareness of their social interests, and therefore, interest formation, and in sum, creates conditions for subjective well-being.