As a staff team, we think about the life of a KidsWorld volunteer in four simple phases: recruiting, placement, training, and care. Probably the hardest phase for me to address is care. In the remainder of this year, one of my goals is to come up with one significant step in honing the care phase for the 2nd-5th grade volunteers I lead. In the middle of that effort, I came across the research of Richard Ryan, a psychologist at the University of Rochester. Ryan's article in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology came to the conclusion that happiness increases for most people on the weekend. No surprises here (except maybe for some workaholics out there), time away from the daily grind, deadlines, and the pressures of work would suggest an increase in happiness. The interesting thing about Ryan's research is the psychology behind the increase. According to Ryan, the increase is due to "relatedness and autonomy."