Why do I care?: Understanding motivations of volunteers working with those experiencing homelessness in Japan

Volunteerism is the true bastion of charity. The exchange of one’s time and effort for nothing more than a sense of personal fulfillment requires a commitment that many happily provide. Volunteering is the act of unpaid work or service, undertaken to contribute meaningfully as part of one’s civic duty (Afari-Asiedu et al., 2018; Perold & Graham, 2017). Volunteers give their skills, service and/or time to help improve and strengthen social and community networks (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019). The core purpose of volunteering is to help others, whilst providing social and economic benefits (Wilson et al., 2020) with services aiming to enhance health and social outcomes (Gray & Stevenson, 2020)