CHALLENGE PAPER ON YOUTH VOLUNTEERING
We are excited to share this challenge paper on youth volunteering led by RYVU team member Dr Moses Okech, with Professor Matt Baillie Smith and Dr Bianca Fadel, as part of the framing discussions for the IVCO 2023 Conference.
This paper was jointly commissioned by the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) and the International Forum for Volunteering in Development (Forum). It forms part of IAVE’s series of challenge papers on youth volunteering, and also as the framing paper for Forum’s International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations (IVCO) 2023 conference “A New Generation of Volunteers as Changemakers”. The paper brings evidence into dialogue with existing literatures and debates to explore three core questions:
How are young people volunteering, and how do they want to volunteer?
How can organisations develop programs that are truly youth-led?
How can we create a more conducive enabling environment for youth volunteering?
Using examples of organisational practice, stakeholder commentary and wider data and evidence, the challenge paper highlights: (1) the context for exploring youth volunteering; (2) the need to avoid homogenising youth volunteers and youth volunteering; (3) the challenges of shifting the power around organisations’ approaches to youth volunteering; and (4) the importance of youth voices in creating an enabling environment and shaping the youth volunteering landscape.