Volunteer involving organisations across the sector have continued to struggle with exploring how they could open up more volunteering opportunities for young people and how they could overcome some of the barriers that make it difficult to involve younger people.
The Work.Live.Leicestershire (WiLL) team have found that creating bespoke opportunities for younger people works well. However, those same participants have shared concerns that they do not have a wide range of opportunities to choose from. With this in mind the team created a Youth Panel to discuss youth volunteering issues inviting young people previous/current and new participants to join.
The group have looked at the range of opportunities available and what young people are looking for from the wider volunteering experience. This Youth Panel pilot project has demonstrated the potential to directly involve young people in this area of work, and the interest in volunteering from the young people involved.
Similarly, the volunteer involving organisations and stakeholders that have shown an interest in the Youth Panel have indicated the potential to build partnerships around and to develop volunteering to expand horizons for local young people
Get involved
To find out more about the WiLL Project, visit our main WiLL Project page.