Posts Tagged ‘youth unemployment’
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Measuring the long-term benefits of youth volunteering
The Institute of Volunteering Research has released a new report, Young people, volunteering, and youth projects: A rapid review of recent evidence. (Well worth a read and a good place to start if you’re looking for sources of facts to back up a funding application.)
One of the things the report points out is that, in England, there have been few studies which look at longer term impact on volunteers or on wider social and community impacts of volunteer programmes. With youth unemployment rising, there’s a real need to understand one particular key long term impact: the link between volunteering and employability.
In the USA there have been useful studies assessing short, medium and long-term impacts of a range of schemes including Americorps and City Year. One example, Still Serving: Measuring the eight-year impact of Americorps on alumni, shows that sixty percent of AmeriCorps State and National volunteers go on to work in a nonprofit or governmental organization.
The City Year Experience Over Time: Findings from the Longitudinal Study of Alumni shows that more than three-quarters of City Year alumni reported that City Year had contributed to the development of their early careers, and their assessment of City Year’s impact remained relatively consistent over time. (With results like this, it’s great to see that US-based City Year is setting up a project in London.)
While evidence of the impact of volunteering on employment rates is mixed, research shows that young people perceive volunteering as enhancing their employability and employers value volunteering experience for improving skills such as communication, leadership, team work, and self-confidence.
In the medium to long term, existing research suggests that the experience of full-time volunteering, at least, can instil a lasting commitment to voluntary service, but gaps in research and evidence of the long-term impact of youth volunteering remain. v is starting to address this with a scoping study which aims to develop best practice and attract investment in research into the long-term benefits of youth volunteering.
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Lost Generation? David Blanchflower warns of the ‘lull before the storm’
At a special lecture this week, organised by v, former Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee Member, Professor David Blanchflower, highlighted to a packed auditorium at the RSA, the dangers of youth unemployment for society and the long term negative impact on a young person’s life chances.And the panellists, including; Stephen Timms MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury; David Willetts MP, Shadow Minister for Universities and Skills; Miles Templeman, Director-General of the Institute of Directors and Wes Streeting, President of the National Union of Students, agreed. Willetts acknowledging, ‘young people are the clear victims in this recession’.
With youth unemployment nudging one million people, Blanchflower warned that more needs to be done to support young people, stressing that, ‘we have to deal with this situation now because the costs of not dealing with it are even more serious.’
v’s Chief Executive Terry Ryall supported this analysis, saying, ‘we know from our work with 100,000s of young people that the recession is hitting them hard’.
v used the special event to call for funding and cross party political support to implement a unified national public service scheme, building on the success of our full-time volunteering programme ‘vtalent year’. Targeted at the most disadvantaged and marginalised – who will be the most vulnerable when the job market recovers – such a scheme could make a significant impact on the lives of young people as well as all the issues surrounding youth unemployment.
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Young people: Living online?
Recent stories regarding young people’s use of the internet and social media have raised an interesting question mark on an assumed trend; that young people live online.
First came the research note into young people’s media habits wrote by a 15 year-old intern at Morgan Stanley. The note, which describes his friends’ declining social media habits ended up on the front page of the Financial Times and caused a stir with City investors and media analysts alike.
And although it received a bashing on the blogs for being the views of one young guy, the launch of Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2009 seemed to back up part of the note by reporting that in the 15-24 age group, use of social networking sites declined from 55 per cent in the first quarter of 2008 to 50 per cent in 2009. This contrasts with Ofcom’s findings in 2006 which highlighted social media as the next big thing for 15-24 year-olds.
Gerry Greaney/Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
So what are young people doing online?
There is of course lots of research to quote in answering that question, but most of it is contradictory.
One interesting answer comes from Bill Wasik, a senior editor at Harper’s and the author of “And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture.” Wasik believes that as ‘old-model’ opportunities disappear in the real world; jobs, internships and grants, young creatives are turning to the Bright Lights, Big Internet to get their big break. Suggesting the growth of much more entrepreneurial and creative uses for the web when the real world is letting them down.
On life online and keeping creativity alive in the recession, check out ‘A little rant about ‘the lost generation’.
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Recognise us and respect us
New research by the British Youth Council, Recognise and respect us, examines the barriers some young people face in volunteering. The research highlights that young people often don’t know if their volunteering is recognised or appreciated. The research recommends greater recognition and respect for young volunteers.
NCCPE’s Student Volunteering: Background, Policy and Context (June 2009) highlights other reports championing recognition for young volunteers. Both the Morgan Enquiry and the Volunteering Works report (from Volunteering England and the IVR) conclude that young people, like adults want feedback and to know what they have done has been valued. They are often more inclined to want some accreditation for their achievements which will have currency in the workplace.
The National Youth Agency’s 2007 report, Young People’s Volunteering and Skills Development, showed that while a minority – usually those who were already achieving well in formal education – did not see formal recognition as important, most young people involved in the research wanted their skills to be at least recorded through certificates and evidence for CVs. This was seen as particularly important for those who had little or no other evidence of achievement.
Whilst youth unemployment figures continue to rise there’s much discussion that volunteering can viable way for young people to enter their chosen industry whilst building up the necessary skills set needed for the world of work. But we must work to ensure high profile recognition and respect for the contribution young people can make through volunteering. Young volunteers need, and deserve, to feel valued. Employers need to respect their contribution and ensure that they don’t perceive volunteering as a source of cheap labour.
This finding strikes a chord with us here at v. Our vinspired awards are recognised by the CBI, and have won support from Dragon’s Den star James Caan, EMI’s Felix Howard, and Birmingham City’s Karren Brady. We’ll be celebrating the achievements of some our our vfifty award holders in the national press in the coming months.
And we’re busy working towards the vinspired National Awards ceremony for young volunteers, which takes place in October. Nominations are now open, so nominate volunteers you know – give them the recognition and respect they deserve!
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Promoting a Creative Generation
Today marks the start of Promoting a Creative Generation, a two-day conference in Göteborg looking at the role of children and young people in the new culture and media landscape.
Taking place within the context of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation and hosted under the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, 350 experts and participants will discuss the creativity and cultural habits of children and young people.
Gunnar Seijbold/ Regeringskansliet.
Swedish Minister for Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth says, “this conference is to learn more about both the possibilities and problems of the new culture and media landscape that our children and young people encounter. The digital cultural platforms create new and often difficult issues that, despite their different starting points, are clearly related. And it is almost always young people who are affected”.Keynote speakers include Renad Qubbaj from the Tamer Institute for Community Education in Ramallah and Professor Bamford, Director of Cultural Programmes for Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE), London.
The conference programme focuses on different aspects of daily life for children and young people, recognising that, today, children and young people are to a great extent not only consumers but also producers in the new media landscape. Sessions will look at how to strengthen children and young people’s right to culture, how traditional cultural institutions can find ways to remain attractive and accessible for the new generation, promote the exchange of experience and knowledge on how public investments can help to ensure that children and young people’s right to culture in all forms is guaranteed and will also include participants trying out the younger generation’s world of digital communication.
The opening and closing sessions can be watched via webcast
In the UK, very similar questions are being raised by The New Deal of the Mind coalition, chaired by the journalist and former political editor of the New Statesman, Martin Bright. The New Deal of the Mind is a grouping of like-minded individuals who believe we must not let the recession crush creativity and innovation. Learning the lessons of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1930s New Deal, the coalition believes the creative and digital industries can help provide a route through the recession for young people and others. Check out their latest report, ‘Do It Yourself: Cultural and Creative Self-Employed in Hard Times’, exploring self employment options in the cultural and creative sector.
Of course this blog celebrates how creativity and innovation are changing youth volunteering, but revolutionising how young people can share their time and talents with others is becoming of much broader concern, across many sectors.
Any thoughts on these issues?
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