by Diane Stafford, the Kansas City Journal Star
About 487,500 volunteers contributed 68.2 million hours of unpaid service to nonprofit organizations and causes in the Kansas City area last year. Those numbers, based on data indicating that 31.8 percent of the metropolitan areaÕs population did some kind of volunteer work in 2013, put Kansas City among the top 10 U.S. cities ranked by volunteer commitments. The local ranking was ninth. The report, ÒVolunteering and Civic Life in America,Ó estimated the value of those Kansas City area volunteer hours at $1.5 billion. That figure was part of a volunteer value estimated at $173 billion nationally, based on calculations by the Independent Sector. The local information was part of a national report by the Corporation for National & Community Service and the National Conference on Citizenship. The study found that the rate of volunteerism and civic engagement fell nationally in 2013. Overall, it looked at 20 indicators of Òcivic healthÓ and found declines in 16 of the measures. A similar volunteerism report, released earlier this year by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, also found a declining rate through its survey. According to that national snapshot, 62.6 million Americans did some kind of volunteer work in 2013, 2 million fewer than in 2012. Nonetheless, the share of Americans who participate in formal volunteer activities has stayed fairly steady at about one in four members of the adult population. Along most lines, the Kansas City data mirrored national trends. Food collection and distribution, fundraising and Ògeneral laborÓ were the top three forms of volunteering found in the Kansas City report. About one in four volunteers were in each of those activities ~1@BODYURL[id=114jbcurl1231]@