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Adrienne Picone Chief Executive VT Lindsey Moffatt Social Researcher. Why do this research?. State of Volunteering Report 2010. ‘Volunteering – the best kept secret?’ ‘Challenge the stereotypes – something for everyone’ ‘Invest now for the future’.
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Adrienne Picone Chief Executive VT Lindsey Moffatt Social Researcher
State of Volunteering Report 2010 ‘Volunteering – the best kept secret?’ ‘Challenge the stereotypes – something for everyone’ ‘Invest now for the future’
What’s the Tasmanian picture? • 35% of young Tasmanians have volunteered at least once in the past year • 43% of young male Tasmanians have volunteered • 26% of young female Tasmanians have volunteered
Young people are our future! • We know young people are already doing fantastic work • Need to ensure it’s inclusive • Need to make it sustainable • Need to know where to prioritise development • And we need it to be evidence-informed
About the research Research questions: • What approaches do Tasmanian volunteer-involving organizations use to successfully engage and retain young people as volunteers? • Are there similarities and differences in these approaches across sectors? • What recommendations can be made to other Tasmanian volunteer-involving organizations and to the government to engage and retain young people successfully?
About the research • Conducted between June and October 2010 • Case studies of three Tasmanian volunteer-involving organizations that currently recruit young people as volunteers, including: • documentary analysis; • semi-structured interviews with a member of senior management &/or volunteer; • a focus group with up to five young volunteers; • An organizational culture tool to explore organizations’ values
About the research ‘Young people’ = 16 to 24
Key messages • Willing volunteers in meaningful roles: • Challenges can be overcome • Young volunteers without boundaries • Need to target communication for digital natives • Learning and development is a key selling point • Developing a habit for life • Effective leadership: • Are positive about young people • Listen to young people • Link in with Gens Y & Z networks • Target recruitment and skills needed to work with young people • See success as engagement
willing volunteers in meaningful roles Challengescan be overcome
willing volunteers in meaningful roles Young people without boundaries
Young people without boundaries • No restrictions on what young volunteers would do, as long as they felt: • Able to contribute • Could have a positive experience • It would be a practical fit
Young people without boundaries:making a contribution • Being able to contribute: • through their skills and • to community • Seeing they were making a difference “Addressing that sense of ‘this is how important you are.’”
Young people without boundaries:a practical fit • Fits with other commitments - flexible • Accessible – transport addressed, or home based • Easy recruitment – short
Young people without boundaries:a positive experience Offering flexibility: • Organization considered the tasks that get put on the not urgent pile • Recognized that these are tasks that could be done at home, or in a couple of hours at someone’s convenience. • Developed a list and task description for each of these tasks, so that: • “Anytime a young person comes in, they can go to the tray, pick up a task with a description, complete, leave and feel their contribution.” Giving feedback on outcomes: • Organization B debriefs with all volunteers to get their feedback on how an event was for them. • Compiled into a summary impact report, including how many people were helped, what went well, what could be improved. • This is sent to volunteers with a thank you, so they understand the scope of their impact and that they have been listened to.
willing volunteers in meaningful roles Communicating with digital natives: Underuse of digital communication media
Communicating with digital natives Embracing the digital age Source: Marc Prensky, 2001, ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’ in On the Horizon, vol.9, no.5, pp.1-2, in McCrindle, (2010:52-53) “If it can’t be Googled, it can’t be done.” [Volunteer, org. C] “Until it’s on Facebook, it’s not official!’ [Volunteer, org. C]
Communicating with digital natives Embracing the digital age • Lack of consistent web-based info a problem - first point of call • Underuse of social networking – maintaining contact with existing volunteers
Communicating with digital natives Embracing the digital age • Need a digital communication plan on a scale appropriate to the organisation, its resources and its target volunteer audiences; • To communicate effectively with Gen Y and Z: • website as the first port of call for volunteer information; • consider the role of social networking to promote volunteer opportunities and to communicate with existing volunteers; • understand the role of emails and SMS messages for ongoing communication with volunteers. • Messages are to the point and preferably using multimedia.
Communicating with digital natives Embracing the digital age • Following a six-month consultation with young people and staff, the national strategy for one organization included: • Regularly refreshing website volunteer info • Online enquiry & induction • Viral campaigns to recruit & engage • Facebook for ongoing info
willing volunteers in meaningful roles Learning & development: a key selling point
Learning & development: a key selling point “I've learnt a lot from [the organization] as it's my first experience in a professional environment…how to communicate thoughts and ideas. You learn a lot about people skills.” [Volunteer, Org. A] “We’ve learnt so many different things…: leadership qualities physical skills (paddling, swimming etc.) social skills (self confidence, communication) first aid skills” [Volunteer, Org. C] “Having a different learning approach for young people is really important…The content’s the same, but the approach is different’” [Org. C] “Learnt by actually just doing it all really” [Volunteer, Org. C]
Learning & development: a key selling point • Learning and development included: • elements for transition to young adulthood and active citizenship; • vocational skills valuable to young adults entering the workforce; • Vicarious learning through experience was most common; • Peer mentoring valued by volunteers and organizations alike; • Formal training compulsory part of all volunteers’ induction; • Organizations recognized the need to make training brief, fun and as practical as possible; • All orgs had some form of informal checking in, which volunteers very much appreciated.
Creating willing volunteers in meaningful roles Developing a habit for life
Developing a habit for life • All young volunteers were on their way to making a habit for life
Effective leadership Seeing young people as possibility
Positive attitude to young people • All organizations had purposefully considered the role of young people; • All case study organizations used common guiding leadership principles: • being positive about young peoples’ involvement in their organization, • social inclusion and • community development.
Positive attitude to young people Youth-focused planning • Org B had taken a new approach to thinking about changing the culture of programme development • Looked to successful corporate sales approaches. • Using the McDonalds value added approach, “would you like fries with that”, in all new programme development they were encouraging staff to consider, “would you like youth with that?”
Effective leadership Listening to young people
Listening to young people “Volunteers are very strategic in what they choose, which is why some organizations aren’t doing so well; because they’re not designing their projects with that in mind.” [Peak body B] • “One of the tasks we’ve done is ask young people, ‘what do you know about [the organization]?’ ‘What can young people do in [the organization]?’ And that was initially a very big eye opener, because if they don’t know what they can do…even the best of your marketing attempts is going to fail.” • [Org. B]
Listening to young people • Orgs had good understanding of young people in relation to their organization; • Insights not necessarily gathered through formal consultation with young people; • Range of ways to find out young peoples’ views, from informal chats with current volunteers, through chats with people at community expos, to focus groups and forums and formal youth positions on boards; • Important issue with any consultation was ensuring this was inclusive of a range of views, it was realistic about what it could address and changes were fed back to those who were consulted and those it would effect.
Effective leadership Links to gens y & z networks
Links with Gens Y & Z networks “One thing that’s been highlighted to us is that people are much more likely to volunteer if they’re from a family of volunteers.” [Peak body A] • “If you don’t have connections with schools, or other youth organizations, you’re in big trouble.” • [Peak body B]
Links with Gens Y & Z networks Organizations’ tip: developing school networks • Schools project: • provide students with a supported and meaningful voluntary experience • Provide support and advice to organisations to better engage with young people as volunteers. • promote social and employment-related development for young people. • encourage the students’ interest and commitment to volunteering beyond the lifetime of the project. • Supported orgs to: • review roles and write position descriptions; • review recruitment and application processes; • consider good volunteer management practices • Understand the vocational benefit to young volunteers • Supported young people to: • Reflect on what they’ve gained • Promote volunteering to other young people • Set up Facebook pages to maintain a volunteer community • Make a film about their experiences • Has led to: • Change in young peoples’ attitudes to volunteering & local orgs – increased motivation, confidence, (school attendance) & future work pathways • Better links between schools & local organisations • Better understanding in orgs on how to engage young volunteers
Effective leadership Targeting recruitment to gens y & z
Targeting recruitment to Gens Y & Z “We’re bombarded with so much information everyday, that you really need to make it attractive for people to go, ‘Oh yeah, I wanna be involved in that.’” [Peak body B] “There has to be a willingness to want to really involve young people in their organization and I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing if they don’t. It’s actually OK to have an organization that appeals to one demographic.” [Peak body A] “[Promote] what young people are doing and what benefits they’re getting.” [Volunteer, Org. B]
Targeting recruitment to Gens Y & Z • Orgs were clear who their target audiences are and what attracts them to the organization • Targeted recruitment essential to attract young people • For state-wide orgs: • digital and non-digital recruitment mixes were essential • a web presence was key as a first port of call; • For the local, community focused organization: • personal approaches key • Application processes - as short as possible; • Using young people as ambassadors helps potential young people to put themselves in volunteers’ shoes
Targeting recruitment to Gens Y & Z • Org B developed a youth engagement strategy • Overhauled its recruitment processes for targeting young people: • through the career hub – a web page at the university; • we go through youth centres and put colourful posters on notice boards; • we use existing youth volunteer email distribution lists, ‘if you know someone who might be interested, get them to email or text this number’
Effective leadership The need for coaching skills
The need for coaching skills “I think the education of older people in dealing with children in an educational context is really important. If you put money into developing programmes that develop us – the managers of clubs – to relate in a positive way to young people, that would be a great advantage.” [Org. C]
The need for coaching skills • Volunteer management skills were similar to those needed for staff management, • Particularly important: • clear communication skills; • understanding of what it takes to volunteer; and • flexible approach. • Key specific youth volunteer management skill - developing adults’ ability to work with and support young people – through community coaching.
