Young People and VolunteeringSophie Wellings

AVM Conference – 24th October 2014

Young People & Volunteering

• What motivates young people to volunteer?

• Why do we want to involve young people?

Vanishing Volunteers Katherine Gaskin

Flexible – opportunities that fit with their timetables

Legitimacy – making volunteering ‘cool’

Ease of access - effective promotion of volunteering

‘Xperience - relevant and interesting

Incentives - certificates

Variety - choice

Organisation – informal

Laughs - fun

Engaging Gen X & Y in volunteering

Gen X – 1964- 1977

Resourceful, self sufficient

Pragmatic

Flexible, comfortable with autonomy

Gen Y – 1978 – 1994

Valued, coddled

Tolerant to difference, value education and training

Engaging Gen X & Y in volunteering

Gen Xers• may not buy into their parents’ optimism about changing

the world.

• feel capable of helping one person.

• may prefer to focus on local, not global issues, on tangible results, not idealism.

Gen Yers• look for variety, stimulation and "push button" action.

• are searching for their causes.• exhibit a strong interest in volunteering.

Attracting Gen Yers• Promote your cause/mission or issue

• Focus on issues that represent the interests of the

community rather than individuals.

• Promote collaboration, team spirit and diversity.

• Offer multiple options, parallel opportunities instead of

asking people to commit to one thing.

• Offer a variety of exciting and challenging experiences.

Millenials/Nexters

• Tech savvy

• Walk, talk, listen, type and text

• Simple priorities – they come first

• Hard working

• Clever/resourceful

• Signed up to volunteering

Millenials/Nexters

• Micro, one-off,

short term opportunities

• Group activities/with friends

• Easy access

• Self directed

• New technology, social media

Monitoring• Demographic profile – age, gender, ethnicity,

faith, disability, status, sexuality

• Comparison with local community

• Accuracy of data

• How and where is management information shared?

• How is data analysed?

Breaking down barriers

Who do we need to involve?How do we involve them?

Be Proactive

• Outreach

• Social media/new technology

• Fundraising, campaigning, peer programmes, co-production, micro activity

• Young people’s steering/advisory group

• Interesting/quirky/efficient

• Profiling

• Certificates

• Insurance cover• Consent• References• Recognition• Profiling• Health and safety• Induction/training

Step up to Serve

• Campaign to promote ‘social action’

• The goal is to double the number of young people participating in social action to over 50% by 2020.

• Pledge

• www.stepuptoserve.org.uk

Action Plan

3 things you can do to involve young people as

volunteers

References:

Vanishing Volunteers – Katherine Gaskin

http://www.ivr.org.uk/component/ivr/vanishing-volunteers

Gen X and Y as Volunteers

www.volunteeringwa.org.au

Presented by Sophie WellingsEmail: wellings179@btinternet.com

Tel: 07910 820596