YOUNG VOLUNTEERS: What's in it for me?

One Friday in June young people in Sunderland eligible for an Education Maintenance Allowance received a letter about a volunteer scheme. The response was electric. "The phones never stopped; we were inundated," says Brian Watson of Community Service Volunteers Springboard Sunderland. "We must have had 70 calls in one day."

He asked callers if they had ever volunteered before; 90 per cent said no.

An explosion of interest from an untapped source was precisely the aim of the new Department for Education and Skills-backed pilots. The Young Volunteer Challenge targets young people from low-income families in 10 areas of England. It has controversial elements: it pays 45 a week in return for a commitment of at least 30 hours a week. Those who stick with it will receive cash bonuses of 750.

Unorthodox methods

Whether it pleases the purists or not, it is a bold move to bring volunteering to 18- to 21-year-olds who are not traditional volunteers. As Watson points out, young people from more affluent backgrounds often have volunteering as part of their culture. But he says that, for kids from low-income families, volunteering would never enter their heads.

What is in it for them if they do? First, is a chance to try things they otherwise never could. As 21-year-old Gary Jennison from Hull says: "How else would I have got to coach football alongside Hull City coaches?" (see panel).

A more systematic description of the benefits to young people emerged from last year's evaluation of the Millennium Volunteers scheme. The authors said: "Throughout the research, Millennium Volunteers spoke passionately about the value of the experience and the difference it had made to their lives." For some, that meant a passport to higher education or paid employment.

For others, the benefits were "personal development, confidence building and empowerment".

That testimony, from more than 120 young people, is particularly telling, because Millennium Volunteers was not set up as a self-development programme.

Its key principle was community benefit.

Young Volunteer Challenge is different. "It is not vacancy-led at all," says Denis Winder, recently appointed supervisor at the pilot in Cornwall.

He stresses that the project is all about personal development. He is confident the pilot will attract the target of a minimum of 120 young low-income volunteers.

Paying volunteers isn't actually new or radical. Community Service Volunteers, VSO and United Nations volunteers have done it for years. But as Justin Davis Smith, director of the Institute for Volunteering Research, says: "There is a lively and healthy debate within the volunteer movement about whether this is proper volunteering or low-paid work wrapped up in a volunteer framework."

Davis Smith and the National Centre for Volunteering accept that the programme is a pilot and are waiting to see the results. But whatever happens, it will not change the overall picture. Most young volunteers do not get paid. That begs the question: why work if you're not getting paid?

Making friends

"I hear that a lot," says Georgina Watts, chief executive of the Youth Action Network, which supports and develops youth volunteering projects across England. "Sometimes it's difficult for young people to find a credible answer to it." Getting so many more friends is one thing that comes out strongly. "Young people love to meet other young people," she says. "And in particular from other places."

She is "delighted" by the culture clash when volunteers from around the country meet at conferences. "This year we had young people from Ledbury Youth First," she says. "I don't think one of them had seen a Black person in the flesh. We had some guys from Walsall Youth Congress who were all Asian. They got on like a house on fire."

Last year, young women from Cumbria met some young men from Camden, north London. "It was amazing. You can't get much further apart culturally and geographically, but they are still texting and sending emails. So much about their respective lives was different, but they found so much in common. It's stating the obvious, but when you see it it's very powerful."

Many volunteer projects claim to draw young people from diverse backgrounds.

Even so, the stereotype of do-goodery delivered by the comfortably off still pervades the sector. And Millennium Volunteers only had limited success in challenging it.

However there are young volunteers in deprived areas. Anji Dibb, youth worker from Youth Start in Bradford, is reluctant to label people and cautious about stigmatising the community she lives in. But there is no doubt the project, based in the Bolton Woods part of the city where there were race riots last year, exists in an area of high unemployment, with drug and crime problems and other indications of social deprivation. For Make A Difference Day last year, young people from the project organised a clean-up of local land. They identified a disused building and now have ambitious plans to replace it with a purpose-built youth centre that they will run.

"Youth Start deals with citizenship, drugs, healthy eating, relationships, community cohesion, racism - important issues that affect the everyday life of young people," says Dibb. Aimed at 13- to 19-year-olds, it runs for 18 to 24 weeks. Often local teenagers wanted more, so once the programme was over for them, they stuck around and devised their own community volunteering opportunities (see panel above).

Over the past year, young people with no pattern of volunteering and no experience of working together evolved into an effective working group.

"They are now planning for Christmas, talking about a babysitting service so parents can go Christmas shopping," says Dibb. "The young people are more active in the community and they respect it a lot more. Adults recognise what they are doing. We had a gift last year from the landlady of a local pub, who donated 400 to the youth group. They passed it to the younger group so they could go to a pantomime."

Other indicators of change are less financially measurable, but equally profound. "People have stopped shouting at the kids," says Dibb. "That is something the young people will never ever forget."

KELLY ANNE'S STORY

Kelly Anne Thorn, 21, was bullied at her school in Hull and left at 15. She suffered anxiety and depression and has never had a job.

Her disability adviser suggested she tried volunteering. She has now done 47 hours of voluntary service, after a "really frustrating" two-month wait for Criminal Records Bureau clearance.

She volunteers as a reading assistant and for a project working with disabled children. She is also waiting to be matched as a befriender.

"I like working with the children," she says. "It gives you a sense of achievement. You feel like you're doing something, you're putting something back in."

The worst thing is seeing the children's communication problems. "You can see there's a person in there, but it's hard to communicate," she says. "That's the toughest thing. But when you can communicate, it's great. Volunteering has made my mind up about what I want to do. It's shown me the way to go."

Kelly plays rhythm guitar and sings backing vocals in a band. Her first gig was at a Millennium Volunteers awards ceremony.

"Volunteering is what you make it," she says. "If you want it to just pass a few spare hours, it can be that. You get out what you put in."

GARY'S STORY

Gary Jennison, 21, knows a lot about volunteering. Throughout his teenage years he was a St John Ambulance volunteer.

Nowadays his main focus is on sport. He has volunteered with his local football team, Hull City, helping prepare pitches and working alongside professionals coaching local kids in football skills. He is also a volunteer mentor for the children's university.

After eight months of unemployment, volunteering is paying off job-wise.

Gary has just landed a part-time post as a play-worker with an after-school club. "They were impressed that I'd spent quite a lot of time volunteering, that I'd made an effort," he says.

He doesn't care that his peers think working without payment is a cardinal sin. "The rewards are much bigger than just financial," he explains. "It's a great morale booster."

VOLUNTEER'S VOICES

Sarah Jackson, 25, Bradford, took part in a Youth Start clean-up project as a single parent two years ago. More recently she has been volunteering with special needs children. "I've grown up a lot," she says. "I used to be quite childish, even after I had my daughter. There was a lot of stuff I didn't know - the kids have taught me a lot."

Charles Slaherty, 14, Bradford: "If I wasn't doing this I'd be on the streets being bored. We do things to raise money like car washing for the youth club and for the children. The best thing about it is having fun. The worst thing is when the club isn't open."

Louise Knight, 14, Bradford: "I've changed. Before on a night we'd just mess around, not really caring what other people thought. But now we're thinking 'that's someone's garden' and 'that's someone's car'. It makes us think more before we do things."