Youth volunteering fails to take off

mas - 30 April 2008

Just read the responses to this article in the magazine and with regard to Joe Saxtons comments I'd agree with the principle of what he's saying "We need to start with where young people are at and what they want to do" - however he then goes on to state that these things are "We should do more campaigning activities, ethical issues, climate change and fair trade"

Well thats not starting 'where young people are at' - thats making assumptions that those are the things that interest young people - something I hear a lot - yet in fact on the courses that we've been running for 8 years with young people from right across the country very few identify any of those issues as being things that primarily concern them (with the exception of campaigns which is one of the most favoured 'actions'). Most often young people we work with say that they are more concerned about things like street crime, facilities, rubbish, drugs, violence, gangs, alcohol, sex & so on.

Much better not to make these assumptions and instead allow young people to identify what they think are the opportunities and needs, and to choose the manner in which they wish to give their time towards making a difference - this would be best supported by funding recognising the need for this flexibility and not prescribing the nature of 'volunteering'

mas - 28 April 2008

We submitted a bid to V after a phone call to encourage us to submit an application (on a very short deadline). The application was based on our normal model - we use volunteer young people to train up other young people who then go on to volunteer back in their local community. The application was rejected because apparently it didn't fit the definition of volunteering!?!

All the more surprising given that at the time there was talk about the various ways in which young people should be 'paid to volunteer'. Add to that the confusion of trying to understand the definitions of short term/long term and the 'Vcringey" application guidance (has nobody ever mentioned to their marketing dept that putting 'V' everywhere is Vannoying?).

I'm pretty sure that young people traveling across the country, working for 3 days for no payment is volunteering though. And I also think that the model of training up groups of young people from different areas to go home and be able to organise community activities is a good model for supporting volunteering too.

Where I think V and most of these similar schemes really miss a trick though is the failure to recognise under 16's as volunteers. It makes much more sense to start the volunteering culture early in life than wait until people are already juggling hectic schedules with college/university, living independently, new jobs, new friends etc. etc. - its also very dismissive of the many young people that are aged under 16 and who do commit themselves to genuine volunteering.

Having said all that surveying 1000 young people hardly seems conclusive.