The master's thesis explores the motives of summer camp companions of children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) and cerebral palsy (CP). In the theoretical part, the concept of volunteering is defined, and the impact of volunteering on people with IDs is touched upon. Then, the concept of motivation is explained, as well as the most frequent effects rewarding has on motivation. Moreover, children with special needs are described, and intellectual disabilities and cerebral palsy are looked into in more detail. Afterwards, Sonček – the Cerebral Palsy Association of Slovenia is also presented. In the empirical part of the thesis, the results of the research that was carried out on 49 volunteers who performed work as companions of children with intellectual disabilities and cerebral palsy in the summer camps of the Sonček Association are presented. Our research participants were high school students, university students and employees between 16 and 25 years of age. The results were statistically processed, presented in tabular form and described in detail. The research has shown that the individuals' motives for volunteering to work with people suffering from IDs and CP were very diverse, but were most often based on the desire to acquire knowledge and skills. The two fundamental drivers characteristic of volunteers in the camps were observed to be internal motivation in altruism. Moreover, it has been found that the number of female volunteers is higher than that of male volunteers. The reasons for this are connected to the personal characteristics of each individual. Empathy, confidence, sympathy, gentleness and protectiveness are characteristics that are usually ascribed to women and are parts of peoples’ character that prove to be a key component driving people to extend a helping hand to associations dealing with people with IDs and CP. Most often, young people are invited to participate in such endeavours by friends and acquaintances that have volunteered there in the past, felt accepted there and were positive about their experience there. Less volunteers decide to join the Association simply due to seeing a web/newspaper advert or because they have been invited to participate through their school. The thesis confirmed that the knowledge of needs, and having awareness regarding the population with special needs influences the volunteers' decision a great deal and contributes to the equal integration of people that are "different" into society. The financial reward individuals receive does present extra income coupled with a sense of being useful, but is not a condition, cause or motive for repeating the individual's participation in the camps.
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