Aile ve Sosyal Politikalar Bakanlığı’na göre “gönüllülük” kavramı; bir insanın maddi karşılık beklemeden yakın çevresi dışındaki bireylerin yaşam kalitesini yükseltmek ve genel olarak toplum yararına olduğu düşünülen bir hedefe ulaşmak için bir toplumsal girişime ya da sivil toplum örgütü bünyesindeki etkinliklere destek olmasıdır. Ancak gönüllülük konusunda ülkelere, toplumlara, kişilere, kurum ya da kuruluşlara göre farklı tanımların yapılması da mümkündür. Önceleri sadece sosyal yardımlaşma ve dayanışma faaliyetleri olarak algılanan gönüllülük bugün gelinen noktada bu algının çok ötesine geçmiştir. 21. yüzyılda gönüllülük,toplumsal kalkınmanın yanı sıra sürdürülebilir gelişmeye ve insani kalkınmaya da büyük katkı sağlamaktadır. Gönüllülük artık toplumsal ve insani kalkınmanın yanı sıra sürdürülebilir gelişmenin ve sosyal refah sistemlerinin de merkezinde yer almaktadır. Gönüllük kalkınma süreçlerine katkıda bulunduğu gibi bu kalkınma süreçlerinden de zamanla etkilenmektedir. Kalkınma kavramı ise ilk önceleri sadece ekonomik gelişme olarak tanımlanırken; günümüzde ekonomik gelişmeninyanı sıra sosyal gelişmeyi de içine alan bir tanım yapılmaktadır. Birleşmiş Milletler’e göre toplum kalkınması çeşitli toplulukların ve devletin ortaklaşa yürüttüğü bir süreçtir. Daha açık bir ifadeyle, toplumsal kalkınma küçük toplulukların içinde bulundukları ekonomik, toplumsal ve kültürel koşulları iyileştirmek için giriştikleri çabaların devletin bu konudaki çabalarıyla birleştirilmesi, bu toplulukların ulusun tümüyle kaynaşması, ulusal kalkınma çabalarına tam olarak katkıda bulunmalarının sağlanması sürecidir (Geray, 1991:101-104). Toplum kalkınmasında söz konusu mahalli toplulukların gönüllü çabaları devletçe desteklenmektedir. Bu yüzden toplum kalkınmasını bir tarafı devlete,diğer tarafı da topluma dayanan iki yönlü bir olgu olarak da tanımlayabiliriz. Bu olguda devlet kendi içinde dinamikleri olan ve bir noktadan sonra toplumun desteği ve katılımı olmaksızın işleyen bir sistemdir. Toplum ise kendi içinde bir işleyişi olan ancak kalkınma noktasında devlet tarafından harekete geçirilebilen bir ilişkiler bütünüdür. Bu yüzden bu çalışmada toplum kalkınması sadece ekonomik açıdan değil; sosyal gelişme açısından da değerlendirilmektedir.

Voluntariness which has been perceived as social cooperation and solidarity at first has transcended that perception today. In the 21st century, voluntariness is contributing a lot to humanitarian progress and sustainable development as well as community development. Therefore, firstly a commonly accepted definition of voluntariness is required in order to completely benefit from the advantages provided by the notion of voluntariness. It is possible to make various definitions of voluntariness depending on countries, societies, people, institutions, and organizations. However, the term humanitarianism which underlies voluntariness is not to be ignored in the definitions. According to the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, the term voluntariness is defined as a person’s support to a social endeavor or activities of a nongovernmental organization without being paid in order to increase the standard of living of the people excluding inner circle and reach a goal considered as benefit of society. Hereafter the term voluntariness is the center of sustainable development and social welfare systems in addition to community and humanitarian development. Voluntariness is contributing to these development processes as well as being influenced by them. While the term development was defined only in terms of economy at first, today’s definition includes both economic and social development. Accordingly, community development is considered in terms of social development. Hence, while defining community development a set of variables have to be taken into consideration. According to United Nations, community development is a process in which various groups and state works collectively. In other words, community development is a process in which endeavors of small communities aiming to improve their social and cultural conditions and endeavors of the state are combined in order to merge small communities fully and contribute to their national development endeavors (Geray, 1991:101-104). For community development aforementioned local communities’ voluntary endeavors should be supported by state. Therefore, community development could be defined as a two dimensional notion; one is based on society and the other is on state. In that notion state is a system with its own dynamics and at one point without society’s support and participation this system could run. The society is a set of relations having its own system but requires state’s support to be able to develop. In Turkey, between the years 1990 and 2000 a new system emerged as a result of the neo-liberal politics and new services particularly for children, the young, the poor, the disabled, women, and families were required. In that period all the official reliefs were provided by Turkish Social Service and Children Protection Institution (TSSCPI) founded in 1983. However, some of the deficiencies in applications led the idea of conducting relief operations in social and public spheres under the control of a ministry. Accordingly, on June 8th 2011 Turkish Social Service and Children Protection Institution were replaced with Ministry of Family and Social Policies. Since the ministry was founded it has conducted various national projects on social problems. “The Voluntary Ambassadors Project on Community Development” was launched by the Ministry 2012 is one of those projects. For this project launched in December in 2012, the Ministry prepared a two-year action plan. The first year of the action plan was on children issues while the second year was focused on women issues. Yet, at the beginning of the year 2015 the Project is predicted to be continued for a while. This projects aims to raise awareness and popularity of voluntariness in society, and strengthen human resource which can help contribute community development. The Project has five different titles as follow: Child (Foster family service), Empowering Women (Inservice training for women), Qualified Aging, Rapport between Generations, Access to Services for Disabled People, and Family and Poverty. However, today Child (Foster family service) has become the most popular title because of the cultural, politic, and executive variables. In the project, Voluntary Ambassador is defined as a person who is voluntary in his/her free will and without expecting any payment uses all of his/her experience, abilities and resources in order to raise the living standards of disadvantageous groups particularly women, children, the old, the disabled, families of martyrizes and veterans and others (the poor in cities, drug addicts, etc.), and contributes the official services and endeavors of the Ministry of Family and Social Policies (www.gonulelcileri.gov.tr). Since the beginning of the project many executives, politicians and celebrities have been involved in the organizations. Their participation is significant in terms of the project’s recognition in the public. Moreover, this project has contributed to raise awareness for the perception of voluntariness in Turkey and popularity of the voluntary activities. The concept of voluntariness in Turkey has improved particularly in the last 15 years with by the increase of participation in all areas. On the other hand in the past the participation rate of the voluntary activities was not the same. After the 1980’s coup d’etat, 1982 Constitution ceased the non-governmental organizations’ activities until the 1990s. Particularly in 1995 amendment of 33rd law in 1982 constitution enabled the increase of non-governmental organization’s activities. The number of non-governmental organizations was 6000 at the beginning of 1980s and this number reached 26.000 at the beginning of the 1990s. In 1999 the number of non-governmental organizations increased by 235% and reached 60.000. While Marmara earthquake killed thousands of citizens, this disaster helped create awareness of voluntariness and increase capacities of non-governmental organizations. The number of non-governmental organizations reached 90.000 with an increase by 47%. According to the statistics of the Department of Associations the number of active organizations is 106.351 in 2015. However, it is not possible to find an official number of other non-governmental organizations which are active but not included in associations officially. This poses a significant statistical problem both for researchers and planners. In conclusion, Turkey is currently living the most popular era for voluntariness although the numbers are not sufficient enough. Necessary steps are raising a national awareness of voluntariness, targeting existing voluntary potentials, and activating that potential, thus molding public opinion. For this reason, not only with state but also with private sector should meet non-governmental organizations and these meeting should be disclosed to the national press. In these meetings primarily the question of how to change the perception of voluntariness in Turkey, how to increase the number of voluntary people and non-governmental organizations, and how to start a domino effect in the society should be discussed. It is highly important to raise awareness on voluntariness and voluntary activities since the future centuries will be the eras in which human centered socioeconomic development provide development of countries and predestinate their future.