Live

Workshop 3 –Making a positive
contribution: (44 participants plus presenters)

Key
points from the input from young volunteers from Youth A.I.D. Lewisham (
Therri, Troy,
O’dean, Cerri, Shauna)

The importance of volunteering:

• Volunteering can be vital to those that cannot evidence their
  skills in other ways
• Volunteering can be a means to develop skills that people wouldn’t
  otherwise have the chance to develop – such as teambuilding, exercises, outdoor
  activities, groupwork, leadership etc
• Have done things this past year that wouldn’t have done otherwise
  – gone places / met people / been taken out of comfort zone…
• Volunteering has enabled me to do things that wouldn’t have
  imagined doing two years ago…

How to improve volunteering:

• Make it automatic for young people – make it a compulsory experience…
  How can you know what it can do
  for you unless you experience it ? – even if its only for one day?

Key
points from Youth Act:

Carrie Supple:

• ‘The world is run by people that turn up’ – Gary Younge
• YouthACT – package of traaining focussing on campaigning skills
  – developed from US
  model - about to be available to free in all London Boroughs
• Additional training the trainers manual…
• What works? adults and young people working together, clear focus
  on skills, use of residential events,
  make it sociable!

Brandon Palmer:

• First involved after Carrie came to local project. Was part of
  a mixed group of young people looking at teenage pregnancy / parenting
  issues…
• Ended up being four guys… did survey > produced report >
  action?
• Key features of YouthACT training: pizza!.. cool style…
  opportunity to get more involved…activities…team building.
• Where it has led me? Grant-making, decision-making, public
  speaking… Getting involved in my
  community has led to involvement in the wider community. Gained the confidence
  to move into acting as a career…

Key
discussion points:

• Surprised about the proposal from the Lewisham young people to
  make volunteering compulsory – isn’t the issue how to make it more (sufficiently)
  attractive?
• What incentives are needed? Award events
  go a long way towards this – certificates from volunteering often mean
  more to young people than more formal qualifications…
• Example from a participant that has learnt English through
  their volunteering during the past two years…amazing how life can change
  through a few hours per week…

What
made the Lewisham young people get involved in volunteering in the first place?

• Friend being killed – was close to being kicked out of school –
  now care about my grades (just taken GCSE’s). Moved from being a disgrace
  to my mum being proud…
• Used to live a life of monotony – used to lose track of time… Volunteering
  keeps you focussed…takes me to new places all the time
• Used to just sit on the wall waiting for my mates to come along…now
  I’m involved in loads of things…
• To make my mum proud…

On
the value of certificates?

• Sense of achievement and evidence for what have been learning…
• Part of wanting to go higher…importance of incremental
  experiences… of gaining the confidence to get where I now am / am going…

How
to get young people involved in their communities?

• Have to challenge adults perceptions about young people and how
  adults behave towards them…use technique of getting older people to relive
  their memories of being young to make sure young people get listened
  to…(Waverley)
• Run ‘participation in action training programme’ on rights,
  beliefs, attitudes etc. Whole process designed to be empowering… includes
  accreditation…young people now help write the materials…(Devon)

Main
messages / discussion themes to take forward to day two…

• Whether volunteering should become compulsory for young people as part of their personal
  development…
• Understanding young people’s motivation for volunteering is critical – could compulsory elements be included or
  would this undermine involvement?
• What should young people do after
  their education is finished at 16 – stay on? volunteer? Undertake
  National service?…
• How to recognise and
  celebrate young people’s achievements in the community
• How to challenge negative
  perceptions and change peoples’ views?
• How do we get more young
  people volunteering - making voluntary opportunities more appealing so more young people will be interested
• What support structures
  and resources are there out there? For young people / for
  organisations wanting to involve young people?
• Where are the progression
  routes for young volunteers?

Key
statements / assertions

• You cannot get all young people to volunteer unless they know it will benefit them…
• Volunteering has most impact on young people’s terms, not on government terms
• Young people should have the right to the opportunity
  to volunteer and to feel part of
  their community - working alongside all community members and not in
  isolation…
• Providing the opportunities should not fall to any one agency – more collaborative effort is needed…
• Volunteering should be linked
  to each Borough’s LSP with young people acting as peer advisors
• Don’t underestimate the power of formally recognising the achievements of young people via certificates
  and award celebrations
• Accreditation is
  clearly important to young people – why do we
  offer awards like the Youth Achievement Award but not qualifications like
  key skills?
• Communities need to create
  (more) opportunities for volunteering – linking it to personal
  development and social awards
• Young people can be very inspirational
  as community leaders when given the opportunity to achieve and
  contribute
• How to encourage more
  young people to volunteer? Tell people how much you enjoyed it and how
  you benefited – convince others – you are already doing a great job

Challenges

• How to replicate the
  success of projects like YouthAID across London
  /  England
• How to change the image
  of volunteering to engage ‘hard to reach’ young people
• How to let local and
  national government know more about these projects
• Ensuring young people gain
  personally from volunteering (personal not financial)
• Highlighting the benefits
  (skills, activities of interest to the individual, chance to meet people,
  certificates etc)
• How to encourage young people to spread the message to others – they are the most convincing
  advocates
• Recruit a friend campaign?
• Talking to young people that are not volunteering about
  volunteers experiences!