Young People Volunteering: Removing the Barriers - Growing up in Queensland (2019)

25/05/2020

Published: June 2019

Authors: The State of Queensland (Queensland Family and Child Commission)

Published by: The State of Queensland (Queensland Family and Child Commission)

This study followed on from a 2018 Queensland study of more than 7,000 Queensland children and young people: This place I call home: the views of children and young people on growing up in Queensland. In the current study, the Queensland Family and Child Commission worked with Volunteering Queensland to speak to Volunteer Involving Organisations across Queensland about the benefits of volunteering and ways to increase and support youth volunteering. They also heard from 247 children and young people through an eHub survey to understand their experiences of volunteering.

Volunteering and Employment: Young people noted a number of benefits in volunteering e.g. skills and knowledge they gained through volunteering to help them engage in paid employment. Volunteer Involving Organisations also reported a range of benefits e.g. encouraging young people to stay in the community and find local work opportunities.

Individual and community wellbeing: Children and young people reported that one of the main benefits of volunteering was the chance to develop interpersonal skills; they also responded positively to organisations that had a cause that made them feel part of the community. Volunteer Involving Organisations reported a range of benefits e.g. building a connection to culture, country, community and each other; less anti-social behaviour.

Barriers and opportunities: Young people reported not being happy with responses from Volunteer Involving Organisations e.g. being told that they were “too young” to volunteer and feeling that they needed to focus on study or other paid employment. Volunteer Involving Organisations reported issues such as concerns around creating child-safe environments but noted benefits such as young people bringing creativity and enthusiasm to their work.

This paper further reports on ways to assist individuals and organisations consider this issue and provided ways forward to strengthen individual and community wellbeing through volunteering.

The full report is available here.