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Evaluating Motivations and Barriers to Volunteer Retention in a Vermont Water Monitoring Program
Motes, Henry
Motes, Henry
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Abstract
Participatory science programming can allow organizations to effectively engage with large-scale environmental data collection and conservation. This has been associated with various environmental benefits along with personal benefits for those who participate. Past work has identified factors correlated with volunteer retention in these programs, but these studies may not yet be representative of drivers of volunteer retention in the state of Vermont. To better understand volunteer retention in local participatory science initiatives, this mixed-methods study used surveys and interviews of volunteer water monitors to identify beliefs, motivations, and barriers associated with their decisions to participate in volunteer water monitoring work through the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation’s LaRosa Partnership Program (LPP). Identified motivations and barriers were assessed based on premises of the Theory of Planned Behavior, an existing social theory which suggests that individual actions are driven by normative, behavioral, and control beliefs associated with said actions. Ultimately, volunteers working through the LPP identified motivations and barriers across all three of these belief categories outlined in the Theory of Planned Behavior. Prominent identified motivations centered around the value of collected data, aiding watershed conservation efforts, and connections to other volunteers, nature, and places of importance through water monitoring work. Prominent barriers included difficulty visualizing the impact of monitoring work, timing conflicts, and poor conditions of sampling sites. This study’s findings contribute to the current collective understanding of volunteer engagement in participatory science initiatives as well as our understanding of Vermont’s volunteer beliefs as they relate to existing social theory. As such, this work may be useful in the development of future participatory science or volunteer water monitoring programs (and/or research surrounding these programs), or the ongoing management of programs like the LPP.
Description
This study presents a qualitative assessment of the motivations and barriers to long term involvement associated with volunteers in organizations working with the LaRosa Partnership Program (LPP). A comprehensive survey and series of interviews with survey respondents informed the identification of primary motivators and barriers, which were then analyzed according to their fit with the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991). All elements of this study were conducted according to UVM IRB protocol. Files of figures can be made available upon request. Feel free to contact the study team at kstepenu@uvm.edu or Henry.Motes@uvm.edu.
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2026-05-08
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- Embargoed until 2027-05-08
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Environmental Sciences