VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS WORK AS A DETERMINING MARKER OF CIVIL SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE

Abstract

It analyses essential indicators of volunteering, volunteer work and the features of work conducted by volunteer organizations as an index of civic society development in Ukraine. The features of volunteer movements in Ukraine have been analyzed. It has been recognized that Ukrainian volunteer movement in 2014 become an unprecedented manifestation of public self-organization in its scale. The increasing of volunteer movement had been due to two chief factors: internal political crisis, that has led to the disbalance of the public administration systems, lack of quality management decisions, lack of resources, and external aggression which deepened the disbalance between the state’s ability to perform its functions effectively and ensuring the basic needs of the citizens. The crisis in the country and external influences had endangered the existence of Ukraine as a state, which has been received by its citizens as a personal challenge, as danger to their self-identification.
It has been demonstrated that volunteer organizations are an influential social institute that acts on a voluntary basis and brings the country income and also solves a number of socially important issues instead of the state administration.
In conclusion, volunteering is steadily becoming a foundation for civil society development. Without the work conducted by the volunteers it is hard to imagine NGOs and charities at all, the quality control over government and business becomes virtually impossible. Without volunteers there is not enough energy to fuel societal development, there’s not enough effort and time to help people in need, not enough creative potential for solving social problems.