Abstract
Volunteering at community events could be associated with length of community tenure as residents with longer years of “tenure” might have a greater sense of community belonging, greater social capital (e.g. social networks and trust), and greater familiarity with regional cultures, compared to new residents. Using the Metro Atlanta Speaks survey conducted in 2015 and 2016, this study finds that residents’ volunteering at community events is significantly and positively associated with their length of community tenure in metro Atlanta counties. Other sociodemographic characteristics, such as age, gender, education, income, and children in the household also significantly influence residents’ volunteering at community events. Since metro Atlanta counties consist of both urban and rural counties, changes in sociodemographic characteristics are expected to influence community events volunteering in metro Atlanta and other similar metro or non-metro counties in the future, and necessitate focused efforts on raising volunteering rates to compensate for those changes.
Recommended Citation
Ghimire, Ramesh, and Jim Skinner. 2019. "The Relationship between Length of Community Tenure and Residents’ Volunteering at Community Events: Results from the Metro Atlanta Speaks Survey." Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 34(2): Article 3. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss/vol34/iss2/3
Publication Date
11-11-2019
