How volunteers make an impact back at school

Organisation
City Year

Purpose
To develop young people's potential through volunteering in schools

Funding
City Year has a range of funders and corporate partners including the Private Equity Foundation, Credit Suisse, National Grid, Deutsche Bank and Barclays. Its budget for 2012/13 was around £2m. The scheme costs about £7,000 for each young person, with schools paying a fee to take part

Background
City Year launched in London in 2010 to address the rising number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet). The full-time volunteering initiative is based on a highly successful US scheme. City Year chief executive Sophie Livingstone says: "We have a tradition in the UK of young people going abroad to volunteer, so why not encourage them to stay in this country and have an impact here? Young people are often underestimated and under-supported but we see them as a solution, not a problem."

Action
City Year is aimed at 18- to 25-year-olds. It works with a "deliberately diverse" range of young people who may be on a gap year before university, Neet or graduates. Participants are recruited via schools, colleges, universities and through organisations that work with disadvantaged groups.

They sign up for 11 months of full-time volunteering, with 108 young people currently working in 12 schools across eight London boroughs.

The young people get two weeks of basic training. They are then split into teams of six to 10, working in schools from Monday to Thursday, with one day a week dedicated to personal development. The volunteers run activities such as breakfast and homework clubs and are very much part of school life, even attending inset training days. In primary schools they are usually attached to a particular class, while in secondary schools they may work with one department. They each have a "caseload" or "focus list" of children to support one-to-one, which might include help with reading, maths, or personal mentoring. "One of the reasons it works so powerfully is because volunteers are not much older than the children - they are ‘near peers'," says Livingstone. "When the young people see the impact they're having, they increase in confidence."

The personal development aspect of the scheme offers the chance to build on communication and leadership skills and gain practical tips such as CV writing. It also offers a chance for participants to meet inspiring adults from the scheme's partner organisations.

Once young people have completed the scheme, they continue to get updates about job and training opportunities and can help recruit new participants. City Year hopes to be up and running in five UK cities by 2020.

Outcome
The Institute for Volunteering Research is conducting a three-year evaluation of City Year. Its second year report - published in November 2012 - shows a positive impact on both volunteers and the children they worked with. During 2011/12, 81 young people took part, working a total of 90,000 hours in schools and supporting 450 children one-to-one.
 
The study found that taking part in City Year had helped young people develop leadership and communication skills. Sixty-seven per cent reported that the experience had contributed "very much" to their public speaking abilities. Eighty-five said they had a job lined up or planned to continue education after City Year; 87 per cent thought their time with City Year had influenced their choice of work or thinking about their career; and 92 per cent said they had gained valuable skills they could use outside the programme. In addition, 76 per cent said it was likely they would do some kind of volunteering in the next two years.

Two out of three school staff said their experience of City Year was "excellent", while 71 per cent of pupils said the volunteers helped them with their learning and 65 per cent said the scheme had improved class behaviour "a lot". Parents also noted changes, with 57 per cent agreeing that volunteers had helped their child's learning.

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