By John Babb

Behind Pawel Jordan's desk looms a life-size cut-out of the Star Wars tyrant Darth Vader. Superimposed over Vader's shiny molded face is that of a cherub-like Jordan. The image captures Jordan's spirit – not because he is a villain, quite the contrary. In most ways he is like the other image behind his desk, a caricature of himself dressed as a monk: Stoical, pondering, inspiring. But when he talks about amassing a legion of volunteers in Poland, a Vader-like demand for discipline seeps through.

This is Jordan's empire. It may sound ruthless, but he has proved it works.

Shaping the Inevitable Changes After Communism

Jordan believes volunteers are essential for the future of Poland. The emergence of democratic institutions has brought non-governmental and non-profit organizations into sectors like health, education, elder care, environmental protection, human rights, aid for the disabled – areas that politicians constrained by taxes and budgets have found difficult to serve.

Volunteering provides an avenue for citizens to improve their society rather than simply complain. Jordan also feels that people often lack the sense of accomplishment that volunteering can provide, whether it involves youths seeking jobs and experience for their resumes or retirees with knowledge and experience to give back to society.

But you will not find Jordan at the local community center, knocking on doors or handing out leaflets. As director of the Support Office for the Movement of Self-Help Initiatives (the Polish acronym is BORIS), his role is more ethereal. His goal is to create "Team Poland," a network of individuals, non-profit organizations, NGOs, public institutions and businesses linked primarily through volunteer activity.

This is a two-way street: The volunteers gain personal and professional gratification, and organizations get new people, new ideas, increased credibility.

Lifting the Dead Hand of Communism

Jordan is mending a tear in the social fabric of Poland, where the spirit of people helping people was eroded by the 45 years of Communist rule. Acts of neighborliness like shoveling coal or cutting wood for the elderly woman next door did happen, but organized forms of volunteering were co-opted by the state apparatus. Instead of citizens freely deciding to get involved in their communities, the Party orchestrated compulsory community work, often "make work" projects that were futile rather than fulfilling.

When Communism faded in 1989, the institutions that had supported "volunteerism" also disappeared. Poles had to reacquaint themselves with the idea of communities taking charge from the bottom up, so when Jordan embarked on his mission, he introduced a new concept, the concept of allowing citizens to take control of their own lives.

In 1993, Jordan, as director of BORIS, teamed up with Barbara Hansen, a volunteer with the United Nations. She is Polish but had not lived in the country for a long time. Though she had tried to interest organizations in using volunteers, she had not been able to convince them, and Jordan thought BORIS was suited to the task because of its contacts with NGOs and its experience in planning and training. Thus the first project Jordan took on as director of BORIS was to create the Volunteers Center to train and match workers with organizations.

The heart of the center is to match volunteers to organizations, and to instill professionalism into the training of both volunteers and organizations. Both parties must go through a training program so there is a clear understanding of what is expected by both sides. "People think managing volunteers is just like nothing," Jordan says. "If you call it 'managing the staff,' everybody would come to the training saying, 'Yes, that's what I would like to learn.' But if you call it `managing volunteers,' people say, 'Volunteers? Is that staff? No, well we can manage them if we want.'"

The First Problem: Too Many Volunteers

Jordan and the Volunteers Center team began by distributing leaflets outlining the center's purpose, vision, sponsors and affiliates. But after the initial promotion, a disturbing trend emerged. "It looked like we wouldn't have problems with volunteers," Jordan says. "We would have problems with organizations or institutions."

Volunteers did not need much of a push to get involved; they only required a mechanism, a simple message explaining that problems like homelessness, unemployment, illness and old age are being aggravated by the move away from a welfare state.

Mirella Szeremeta, who was just finishing her university studies, was one of many young people who felt a strong desire to volunteer, and she now helps a family look after their eight-year-old son, who is autistic. For her, the decision was easy: "I like children and I had time on my hands."

A survey by the center shows Szeremeta is typical: nearly three-quarters of volunteers are women, nearly half have a university background, a third are students. Half volunteered because it made them feel useful and a third said they volunteered for their own satisfaction. Half said they were drawn to volunteering by short radio and TV ads or posters that appealed to a sense of civic duty.

The Second Problem: Too Few Outlets

But Dariusz Pietrowski, vice president of the Volunteer Center Association and part of the team that established the Warsaw center, is disappointed that more organizations do not see how valuable volunteers can be.

Pietrowski estimates that there are 4,000 organizations in Warsaw working in the social area and about 3,000 in other areas, like the environment, education and health. But over six years, the center has attracted only a hundred, and Pietrowski now spends hours each day trying to figure how to increase their participation. The Warsaw center has registered more than 600 volunteers, and 30 percent have not been placed.

The problem of developing rapport with organizations is illustrated by the center's attempts to team up with hospitals. "With hospitals, we have a very big problem," Jordan says. "We are trying with two of them, but for the moment I give up."

Money is a real problem for hospitals. Doctors and nurses stage protests for better salaries, and investments are needed to modernize equipment. It is difficult for management to introduce volunteers because staff members, concerned about job security, view volunteers as a threat. Management is leery because it requires assigning a staff member to supervise the volunteers, which is difficult to justify when the administration is overworked dealing with core functions. The more regimented an organization is, the more difficult it is for it to incorporate volunteers into its structure.

Jordan's hope is that eventually, each organization can become self-sufficient, setting up its own structures to recruit volunteers directly instead of through the center.

A Case History: Building Mutual Respect

Iza Kocoatslea is the volunteer coordinator for Aslan, a support center for youths that has been using volunteers since 1994 in programs like drama or arts and crafts. She attended the center's training program six months ago, and even after five years' experience, the course was an eye-opener.

"The main thing was learning the proper way to think about and treat volunteers," she says, "not to give that person the worst work, and to treat them with respect and talk to them about their work." She knows she has to be flexible. Since volunteers can be unpredictable she uses them only for non-core functions; they do not get involved in the more sensitive self-help sessions. "We know we should expect something from them, but we can't expect the same we can from workers. It's a fine line." But the benefits of having a volunteer, even for a short time, is better than having no volunteers.

Volunteers also have obligations: a five-hour training course that emphasizes the professionalism and commitment expected of them. They also fill out a form detailing skills, education, previous experience, motivation, type of work preferred, hobbies, special interests and availability. Once the two sides are matched up, the center advises a formal interview process and probation period to ensure a good fit.

From the example set by this pilot project in Warsaw six years ago, 14 additional volunteer centers have come to flourish in Poland.

The Flexibility to Help Individuals in Need

The Volunteers Center, which itself has three paid staff members and four volunteers, also had to respond to individuals seeking help, mainly families with disabled children or elderly people. The center was not equipped to work with individuals. But while brainstorming how to win over more organizations, the center decided to focus on attracting social welfare centers, hospitals and schools. The combination of individuals' needs and the desire to expand led the center to launch its first pilot project with Social Welfare Centers two years ago. The individuals seeking help from volunteers had one thing in common: They were all connected to a Social Welfare Center.

Welfare centers help people with disabilities, the elderly, people with drug and alcohol problems and the poor. Jordan and his team were confident that if they could create a partnership with one welfare center, other institutions would soon follow. So the team approached a welfare center in Warsaw with whose director they had already had informal contact. They convinced her that using volunteers to help do house work, buy groceries or prepare meals was a win-win situation

Volunteers like Szeremeta, who is working with the autistic child, get the direct reward of knowing they are needed. Her training and her discussions with the family have left her feeling comfortable in her role after only three months' work, volunteering once a week. She frees up a social worker to tackle more serious needs than baby-sitting, and the welfare office gains new ideas from her.

Integration With Social Workers

Pietrowski remembers some problems at the outset. "The social workers were opposed to the idea because they did not understand," he said, and they asked: "What does it mean – 'volunteer'? Maybe they are waiting for our jobs." It took many seminars with social workers, but now they are sold on the idea because they see how volunteers can help them provide better care. In three years the program has spread to 10 other social welfare centers in Poland.

The success of these local programs attracted funds two and a half years ago from the Soros Foundation to permit Jordan to develop volunteers' centers in other emerging democracies. The result: the Orpheus Network, mainly through which support centers in Central and Eastern Europe are linked. Volunteer centers have begun operations in 12 countries already.

Jordan also started a project last year working on the micro-level to build communities through Local Activity Centers (CAL, in Polish). He motions to the gray, low-rise apartment blocks that surround his office. "Look on this street. Do you think these people know each other? No way. There is such a lack of institutions that can serve this function."

For Jordan CALs are a mechanism to focus and direct community activity to develop local solutions. The heart of this model are volunteers, who run local projects with the support of professional animators. For example, Grazyna Gnatowska, who runs one of the first CALs in Warsaw, is trying to convince a suburban supermarket to extend a free bus service they offer to her community, which would help some of the elderly get groceries.

"What Pawel was doing made me realize how important integration is," Gnatowska says. "Now I have the knowledge of how to work and I feel confident."

Acting Locally

She began with a club for families. She appealed to children through playful leaflets advertising theater, arts and crafts and music and asked children to bring their parents along. Now they run a dance class for lonely seniors, a bridge club, piano lessons and an exercise class for seniors.

The CAL has two paid staff and two regular volunteers. Mira Szczsniak, one of the volunteers, has lived in the community for 40 years. For her personally, the group is already a success, which means simply feeling like she is part of a community. "People say hello to me," she says. "It wasn't like this before." Szczsniak offers her skills to people who need their taxes done or help in writing official letters.

Today there are nearly 50 CALs in Poland, and Jordan is beginning to see some overlap in the various programs he has hatched, with small volunteer centers beginning to operate in some of the CALs.

To have a project become self-sustaining is an integral part of Jordan's plan to conceptualize, build teams, then let go. BORIS begat the first Volunteer Center, which begat the Social Welfare Center project and the Association of Volunteers, which begat the international project. CALs are also on their way to becoming self-sustaining, which frees Jordan to pursue his next project: community schools. They operate like CALs but focus more on youth and draw on the links schools already have in most communities. He also wants to continue expanding the CAL concept and is working towards a goal of 1000 CALs by 2010. "Working through people, helping them to grow up, supporting them afterwards if they need it" – these are the basis for success, he says.

It is not nearly enough, though. And although he can see his ideas filter up through the Soros Foundation and down to where one person in one community notices a change in spirit, he knows he is still far from his goal. He uses Social Welfare Centers as an example: "Even if we have 10 or 14 Social Welfare Centers working with volunteers, we must keep in mind there are still 2,300 that are not. There is a lot of work. It will take at least a generation."

And with that, the monk with the Darth Vader edge continues quietly to inspire, integrate and impose order on his universe.