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Volunteering: A Community Response to the R ena Oil Spill in N ew Z ealand
Author(s) -
Sargisson Rebecca J.,
Hunt Sonya,
Hanlen Patricia,
Smith Kelly,
Hamerton Heather
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5973.12001
Subject(s) - volunteer , oil spill , workforce , psychology , engineering , political science , environmental engineering , ecology , law , biology
We explore the experiences of people who volunteer to help remediate the effects of non‐natural environmental disasters. Following the grounding of the R ena, volunteers were engaged to clean up the resulting oil spill on the beaches of T auranga, N ew Z ealand. Volunteers were later invited to respond to an online questionnaire about their experiences. More women than men responded, and respondents tended to be older, and engaged in the paid workforce or retired. Greater membership in community organizations was associated with a greater participation in clean‐up events. Respondents were positive about the experience, and were more positive when they had actually participated in a clean‐up event, with positivity remaining high even after multiple volunteer occasions. Recommendations are made for increasing volunteer participation.