Participants’ Considerations and Groups’ Attitudes engaged in Horticultural Volunteer Activities in Sapporo City

Abstract

Citizens living in urban areas are increasingly interested in participating in their community activities. As a part of their community activities, there are a lot of citizen groups engaged in horticultural volunteer activities in their neighborhoods. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey with participants of 18 citizen group which taking care of flowers in Sapporo city to examine their attitudes, especially their motivations and problems. As the result, it seemed that participants engaged in their activities with four motivations; one is to make their life worth living, the second is to contribute to their neighborhoods, the third is to communicate with other members and the forth is to growing flowers. Furthermore, participants could be divided into four clusters based on these four motivations, and each four clusters contained participants who belonged to several kinds of volunteer groups which have different purpose. On conclusion, it appeared that volunteer groups own several participants who have several kinds of motivations for the horticultural volunteer activities. In order to promote these activities, it is necessary to understand each participant’s consideration and offer practical support to them.