I am going to focus this article on high school age youth since I seem to get the most questions about how to successfully engage and keep this group of volunteers.

It has been twelve years since the Ministry of Education introduced “mandatory community involvement” for students in high schools. In order to graduate, students must successfully complete 40 hours of so-called volunteer work. With little to no preparation, the nonprofit community was flooded with requests from students or their parents and were ill-prepared to engage them. Some research was started during the CVI project years (Canadian Volunteerism Initiative) but to my knowledge there has never been a review or evaluation of the impact of youth volunteering on the sector or the impact on youth themselves. What we do know came from a NSGVP study in 2000: “An interest in volunteering, developed during one’s youth is likely to be maintained in adulthood. This suggests the importance of providing positive, early volunteering experiences for youth, as these experiences may lead to continued volunteering in the adult years.”

With this basic knowledge and some later research by Imagine Canada, we have a greater understanding today of what youth are looking for and need in order to have a successful volunteer experience. Early success may lay the foundation for life-long volunteering. And isn’t that what the voluntary sector hopes for? To build sustainable volunteerism?

Probably the most asked question about engaging youth is related to retention…managers of volunteers spend a lot of time getting ready, recruiting, and orienting and many youth do not stay beyond their 40 hours. “How do we get youth to stay beyond 40 hours since we have invested so much into their orientation etc.?” This question can actually be asked for all ages of volunteers.

Three ideas

1. Organizational readiness

The organization has much work to do to fully prepare to engage youth including creating a climate that is “youth-friendly,” determining whether the goals of the organization can be achieved with youth engagement, and establishing policies and procedures and good opportunity descriptions. Is there a champion for youth in your organization? Is there a project that might lend itself to youth? Or could we have leadership opportunities for youth? Answers to these and many other questions will provide the groundwork for building an organization that is much better prepared to engage youth and make their experiences more meaningful. For a more in-depth look, see CharityVillage resource listed at the end of this article.

2. Meaningful opportunities

Quit giving youth the jobs that no one else wants to do!!! This includes envelope stuffing, office work, the jobs that staff do not want to do, or that staff create just to give youth their 40 hours. When this happens is it little wonder that youth do not stay longer?

Forty-six percent of young people want to develop new skills in their volunteer experience and 65% believe that volunteering will lead to paid employment. (Centre for Philanthropy)

This is important information when considering adapting current volunteer positions or creating new ones. Create opportunities where young people will learn skills and link this to future employment. Projects where leadership, team work, communication, and problem solving skills are developed such as managing a fundraising strategy or special event, or developing online resources tools, can use existing skills and build new ones. They are also short term opportunities that will fit with youth needs of the moment.

Some agencies told me that youth stayed beyond all expectations when the work was challenging, interesting, and skills were developed. Remember that youth may not stay with you but as they mature they may pick up future volunteering if their experience with you was a good one.

3. Relationship building and mentorship

No matter our age, I feel that we are more likely to stay with an organization when we have truly developed strong connections to the cause, culture, and the people. I find it hard to say no or leave when I feel passionately about what I am doing. I am making a difference.

I believe that when youth get involved fully they feel this same way. Look at what youth are doing to create new nonprofits, initiatives in third world countries building wells and sustainable water systems, food initiatives, and environmental campaigns. Youth at the high school level are conducting workshops on health issues such as drinking and driving, taking an active role in community initiatives such as United Way Youth leadership, or making videos to promote the donation of blood ( a young man in Peterborough is doing just that and he is 14-years-old).

Working with youth requires this same building of “relationship” within a mentorship model. The organization needs to understand that, depending on the maturity level of youth, the youth volunteer-staff relationship will be different from other adult volunteer-staff relationships. Our youth can teach us many things and vice versa. We have to be open and willing to commit time and energy to nurture youth so that they understand the true meaning of volunteerism. In the long run, managers of volunteers are not just developing their own volunteer resources for the organization they work for but in fact are working for a much larger cause: creating long-term sustainable volunteerism to meet future demand.

Summary

Barbara Oates, BC Regional Co-ordinator/National Consultant on Youth in Philanthropy, Community Foundations of Canada, wrote an article for Canadian Fundraiser entitled, “Engaging the Millennium Generation Revitalizes Organizations.” In the article, she stresses the need to create the right conditions for involving youth.

“Genuine youth engagement does not just happen,” says Oates. “It requires the presence of a variety of factors in combination for its initiative and implementation, and the creation and maintenance of conditions conducive to supporting its growth and evolution.”

Oates believes, as I do, that some of the primary factors include: “a field of interest relevant to youth, real decision-making responsibility, supportive adults, room for new ideas, and shifts of power and control.” Many of these factors are a threat to organizations because they represent a change in culture, a way of work and a shift in many of the underlying structures.

My philosophy: If you can’t do something well and to the best of your ability, don’t do it. This applies directly to engaging youth. If you cannot do it well then don’t do it. You may cause more harm in the long run by giving youth any experience to complete their 40 hours…and in the process have lost a volunteer for life. Since current Canadian data shows decreases in overall levels of volunteerism, can we afford to give youth just “any old” experience so they graduate? I would rather make an “investment” by providing the right ingredients, such as opportunities that will excite them about the true nature and role of volunteerism in a civic society, so that we increase our chances of engaging them for life.

Some additional resources:

Disclaimer: Advice and recommendations are based on limited information provided and should be used as a guideline only. Neither the author nor CharityVillage.com make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in whole or in part within this article.

Donna Lockhart is a trainer and consultant with The RETHINK Group. Her focus is on “developing volunteer capacity.” Donna designed the CharityVillage Building a Great Volunteer Program campus course. She facilitates a wide range of workshops and training sessions in volunteer engagement. For more information visit: www.rethinkgroup.ca.