Rethinking volunteering
Start engaging young people now - it'll pay off for you in the future! Youth volunteering guru Maia Giordano gave us some fantastic, practical tips on how to get young people moving and shaking in your organisation.
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19/02/2010
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actnow
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3/03/2010
Photographer : Thewmatt @ Flickr
To find out more about making youth volunteering work, ActNow sat down with Maia Giordano, Youth Volunteer Program Manager at the Centre for Volunteering.
According to Maia, young people are keen to get their hands dirty but aren’t always given the chance. Organisations may simply not be willing to take young people on or they may be given opportunities that just don’t match their interests or skills.
So what do younger volunteers want exactly? Shorter term projects with more flexibility tend to be more popular. They may want to have more of a say in what they’re doing and be able to move around between different areas. If you can organise something where your young volunteers can work with their friends or in groups, then you’re more likely to keep them motivated for longer.
Sound hard?
It’s not as bad as it sounds, says Maia. ‘We’re not expecting organisations to go outside of their mandate to involve young people. It can be about involving young people in a role that suits the organisation, but the way they do it might be different. They might break up the volunteer role so it can be done in shorter lots. It’s not about thinking of whole new roles for young people, but just adapting them.’
The key to successful volunteer placements is matching interests to roles. Use the young person’s interests as a spring board. If the young person has come to you, that’s even better. Find out what attracted them to your organization and what they want to get out of it. ‘That’s what makes a placement successful or not – if the student is actually interested,’ says Maia.
Top tips
Once you’ve got them in the door, there are plenty of helpful tricks to keep young people interested:
- Set clear role descriptions and expectations and adjust them with the young person if need be.
‘Sometimes there’s been a mismatch between what they’ve told they’ll be doing and what they’re actually doing. That’s where problems tend to arise,’ says Maia. ‘If the lines of communication are left open, then it’s easier to see when something’s not working. If the young person feels like they can talk to you or someone else in the organisation when they’re really not interested or enjoying it, then it’s going to be easier to fix that problem earlier.’
- Always show them the benefits of what they are doing
‘Help them understand the impact of their role so that they can see the flow on effects of what they’re doing. When they understand the importance of what they’re doing, even if it’s something boring, if they understand that it’s doing some good, then they don’t mind so much.’
- Give them the space to try out new and interesting things.
‘If I’m giving them something to do, there are parameters in place but there’s always an area of unknown. That way they can fill in the gaps and really own the task.’
- Team them up with other volunteers!
‘I’ve found from the young people I’ve had involved, that they seem to work best in small groups of two or three.’ Instead of dividing tasks up individually, they can work together and actually discuss things instead of being out there on their own. That seems to be when they have these great ideas and really build confidence’
Need some new recruits?
If we’ve got you convinced, contact your local volunteering centre. Most areas offer a referral service to help link organisations with the right volunteers.
Volunteering Australia has some great information on best practices as well as tool kits and quick guides on evaluating volunteer programs, background checks and more. Stay tuned for the NSW Centre for Volunteering’s new website, which is planned to go public around early May. The new site will include general advice for organisations, links to helpful resources and how to guides on ensuring the best volunteering experience for your young people and the best outcomes for your organization.
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© 2008. First published on actnow.com.au
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