by WACH FOX57, South Carolina
WASHINGTON, DC (WACH) – As the holiday season highlights acts of kindness and opportunities to give back, a new federal study shows that 1 in 4 South Carolina residents volunteered through an organization and two-thirds helped their neighbors last year. The annual Volunteering and Civic Life in America research, released on December 16 by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), shows that service to others continues to be a priority for hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians. This yearÕs report found that 776,000 South Carolina residents (24.2 percent) volunteered through an organization in 2013. Altogether, South Carolinians volunteered nearly 96.7 million hours last year. The estimated value of this volunteer service is nearly $2.2 billion, based on the Independent SectorÕs estimate of the average value of a volunteerÕs hours. In addition, 66.3 percent of South Carolina residents also engaged in informal volunteering in their communities, helping neighbors with such tasks as watching each otherÕs children, helping with shopping, or house sitting. Other civic health indicators from the report found that 92.5 percent of South Carolinians (well above the national average of 68.5 percent) have dinner with their family virtually every day, while 45 percent frequently talk with neighbors. The research shows that the overall national rate of volunteering is slightly lower than the previous year yet remains strong and stable, and that AmericansÕ commitment to volunteering spans across generations. Key national demographic highlights of the report include: – Americans ages 35-44 had the highest volunteer rate (31.3 percent) followed by those ages 45-54 (29.4 percent). One in five of those defined as ÒMillennials,Ó those of ages 16-31, (21.7 percent) volunteered. – The age groups with the highest median hours among volunteers are ages 65-74 (92 hours) and those 75 and older (90 hours). – The volunteer rate of parents with children under age 18 (32.9 percent) remained higher than the population as a whole (25.4 percent) and for persons without children under 18 (22.7 percent). – The volunteer rate among young adults (ages 18-24) attending college was 26.7 percent, nearly double the volunteer rate of young adults not attending college (13.5 percent). ~1@BODYURL[id=114jbcurl1229]@