What young people want from volunteering

The research

The 1997 National Survey of Volunteering has stirred up controversy with its finding of a ‘sharp reduction in levels of participation by young people aged 18-24’ and of more negative views of volunteering among the younger generation than older age groups. These findings have been challenged by some in the youth volunteering field, who maintain that young people are participating at a high level.

This research, funded by the Institute of Volunteering Research, set out to explore through focus groups of young people their understanding of voluntary work and their view of its relevance to them. Attention was focussed on the conditions and incentives which would attract them to voluntary work, and the best ways of publicising and marketing volunteering opportunities to young people. Topics covered included the image of volunteers; motivations and perceived benefits for young people; their views of the opportunities for them to volunteer, and the availability of information and access routes; and their perceptions of the barriers, deterrents and disadvantages.

The findings are presented as a ‘wish-list’ for volunteering. ‘Flexivol’ summarises the essential requirements of 16-24 year olds, and serves as an acronym for the most important elements:

Flexibility

Legitimacy

Ease of access

Xperience

Incentives

Variety

Organisation

Laughs

The context

The context for young people’s voluntary activity is rapidly changing, with the introduction of New Deal ‘Welfare to Work’ schemes in pilot areas and the imminent launch of Millennium Volunteers. Concern has been expressed by youth organisations about ‘enforced volunteering’ undermining the essence of free choice in voluntary work. The emphasis on the disaffection of young people and the potential role of voluntary work in promoting training for employment and citizenship has placed youth volunteering high on the policy agenda. Recent government initiatives have created unprecedented opportunities to expand youth volunteering.

Research evidence has grown rapidly in the last few years, indicating that many young people, while disliking the term ‘volunteering’, believe in the value of voluntary work both for society and for themselves. Instrumental motivations to volunteer – to gain work experience, qualifications and skills – are increasingly prominent among the young. However, young people are keenly aware of barriers and obstacles to their involvement. Solutions have been proposed and this report endorses them, with fresh emphasis on key areas. Above all it argues for the principle of flexibility to accommodate the pressures which young people experience and the preferences which they express.

Flexivol

The message from young people is that volunteering needs a make-over. It needs to improve its image, broaden its access points and provide what today’s and tomorrow’s young people need. Volunteering suffers from out-dated associations with worthy philanthropy and conjures images that do not appeal to the young. However, it is recognised as potentially offering opportunities to young people which are scarcely available anywhere else. This study suggests, as do previous ones, that there is a vast pool of young people who could benefit from voluntary work. Many are on the edge of involvement, and many could do more than they already do, but certain conditions need to be met in order to achieve this. Changes are needed to raise levels of knowledge and awareness, to increase access routes and information and, once involved, to improve the quality and value of the volunteering experience.

The Flexivol wish-list

‘Flexivol’ summarises the essential requirements of 16-24 year olds.

Flexibility is given top priority by young people, particularly in respect of flexible work and working times for volunteering. The young have many pressures and demands on them and find it hard to make the time and commitment. They have a sizeable number of other outlets for their free time and volunteering has to compete with this. Much of their lives are controlled by others and it is important to them to have an element of choice and spontaneity in volunteering.

Legitimacy is a widespread need. Better education from an early age about the full range of voluntary work and its significance, and more positive images, would make volunteering seem ‘normal’ and ‘cool’ to young people. Their view of volunteers is basically favourable but negative stereotypes persist. Peer pressure, particularly on boys, prevents many young people from getting involved for fear of being labelled as suckers or wimps.

Ease of access is a requirement that has been highlighted in several studies and access is still a barrier. Most of the young people in this research did not have much idea of how to find out about volunteering opportunities. A major reason for not volunteering was simply that they didn’t know how to go about it. More information, more encouragement and easy access points would help break down these entry barriers.

Experience is high on young people’s wish-list for volunteering. They want relevant and interesting experiences which will stand them in good stead in their personal and career development. Volunteering needs to offer opportunities to learn new skills, to take on challenges, to explore different careers, and to get work experience. These instrumental motivations are not new, but are increasing rapidly among young people.

Incentives are important because of the competition for young people’s time and attention. Inducements may be needed to help tip them into involvement, and once there certain rewards would sustain them. Most prominent is the incentive of tangible outcomes in the form of a reference or a qualification, to validate their experience and demonstrate their achievement to employers and others. In the absence of the main incentive for working – pay – young people at least need not to be out of pocket and full payment of their expenses would be an incentive.

Variety is an obvious and widely recognised requirement. Variety in types of work, issues and structures would accommodate the huge range of individual interests, goals, constraints and preferences among the younger generation. Variation should be offered in the amount of commitment, the level of responsibility and the type of activity in order to attract the widest possible range of young people.

Organisation of the volunteering needs to be efficient but informal, providing a relaxed environment in which young people feel welcome and valued. They would like some appreciation and the right kind of advice and support. They do not want to be over-organised and heavily supervised but to have people there who can support them when they need it, and help them progress when they are ready.

Laughs should not get left out of the picture because of young people’s serious ambitions for self-development. Volunteering should be enjoyable, satisfying and fun. Since some of the competition for young people’s time is from the attraction of a good time socially, it is a distinct bonus if volunteering also offers some laughs. While young people may not volunteer primarily for the social side, they are more likely to continue if they are enjoying themselves.

A strong consensus

Using young people’s own words, the report shows that these are not unreasonable demands by a selfish generation, but practical preferences in the context of young people’s lives. Their reasons are well thought out and represent sometimes difficult choices as they negotiate their way through the pressures and freedoms of adolescence and early adulthood. Despite their varied backgrounds – and some variation in their views – the central messages are strong, with a substantial consensus on the eight Flexivol areas.

‘Marketing’ volunteering

To increase legitimacy and knowledge of volunteering opportunities, young people advocate much more widespread promotion and advertising, so that their generation encounters images of volunteering in many different settings. They recommend an educational and awareness-raising approach in schools, reinforced with personal talks and visits from representatives of organisations and young volunteers. This would familiarise young people from an early age with the varied world of volunteering and the opportunities available to them. It would also help expand understanding of the term ‘volunteer’ so that it becomes more acceptable to young people.

Although the personal touch in communication about volunteering is most strongly recommended, young people also see scope for using other media. Short television advertisements and ‘fillers’, and local radio features are most popular. The printed word, in youth magazines and comics, posters and leaflets is not as likely to attract young people’s attention. Telephone helplines and the Internet get minority votes.

The message should concentrate on people’s achievements and potential gains, as well as the fun side, to counter volunteering’s traditional image of worthiness. If a sustained programme of awareness-raising were to be carried out, this would help legitimise volunteering for young people and remove or reduce the apparent stigma associated with it. In the words of an eighteen-year old volunteer, ‘If a lot of people do it, then it looks normal, it’s cool, because everyone’s doing it’.

Strategies for change

The report posed the question: are young people losing interest in volunteering? The answer is a qualified ‘no’. Young people have not given up on volunteering, but there is a raft of factors which affects their likelihood of becoming volunteers.

The overwhelming desire for flexibility in volunteering which was expressed by all types of young people suggests that organisations and government need to rethink volunteering in the light of the realities of young people’s lives. Instead of presenting volunteering as a given into which young people should fit, we need to take the preferences and imperatives of young people’s lives as the basis, and reshape volunteering to accommodate them.

Young people’s recipe for improving the youth volunteering situation involves both short term and longer term strategies and action at a number of levels. Local and national voluntary organisations, statutory agencies and private companies, schools and colleges, need to examine their publicity, information, organisation and incentives, and adopt policies that encourage and support young people as volunteers. The government can play a guiding role by setting the policy framework and overseeing broader strategies to develop infrastructure for youth volunteering and in developing educational policies. It can also continue to allocate funds to youth volunteering development and shape national initiatives such as Millennium Volunteers in response to young people’s preferences and priorities.

Most challenging for all volunteering providers will be to address the need for flexibility and to put in place options that accommodate it. Flexible volunteering may require more effort and resources to organise but if large numbers of people become involved, then the advantages are obvious. Moreover, it is likely that a low-pressure, ‘toe in the water’ introduction to volunteering will translate into more committed involvement over time for many young people.

Methodology

Eight focus groups were held in March and April 1998 in London, the East Midlands and the West Midlands. The groups contained between six and ten people and captured variation by age, socio-economic status and experience of volunteering. All the groups were mixed by gender, and a number contained young people of African-Caribbean, Asian and other ethnicities.

A topic guide of questions was used in conjunction with five sets of ‘cue cards’. Each index-sized card showed a statement or description, and the groups were asked to sort each set into three piles, denoting level of importance. The cards proved popular and achieved their goal of varying the pace of discussions and encouraging the young people’s interest and participation. Thanks are expressed to all those who took part, and to people and organisations which helped set up groups.