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Do you involve young volunteers, or would you like to? Volunteer Now is committed to encouraging volunteer involving organisations to include young people as volunteers in supported, quality and meaningful roles.
Research tells us that:
- The younger they begin to volunteer the longer they are likely to commit.
- If they have a positive volunteering experience when they are young, then they are more likely to volunteer in the future
- Young people bring a different degree of energy, skills and knowledge with them as they volunteer and add immense value to an organisation if they are in the right role for their skills.
Volunteer Now provides training to support your practice and the Volunteer Now Impact Awards to recognise ‘Your Young Volunteers Inspiring Change’.
We launched the Volunteer Now Impact Awards on 2 June 2021! Created and designed in partnership with our youth forum, this Awards programme works in partnership with our online platform, ensuring that all young volunteers have the ability to be recognised for their volunteering commitment.
Key information:
It is available for young people up to the age of 25.
For organisations:
- You need to create an individual and group profile page on our website.
- Once a group page is created, then develop a volunteering role and share this with your young volunteers (this does not need to be a public opportunity).
- Young people register for your opportunity and become members of your group.
- Once they do so, their hours automatically accumulate and you are able to verify them as often as you wish.
- Functions also exist for you to communicate with your volunteers, share events, training, volunteering briefs and link information to your social media profiles.
For young volunteers:
- They create a personal profile. If under 16, they need the support of a parent/guardian to do this.
- They become a member of your group and also join the Volunteer Now Impact Awards group.
Once a month we will run a report against the hours to be recognised and young people who have reached those hours will automatically receive their Award. This Award will be present in their personal profile and their social CV for download, saving and printing.
For further information and support, contact youth@volunteernow.co.uk.
Be Collective have also provided some handy support documents in their helpdesk relating to Under 16’s
See also our Guide to the Impact Awards here
Training/Support
Nicola is here to support youth volunteering within Volunteer Now. If you would like any support, please contact: youth@volunteernow.co.uk
There are a range of training programmes available for organisations who include young volunteers. Visit Training for further information.
Improving Practice
Volunteer Now is committed to supporting organisations to improve their practice. We know that if we involve young people in high quality volunteering opportunities that enable them to recognise the impact that they have had on others (and themselves) that they are more likely to volunteer in the future. In a recent survey of young people who received their 200 Hour Award 92% said that they volunteered to make a difference!
The recruitment of young volunteers to the right roles, regular support and supervision, training (if relevant), recognition, the opportunity to meet new people and a little bit of fun goes a long way to inspiring that sense of wellbeing and impact amongst those willing to give their time.
Volunteer Now’s youth team can support you develop and improve your practice. A ‘health check’ that follows the Investing in Volunteers standard is a good place to start and we can also provide additional support and guidance.
To arrange a meeting with a Youth Engagement Officer, please email: youth@volunteernow.co.uk
Social Action
Volunteer Now has a resource to support your Organisation to undertake a social action programme!
Social action is an alternative way of encouraging young people to volunteer and our programme is a high quality, youth led model to engage and motivate young people to make a difference to a cause or organisation they are passionate about.
Our model involves 7 (flexible) sessions. It is important to note that these meet the needs of the young people and those who support them. It is based on groups of 8-15 young people (although larger groups could be facilitated) to ensure involvement, engagement and ownership amongst the young people.
Sessions 1-4 and 7 take approximately 7/8 hours (in total) and include a discussion on what volunteering is; why volunteer; the issues they would like to address; ‘pitches’ from organisations, young people and governance and evaluation.
Sessions 5 and 6 involves the planning and implementation of a social action project, for the issue of their choice in partnership with a local organisation. It can be as long as the timetable allows, and the complexity of the projects chosen. Ideally young people will be encouraged to undertake research at home and plan work in time for the next session.
We have developed a Social Action Toolkit that will take you through the process. Click here to download or if you would like to learn more, please contact youth@volunteernow.co.uk.
