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Date

2005-09-01

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

The authors examine the organizational transformation of Prevention Point, the San Francisco-based syringe exchange program. Their purposes are to explore the processes of organizational change, focus on the impact of formalization on members and organizational goals, and contextualize these in light of belonging to an underground organization. They highlight the volunteers’ motivation and commitment, and their responses to the organizational changes. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 56 service providers, conducted from 1993 to 1995, the authors document the changes in the organization and the members’ perceptions of it as it moved from an illegal, deviant group to a socially sanctioned service organization. This transition is shown to have ultimately undermined much of the basis for volunteer commitment, reinforcing the shift in responsibility from the membership to a new management structure. These findings have implications for the larger problem of maintaining volunteer engagement in volunteer work.

Description

Keywords

illicit drug use, volunteerism, harm reduction, quantitative and qualitative

Citation

Kelley, M. S., Lune, H., & Murphy, S. (2005). Doing Syringe Exchange: Organizational Transformation and Volunteer Commitment. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 34(3), 362-386. doi: 10.1177/0899764005275568

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Notes

Sponsorship