Youth volunteering: A rapid review of the recent evidence

[caption id="attachment_692" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Rui Jorge Octavio gained valuable experience after volunteering to set up a comedy night. Photograph: Graham Turner/guardian.co.uk"][/caption]

As part of v’s on-going evaluation the Institute of Volunteering Research has reviewed recent developments in youth volunteering, ' Young people, volunteering, and youth projects: A rapid review of recent evidence'. The three staged review looks at: the evidence base for young people, including their attitudes to and participation in volunteering; specific types of volunteering initiatives in the UK and beyond; and finally it summaries the key developments in the literature since the last comprehensive review in 2004 (Gaskin, 2004a).

This latest insightful report demonstrates the continued research interest in exploring young people’s participation in and understanding of volunteering. It is re-assuring to see this report conclude there has been a strong increase in direct consultation with young people since 2004 about their attitudes to volunteering. Understanding and considering the views, wishes, and opinions of young people must be central to improving and developing youth volunteering.  Research highlights that young people are far from being a homogeneous group and that demographic characteristics affect the participation rates and the nature of volunteering undertaken. Direct consultation with a diverse range of young people, through research, will enable us to better design volunteering initiatives and ensure their voices don’t get lost in the important policy debates about youth volunteering and civic service. v’s research on full time volunteering, Young People Speak Out (2009) is a good example of this.

However, as pointed out in this latest review, gaps still remain in the research, particularly the lack of evidence around the long term impacts of volunteering. Within the current economic context, and rising levels of youth unemployment, there is a need to better understand one particular key long term impact; the link between volunteering and employability. This report shows that a focus on employability as a benefit of volunteering is particularly prevalent for the young. While evidence of the impact of volunteering on employment rates is mixed, young people perceive volunteering as enhancing their employability (Hirst, 2001) and v’s research with employers (2008) shows that employers value volunteering experience for improving work related skills such as communication, leadership, team work, and self-confidence. 

v is committed to understanding not just this link between volunteering and employability, but to gaining a full picture of the long term benefits of volunteering. We have recently tendered for a new research project - a scoping study to understand how to measure the impacts of volunteering on young people using longitudinal research. Through the scoping study we will be reviewing existing research and working with a range of key stakeholders to develop a best practice model for longitudinal research in this area. We aim to use the scoping study results to invite future investment in a longitudinal study to open up this much needed area of research.

We look forward to sharing these results with you in the autumn. If you are interested in this longitudinal research we’d like to hear from you.