There are many people aged 13 to 17 with the time and drive to help their community and volunteer. Though too often volunteering opportunities are aimed at people over the age of 18.
As a young person, I was only able to volunteer through schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award, National Citizen Service and a sports initiative in my local area. I found out about all of these through school.
So, how can we create more volunteering opportunities for younger people that are accessible and varied?
As part of NCVO’s strategy, we’re looking to support charities by bringing members together to find solutions to common problems. We also aim to create connections across our membership.
We looked for the expertise and ran an online event to find out how we can engage and support young people to volunteer.
We heard from East Riding Voluntary Action Services (ERVS), St John’s Ambulance and Reclaim about a range of programmes aimed at people from as young as five years old.
These programmes were best achieved through collaboration with schools, local authorities and wider partnerships to make sure they’re accessible to those from a variety of backgrounds.
This can also be done by focusing on specific areas and making sure programmes are written by and for these groups through co-creation and collaboration.
Funding can come from a variety of sources depending on the programme type or the young beneficiaries, such as schemes with green objectives or aimed at young carers.
Some projects also came about through informal volunteering, which was then developed into more structured opportunities.
Here are some case studies we found below.
Contributions that young people can make shouldn’t be underestimated, with young people under the age of 18 co-creating projects and gaining national recognition for their work.
Not only is it helpful to the community, but volunteering can transform lives by giving young people the opportunity to gain valuable transferable skills.
The experience I gained volunteering provided me with examples to use in my interview to get the apprenticeship role I have at NCVO.
Community First shared insight on the practical areas to consider when engaging young people in volunteer roles.
You should check your insurance policies to make sure that young people are included. You should also look into child employment law for best practice.
Those working with volunteers under the age of 18 may need an enhanced or an enhanced with barred list DBS check depending on what their role involves. It’s free to carry out these checks on volunteers. People under 16 also can't make house-to-house collections for charities.
For more information read our overview of DBS checks for staff and volunteers.
Risk assessments should always be carried out for activities involving volunteers. A separate risk assessment needs to be completed and kept up to date if you involve young volunteers.
This is because they have different needs, capacities and pressures than adults. You'll also have additional responsibilities when safeguarding children.
Read our guidance on how to manage risk.
You should get parental permission and (where applicable) photo consent before young volunteers start volunteering. This should also include the young person’s consent.
This can be done using a written consent form making them aware of safeguarding policies, the volunteering activity and emergency contact information. At least one person should be present at all times who has DBS clearance.
Read our safeguarding guidance.
All volunteers should sign a volunteer agreement to show they've read and understood the volunteer policy.
Read our guidance on how to write a volunteer policy.
You may want to give young people enhanced induction, training and supervision as this may be their first experience with volunteering. They may also require more appropriately sized equipment.
It's particularly important to ensure that young volunteers receive training and support to help them understand what safeguarding is. They should understand why it's important and how to report a safeguarding concern.
Read our guidance on how to deliver safeguarding training.
Create exciting, different and engaging roles young people are interested and have expertise in.
This could include social media, a topic like sustainability, or a specific field they want to gain more experience in.
At our online event, we then had a breakout session where it was great to hear from many enthusiastic organisations that want to engage more young people in their work.
We hope this webinar provided an excellent sounding board to start conversations and reading this has done the same!
