Roger Potter, Director of Worldwide
Volunteering for Young People, outlines a scheme for harnessing an
enormous reservoir of enthusiasm, idealism and practical skills
Britain’s failure to fill the vacuum left by the demise of National
Service in the early sixties diminished the fabric of community life in
ways that we are only now beginning to recognise and regret. Overnight
we became the only major European country not to demand of its young
men a period of service. More significantly, we failed to replace
compulsory military service with voluntary opportunities appropriate to
the age and in tune with the wish of young men and women to contribute
to the world in which they live.
In failing to expose young people to the notion and practice of
civic responsibility we have failed ourselves as well as them. The
seven million 16-25 year olds in this country represent an enormous
reservoir of enthusiasm, idealism and practical skill and we need to
consider carefully how we can help to unleash this vast potential
energy for good.
Worldwide Volunteering is a charity dedicated to promoting
volunteering. There is nothing novel in Worldwide Volunteering’s
underlying belief that all young people should be encouraged to take up
the opportunity of a period of voluntary service as an integral part of
their education. There is some novelty in our approach to realising
this aim. We are not in danger of reinventing the wheel. Rather we are
putting a shoulder against the wheel in an attempt to give it greater
momentum.
Historically, much of the debate about community service has centred
on whether it should be compulsory or voluntary. Given sufficient
funding and an appropriate number of suitable tasks it would in many
ways be easier to implement a compulsory scheme. Such an obligatory
programme would bring together people of every background in common
tasks that none could avoid. It is often argued, furthermore, that
voluntary schemes attract only the well motivated, who are themselves
in least need of the advantages to the volunteer that participation
brings.
In practice, though, it is hard to imagine how any contemporary
scheme for nationwide service by young people could be other than
voluntary. The challenge is to make it the norm rather than the
exception for young people to take part in significant periods of
volunteering activity.
The programme envisaged by Worldwide Volunteering embraces the
voluntary principle and has a number of other prerequisites. It should
not be the property of any one political party. There is among young
people widespread disillusion both with politicians and, perhaps more
disturbingly, with the political process itself: the taint of political
party interest would be the kiss of death for any such scheme as we are
considering. There must be no hidden agenda. Specifically, volunteering
must not be workfare by another name and it must not be about massaging
unemployment figures. It must not take jobs away from people who might
reasonably expect to be paid for doing them. It should offer only jobs
demonstrably worthwhile in themselves. Crucially, such a scheme must
include projects that do not leave volunteers out of pocket though
clearly they would receive less than a notional going rate for the job.
The voluntary element lies in a willing contribution of time and
energy, not in an assumption that it has to be done for nothing, and to
this end revision of the current tax and benefit system will be
necessary.
These criteria are not as daunting as they may appear. In any
society there are hundreds of things that its members would like to be
done, which need to be done, but which they cannot reasonably expect
the state (or anyone else) to pay for. Each one of us could rapidly
produce a list of environmental, caring, teaching and other tasks that
are not going to get done if volunteers do not do them. They are not
essential but are in some way life-enhancing. They can be found in this
country and overseas.
A crucial consideration for a successful voluntary service programme
is that participation should be equally available and attractive to
young people from every background, from the most privileged to the
most disadvantaged. So the scheme needs flexibility in a variety of
ways. The entry point and the duration of service must be sufficiently
adaptable to satisfy individual circumstances. The range of
opportunities available must appeal to widely differing interests and
aspirations. No one approach can (or should) cater for every need and
circumstance. Indeed it is desirable that there should be a great range
of organisations each with its own autonomy and independence of action;
each with its individual appeal to particular groups of young people.
One of the problems with our current provision for voluntary work by
the young is that much of it is polarised. On the one hand there are
glamorous and often expensive gap-year projects,
which, because of the time and costs involved, are beyond the reach of
many potentially excellent volunteers. On the other hand many existing
organisations aim for the most part at involving and enabling the
disadvantaged. Inspiring as the work of many of these organisations is,
volunteering must not only be seen as a panacea for the perceived
negative aspects of young people’s lives. If it is there is a danger of
an alienating effect, turning the vast majority of youngsters who are
not particularly disadvantaged away from the idea of service.
More provision, though, must be made for the 80-90% of 16-25 year
olds who are neither particularly privileged not particularly
disadvantaged; that huge group that would undoubtedly put a great deal
into and get a great deal out of participation in volunteer projects,
but isn’t yet being inspired by a sense of service and is not being
encouraged to take up those opportunities that do exist.
Opportunities do, of course, already exist for this group – more of
them, in fact, than many people realise. Worldwide Volunteering has
identified over 800 organisations with upwards of 250,000 volunteer
placements a year between them – approximately one for every 35 of our
16-25 year olds. These organisations are the nucleus of what could
become a national movement.
If all young people are to be given the opportunity of service,
flexibility and variety are essential and existing assumptions will
have to be challenged. Is there a danger, for instance, of longer-term
volunteering being too closely associated with the gap-year
that is taken by only a tiny percentage of that minority of students
going to university? Why should a significant period of voluntary
service not become a recognised part of everyone’s education? Rather
than expecting all to participate in the same way in a centralised,
monolithic scheme, why not provide a menu of projects of varying length
and nature to satisfy the widely differing interests, aspirations,
circumstances and commitments of all young people?
A nationwide scheme of volunteering for young people will only
succeed if it is introduced gradually and is based upon existing good
practice in both public and private sectors, alongside the steady
introduction of new projects as demand for them grows. To this end,
Worldwide Volunteering’s most practical objective has been to create
the UK’s most comprehensive database of existing opportunities for
young people. The Worldwide Volunteering database search-engine enables
potential volunteers to access information through a range of criteria
such as age, start date, type and location of voluntary work required;
time available, financial considerations and so on. So, for example, a
student with four weeks to spare in August, wanting to work with
disabled young people in the North of England (or indeed any specified
UK county or any country overseas) and unable to contribute to the cost
of the project will have instant access to information about all those
recorded organisations offering such projects.
This straightforward and instant provision of information eliminates
the frustration for potential volunteers who would like to become
involved but do not know how to do so. It nudges them in the direction
of participation and is proving of great value to hard-pressed parents,
careers teachers, and others who advise young people. Confirmation of
Worldwide Volunteering’s appeal across the social spectrum can be seen
in the enthusiastic reception it has received from inner city projects
for disadvantaged young people as well as from leading state and independent schools.
The database is not, however, an end in itself. Worldwide
Volunteering’s aim is to demonstrate that by giving young people the
best possible information about volunteering more of them will
participate. Evidence of improved take up of existing volunteering
opportunities will be a powerful weapon for levering in new cash and
new projects. By taking this gradualist approach it should be possible
not only to increase the number of young people becoming involved in
worthwhile volunteering projects but also to solve the delicate problem
of ensuring that supply and demand march hand-in-hand.
None of this will be achieved unless young people themselves are
enthused and excited by volunteering. One of the problems is that our
education system has done little to emphasise the rewards as well as
the sacrifices of service and civic duty. We now need to change the
message that we send to young people about volunteering. Too often what
is said is the patronising: ‘You should do something for other people
because it is good for you’ – true in part though that undoubtedly
often is. How much more positive to turn the message around and say:
‘Society needs you; you have something very real to offer, will you
help us?’ Might we not in this way be able to harness more effectively
the enthusiasm, idealism and practical skills of the younger generation?
The altruism and concern for others evinced by young people is plain
to see. Every school noticeboard and newsletter gives evidence of the
fund-raising events that take place, the effort that goes into learning
about the problems of others, the sympathy that there is with those
less advantaged, the reaching out for a better world. It is high time
that the older generation harnessed this vast reservoir of energy and
talent – in our interests as well as theirs.
Worldwide Volunteering for Young People’s headquarters are at:
Higher Orchard,
Sandford Orcas,
Sherborne,
Dorset DT9 4RP
Telephone and Fax: 01963 220036,
E-mail: yfb@worldvol.co.uk
Website: www.worldwidevolunteering.org.uk
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