1. Libby Clement and Scott Lafferty

2.  EDVA’s Business Activity  Supply and Demand

3.  Aims and Objectives  Methodology  Study Limitations

4.  Helping others and community impact salient: “Volunteering in a nutshell is spending time to improve the lives of others” “I feel that volunteering is a way for the community to repair on its issues”  Personal Development and Family Connections:  Only a minority stated ‘career related experience’. Seen more as a by-product or intertwined: It sounds quite selfish to say that it helps you with your career, but it definitely does, and it’s good to do something for someone else that can really help to make a difference to their life, [which is] a really important aspect of volunteering.”  Volunteering and work experience were often a point of contention for young people

5.  School the first point: It’s a fun part of school (…) it’s something nice to do, instead of ‘go to this class, do this work’. It’s a nice break from the usual routine…it’s a part of school now, but it’s a good part. It’s not like you can’t be bothered going to it…it’s more like you plan your own schedule.”  Most volunteering occurs at school, church, sport-and youth group based contexts  Access to volunteering information  Mixed perception of number of opportunities and awareness  Opportunities seen as ‘same old stuff’. Young people interested in a breadth of placement areas.

6. ◦ Majority taken part but unaware of online resources ◦ Not as conscious of mapping and controlling volunteering experiences ◦ Not much opportunity to talk about volunteering ◦ Perceived as integral to perceptions of volunteering but seen as by-product.

7. Awards/qualifications risk depersonalisation of volunteering and felt necessary to ‘prove’ volunteering to employers and FHE institutions. Volunteering is something you do, because you enjoy it, not because of an egotistical desire to get some piece of paper that says you’re a good human being” Balance between structuring volunteering and acknowledging/celebrating volunteering “Introducing young people to volunteering is definitely the right thing to do, its right [to do this] in classes…they should be made aware of it, and the opportunity to do it, but at no point should it become routinely enforced”

8. Transport links and cost: “…my dad’s always working and my mum doesn’t drive, so it’s hard to get to places. I’d like to [volunteer] in Kirkintilloch and Kilsyth.” Time balance between school and volunteering: …The prime time to volunteer [after age 16], is when you have exams going on and the least free time school wise, which is annoying, [as then] you can’t do as much volunteering as you’d like to.” Information on volunteering: [I]n general I think East Dunbartonshire has a lot going on that people don’t know about, and it’s almost as if each volunteering opportunity is its own little secret world.” Attitudes towards and amongst young people: ‘liability’. Health and Safety, and Insurance

9.  Survey: 36% confidence and self-esteem; 20% helping others; 28% skills for work or FHE. “It makes me feel good, because I know I’ve helped someone and I can go to sleep knowing that I’ve helped someone that wasn’t so fortunate before.”  First experiences of volunteering largely positive: 68% ‘really positive’, 24% ‘somewhat positive’. 64% treatment ‘really good’. “I think as you go on you’re more comfortable and confident in what you’re doing because you’re more experienced.”

10.  Young people’s volunteering was enabling and sustaining across communities It feels like you’ve given back…” “I’m going to be quite honest here; if we hadn’t done the Food Bank I probably wouldn’t have done anything volunteering wise: it’s the impact that has given me the satisfaction. See when I first heard about it, I thought ‘oh no, this is going to be dead boring and I’m not going to enjoy this.’ But by the end of it I thought it was one of the best things in the world.” “Being someone that’s travelled quite a bit and volunteered quite a bit, I’ve noticed that different communities ask for different things from their volunteers. East Dunbartonshire in particular has been definitely focused around recreating a sense of community…”

11.  Gemma Swann  Sean McKenna  Fiona Milligan and Lucy McKinney  Lisa Chestnut

12. 1. Volunteering largely a positive experience, nurtured and introduced predominately at school, and developed in wider context of church-based, uniformed youth groups and sports organisations. Volunteering important for self-esteem/confidence, social connection and ‘place’ in community. 2. Contention between policy agendas and ‘institutionalisation’ of volunteering, and navigating their volunteering. On top of geographical and structural barriers.

13.  Work with partners to improve transport links.  Build VIO capacity to generate safe and meaningful locally-based opportunities.  Devise innovate and flexible ways to map youth volunteering.  Construct youth volunteer network.  Work with partners to nurture and support youth volunteering.  Challenge structural and culture barriers to youth volunteering.  Raise awareness of volunteer opportunities.  Create a youth volunteer toolkit.  Assess the ‘institutionalisation’ dynamic of youth volunteering.