The simplest explanation is that volunteers sign up for reasons other than the urgency of social problems. And these reasons tend to limit volunteering to a tight circle of familiar friends, places, and institutions. While the Good Samaritan only had to cross the street, many volunteers must cross to the other side of the tracks. Volunteers sometimes fear that if they visit neighborhoods with high crime rates they may suffer violence, or at least antagonism. Robert Todd, a white businessman who tutors at a largely Hispanic school in Dallas, tells of arriving on the day that a major fire consumed a car dealership down the street.
Economic realities shape the choices volunteers can make.
Now, with both parents working, whatever spare time is left over must go to the kids. City Cares now has chapters in a number of cities, including Atlanta, Washington, and Philadelphia, and puts 75,000 volunteers to work. Behrens estimates that about half those people do just a single day of work during the year. And that's a significant loss. Research has shown that mentoring and tutoring depend for their success on the duration and consistency of personal involvement.