Volunteering Opportunities for Young People

Young Devon has provided volunteering opportunities for young people for many years and continues to value its importance in developing young people. The structure and the way young people volunteer have been developed to reflect young people going on a journey through their development to becoming an active member of society and the community they live in.

The over arching name given to our whole volunteering package is called ‘The Big V’. The different stages allow for the recognition that all young people are different and are at different stages of readiness to get involved in voluntary activities.

‘The Big V’ journey.

Short Burst  Challenge  Summit   Independence

 

A key focus of our recruitment is targeting young people who are deemed to be ‘at risk’ (i.e. young mum’s, truants, NEET young people, those involved in anti-social behaviour and care leavers) and generally not involved in any kind of volunteering. It is our experience that with the right opportunities and correct approach many of these young people can make a huge valuable contribution to the community they live in.

The first stage of involvement is an inclusion program known as ‘short burst’. This is for those ‘at risk’ young people and focuses on developing them as a young person, working on communication skills, teamwork skills, assertiveness, positive behaviour and self-esteem. Within this the young people take part in little snippets of volunteering, either a one off event or a mini challenge, making it as non-threatening as possible. Through this we encourage the young people to think about what there is for young people in their area and what is missing, we then get them to think if there is anything they can do to change this and do something about it. This part is called a community challenge, where the young people work on a mini community project of their choice.

From this the young people move into challenge, which involves them volunteering more regularly, coming up with their own volunteer projects and continuing to develop their skills.

From this point, the young people move onto the next stage of development called ‘Summit’ where the group take more responsibility and take part in larger forms of volunteering. They are now contributing on a regular basis within their community.

Eventually they reach ‘Independence’ which can be anything from the group becoming an independent group supported by us or young people moving on and becoming full time Gap Scheme volunteers.