Families in Society, Ahead of Print.
Rural communities face challenges related to poverty, isolation, and lack of service accessibility. In settings where funding and staffing fall short, volunteerism can provide a solution to increase social service delivery in remote areas; however, rural volunteer recruitment and retention remain major barriers to program sustainability. While theoretical approaches in systems and ecological thought have been historically essential in studying rural volunteerism, this article seeks to propose deep ecological theory as an immersive extension of the conceptual framework that considers the synergistic whole in addition to analysis of the elements and their relationships to one another. Implications for social work include a deeper examination of rural processes for enhanced program design, service delivery, and community development through volunteerism.