Encourage more volunteering gap years

Travelling or volunteering during a gap year is becoming an increasingly popular option. Indeed, more than 40 per cent of young people now take part in volunteer work. Volunteering can have a range of important benefits for young people. As well as creating valuable opportunities to meet new people, volunteer work can help to hone social and business skills, which are highly sought after in the workplace, not to mention the feel-good factor achieved by doing something positive for others. Volunteering has also been shown to reduce antisocial behaviour as it creates an opportunity to empathise with others.

Youth volunteering charity V aims to inspire a new generation of volunteers and promotes volunteer opportunities both at home and abroad. This summer the charity has been calling on MPs across the country to volunteer alongside young people in their constituencies. MPs can offer help as football coaches, stage music and arts workshops, or urban tree planting. The challenge will introduce MPs to Vinvolved, England's biggest youth action programme, which is designed by young people and offers thousands of volunteering opportunities to 16-to 25-year-olds. Since April, the programme has helped half a million young people make a difference in their communities.