The Attend 500
Hundreds of young people across England currently give their time to improve the health and social care of their communities. However, one barrier to young people volunteering in health settings is a lack of opportunities that suit their interests and the way they live.
It may be an often-repeated phrase, but the recruitment of young people really is essential to the future of volunteering. The Attend 500 project increased the number of young volunteers by creating nearly 600 new opportunities for young people to volunteer in health and social care in pilot scheme in Lancashire, the East Midlands and East Anglia.
The opportunities created for young people included activities such as; fundraising, design and communications, broadcasting in hospital radio and work in retail and hospital shops. These opportunities are ongoing, many of the young people are continuing to volunteer beyond the end of this pilot scheme.
By creating projects that are of particular interest to young people, the Attend 500 ensured a positive experience that enhances their development and encourages them to continue to volunteer. Young people may even find many of these activities useful in their chosen career; many short term volunteers increased their volunteering in order to be able to access additional training and many were able to take advantage of the accredited training that was run as part of the pilot scheme.
On completing 50 hours of volunteering, 110 of the young people have already been presented with a vfifty certificate intended to encourage and recognise the contribution of the volunteer, but also to demonstrate their skills, hard work and dedication to potential employers.
As part of the vmatch funding criteria that paid for this scheme, priority was given to recruiting young people from ‘hard to reach’ groups. Attend 500 has exceeded the targets for recruitment of lesbian, gay and transgendered young people, young people not in employment, education or training, people in or leaving care and from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups. In the last six months we have also more than doubled the numbers of young people with disabilities and young ex-offenders volunteering in the project.
We are currently conducting further interviews and collating all the research that was done on this and the Vibe project, as well as the surveys, No Limits and Attitudes to Young Volunteers conducted in the last year, to come up with advice and guidance on recruiting, engaging and working with young volunteers for all our member groups.
Alex Davie, Volunteer at Colchester League of Friends
I am sixteen years old. At the moment I’m concentrating on my 5 AS levels in Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Geography and General Studies with a view to doing medicine at University. Apart from studying, I’m fairly sporty and am a member of the local road racing club (cycling), I like a challenge so I am also participating in my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award.
That’s essentially what got me into volunteering in the first place. I worked at a charity shop in town and at a stable that did Riding for the Disabled. I felt that they were good experiences of volunteering, but not really relevant to what I want to do in the future. But at the League of Friends, being in the hospital environment, talking to Doctors and the patients has really benefited me for the future, and hopefully my volunteering efforts in the main shop with all the lovely staff has had a positive effect as well, because I feel that making a difference is really important.
I was also part of a promotional DVD filmed in April. It was really good fun and was for a good cause. I think if enough people get the opportunity to see the DVD then more teenagers like me will definitely be encouraged to join the League of Friends and volunteer.
The first fundraiser has been held in Clitheroe, where young people raised over £1000 for a local hospital by organising a fashion show. For more information about 4Youth, visit their website here.
To find out more about v, visit their website by clicking here.