Young People
Youth Volunteering
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) define youth social action as ‘young people taking practical action in the service of others to create positive change’. They note that ‘Good meaningful social action is seen as being of double benefit to young people themselves and the community, be it volunteering for a charity, caring for someone in the community, providing peer support online or fundraising for a specific cause’. Social action might happen through a structured programme, or might be self-generated by young people themselves.
Young people are the future older volunteers. A good experience is therefore key to retaining them. Young people between the age 16 years and of 18 years can volunteer.
Preparing For Young Volunteers - Things To Think About:
Can you develop/adapt opportunities and roles that will appeal to young people?
Be aware that organisations have a duty of care towards the young person.
Can you offer bespoke, flexible age-appropriate roles?
Do you practice good volunteer management, supported through your policies & procedures?
Can you design and implement age-appropriate interview & induction processes?
Offer micro taster volunteering sessions.
Provide peer support/volunteer buddy.
Benefits For Young People
Improves connection to & awareness of community & social issues.
Offers relevant work experience, enhancing skills & career prospects with the relevant support.
Motivates and builds personal resilience.
Builds new skills & networks.
Gives opportunity to meet a wider range of people.
Boosts their CV, UCAS and employability potential.
Top Tips
Young volunteers are likely to need more supervision and support.
Have health and safety and risk assessment plan in place for each volunteer.
Check whether your organisation’s Public or Employers’ Liability insurance covers young volunteers.
Consider applying the same employment law standards for young volunteers under 18, in terms of hours, type of volunteering and breaks.
Think about inviting them to join your board of trustees if your constitution has provision for under 18’s.
Example
Background: Fred and Sally are working on their Duke of Edinburgh’s award and volunteering is a required part of that. Fred and Sally chose to work at the library as it is a calm place that they were familiar with. Also, they know they can easily get to the library.
Volunteer role: After school Fred and Sally helped with library tasks such as shelving and displays. On Saturdays Fred and Sally helped with the Lego Club setting out, welcoming children, encouraging building and play, packing up after.
Volunteer recruitment: The volunteers were pro-active and approached us.
[The library advertises for young volunteers to help in the summer holidays, some of these volunteers stay on after the holidays and do their DofE volunteering here. Some young people are just looking for things to do, and approach us, sometimes we have young people who use the library very regularly and we ask them if they would like to volunteer over the summer.]
Support provided: usually shorter volunteering shifts, an hour after school for D of E, or 1.5 hours on Saturday for lego club, staff are always around to supervise so the volunteer is never left without staff nearby. Saturday lego club works as a team of volunteers, so responsibility is not on just one young person – it is social as well as ‘work’.
Impact: The volunteers feel it has given them more confidence. They are better at being social with people they don’t know – library users and families who bring children to lego. They have made new friends – with other volunteers. They have gained experience of interacting with children and families which might help them with career prospects in the future. They enjoy spending time in the library. Volunteering is a nice way to spend free time, so they would recommend volunteering to other young people.
Useful Resources:
Young volunteers and safeguarding | NSPCC Learning
Involving-Young-People-as-volunteers.pdf