Youth Volunteers Research Articles

Economics of Intergenerational Volunteering: A Mixed-Methods Study of Snow-Buddies Program in Niagara Region, Canada

ABSTRACT This study examines the financial costs and savings of a community-based intergenerational volunteer program (i.e. Snow-buddies) that pairs youth with older adults for snow removal. From March 2020 to May 2023, Snow-buddies completed 106 volunteer-matches and 486 snow removal events. Using a sequential exploratory mixed-method design, 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted with youth volunteers and older adults. The majority of participants revealed minimal out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses and time/productivity losses for snow removal. Increased mobility, fall prevention, and social connections were perceived benefits of the program. A survey (n = 55, 52% of matched participants) reported an average CAD$123 OOP spending per snow removal event. Applying the rate of fall injuries among older adults due to snow, an estimated 1.12 fall injuries per 486 person-events were prevented translating into a total of $81,398 financial savings from averted hospitalization (i.e. a benefit–cost ratio of ~$662 for every dollar spent on snow removal).

Crime prevention through volunteering among Palestinian youth in Israel

ABSTRACT Palestinians in Israel constitute approximately one-fifth of the total population. Despite being legally recognised as equal citizens, they face persistent inequality and discrimination, manifested through unevenly applied laws, discriminatory attitudes among decision-makers, inequitable government budget allocations, inferior public education systems, and limited employment opportunities. Consequently, intra-community crime and violence have risen as individuals attempt to improve their circumstances through alternative means. This article explores how volunteering among Palestinian youth can help mitigate risk factors and enhance protective factors against involvement in violence and crime. The study is based on in-depth interviews with twenty youth volunteers and four volunteer officers, aimed at uncovering their experiences and the significance they attribute to volunteering in steering them away from crime and violence. The findings indicate that volunteering functions as a powerful tool for reducing intra-community violence and crime, combating the influence of criminal leaders, and empowering marginalised communities.

Well-being and ill-being: Prominences and differences in the perspectives of volunteers in the immediate and longer-term aftermaths of disaster

This paper presents the results of a PERMA (plus ill-being) analysis of the ways in which young post-disaster volunteers in Aotearoa New Zealand across the 2010-20 decade talked of well-being and ill-being. The 57 interviewees were divided into two cohorts based on whether they volunteered in the immediate or longer-term aftermath of disaster. Across both cohorts, interviewees believed that volunteering after disaster engendered significant well-being benefits, and that these benefits were instrumental in enabling them to counter the potentially negative impacts of disaster. Yet notable differences also existed between the two cohorts. A greater proportion of immediate post-disaster volunteers talked of tiredness/exhaustion (ill-being) but derived well-being from being part of a movement and enabling others. Conversely, those who volunteered in the longer-term aftermath recounted a broader experience of well-being (including a sense of being valued, commitment, satisfaction from having an enjoyable experience, interest, and developing self-belief). These findings contribute to scholarship on volunteers’ well-being by highlighting the differences in well-being experiences across youth volunteers in immediate disaster response and longer-term aftermath of disaster recovery.

Potenzialità e criticità dell’Area Marina Protetta Isole Ciclopi

Abstract Potentialities and Criticalities of the Isole Ciclopi Marine Protected Area The paper analyses the Isole Ciclopi Marine Protected Area facing the hamlet of Aci Trezza within the municipality of Aci Castello in the Province of Catania, Italy. It aims to describe emerging potential and critical issues, posing the question of which actors are involved in the governance. Employing a qualitative methodology, the research revealed that the main problem is the non-implementation of the so-called command-and-control method. After establishing rules and prohibitions, resources for control and imposition of sanctions are lacking. A positive note is the increase in youth volunteer activities of cleaning the sea from plastics, showing a sound interest in the environmental education proposed by cultural and environmental associations.

Social Innovations in an Emergency Setting: Opportunities and Challenges for Youth Volunteers in Curbing the Spread of COVID-19 in Huye District, Rwanda

Purpose: Following COVID-19 at the close of 2019, countries have been in an emergency to contain the improvised danger to their citizens; Rwanda was no exception. The Government of Rwanda (GoR) turned to investing in different mechanisms to deal with the pandemic, including community-based interventions by youth volunteers, which is considered a social innovation to deal with the improvised societal challenge. This study investigated the motives, opportunities, challenges, and lessons that youth volunteers encountered while curbing the spread of the pandemic at the community level. Theoretical Concept: Social innovation concepts contribute to social change and provide actors with the means to meet societal challenges. The social innovation concepts were adopted as the theoretical concepts underpinning the study. Method: The study followed a descriptive qualitative design. Using key informants and in-depth interview techniques (KIIs), data were collected from 13 interviews with youth volunteers and opinion leaders among citizens of the Huye District of Rwanda who were selected using network and purposive sampling techniques. Interviews were uploaded in MAXQDA 2022 to visualize and map the data. Results: The results indicate that youth volunteers have encountered various challenges where a poor mindset had a big occurrence, followed by aggressive attitudes from beneficiaries of their interventions. However, despite the challenges, there were opportunities whereby youth volunteers showed a high level of patriotism for their country and learned new skills like public speaking. Implications: The study suggests that in similar future interventions, the government should mitigate the identified challenges and enhance the highlighted opportunities for the intervention to be more impactful.

A Phenomenological Investigation on The Lived Experiences of Filipino Youth Volunteers in Non-Profit Organization

A Phenomenological Investigation on The Lived Experiences of Filipino Youth Volunteers in Non-Profit Organization

Unveiling awareness and knowledge of orphan plants: catalysts for sustainable transformation in Al-Zarqa Basin, Jordan

The awareness of orphan plants and underutilized species that have agricultural, nutritional, and medicinal importance is critical to the sustainable civilization of people. The lack of knowledge of the orphan plant’s importance stems from insufficient outreach and educational efforts and this may increase the underappreciation of these plants’ ecological relevance which will affect the sustainable environment in the determined region. In this study, Al Zarqa basin region located in the northern part of Jordan was selected as a study case. This is due to it having rich plant biodiversity with many endangered plant species. This study aimed to assess the awareness levels of the civil people in the Al Zarqa basin regarding orphan plants and identify key factors influencing the community’s understanding of these underutilized species. In this study, local youth volunteers distributed an e-questionnaire, and 1000 participants from seven villages were engaged. Different parameters that measure people’s awareness regarding orphan plants were evaluated. Data were collected and statistically analyzed to show the range of the people’s awareness. Data showed the predominant of the samples used were male representation (66%), aged 18–45, engaged in agricultural and handicraft activities, with diverse educational backgrounds, and monthly incomes of 300–500 JD. Limited awareness (23.3%) of ‘orphan plants’ was linked to lower academic levels in the studied areas. Perceived benefits varied, with 36.1% acknowledging moderate advantages and 25.6% perceiving high benefits. Despite recognizing utility, participants lacked specificity in benefits or classification. The study concludes that the region exhibits a dearth of knowledge about orphan plants, necessitating educational initiatives to raise awareness and advocate for the agricultural and medicinal potential of underutilized plant species, contributing to the socioeconomic advancement of residents in the agriculturally endowed Zarqa Basin. This investigation is essential for highlighting the current state of awareness and informing potential outreach and education strategies. Addressing the root cause of underappreciation through targeted initiatives can play a pivotal role in fostering a better understanding of the ecological significance of rare and endangered plants, ultimately contributing to their conservation and sustainable use.

팬데믹을 경험한 z세대 청소년의 자원봉사활동이 청소년의 사회성에미치는 영향

This study was conducted for the purpose of understanding the factors thatinfluence the social skills of Generation Z youth volunteer activities in the pandemic era. Thesubjects were currently surveyed for two weeks from October 10 to October 23, 2023,focusing on high school volunteers in Gwangju Metropolitan City, and 560 cases were analyzed using spss 26.0. The results of the study showed that youth volunteer activities andsatisfaction with volunteer activities had a significant impact on youth social development. Based on the research results, the need to diversify volunteer activity programs to strengthenthe social skills of youth, support club activities for volunteer activities, and provide variousopportunities was suggested. It is believed that the production of a manual to standardizeyouth volunteer activities will have a major impact on the development of youth social skillsand interpersonal relationships.

Evaluating the Experience of Teen-to-Teen Crisis Line Volunteers: A Pilot Study.

Teen-to-teen (t2t) crisis lines are a special type of crisis service where youth volunteers help their peers. Although prior research has examined the experience of adult crisis line responders, no research has examined the experience of adolescents who do this work. In collaboration with two of the largest t2t lines in the U.S., this pilot study is the first examination of t2t crisis line work. Volunteers (ages 14-20) reported: their primary motivation for joining the crisis lines was to help others and give back to the community; responding to a range of peers' problems on the t2t crisis line, including high-risk suicide contacts; and a range of ways the crisis line work impacted their lives. Findings provide preliminary information about the experience of adolescents engaging in t2t crisis line work. Additional research is needed in larger and more diverse samples to understand the impact of crisis line work for youth.

청소년 봉사활동 참여동기가 학업성취도에 미치는 영향 -사회적지지의 매개효과-

청소년 봉사활동 참여동기가 학업성취도에 미치는 영향 -사회적지지의 매개효과-

Social work community practice from a government discourse perspective: Motives for youth volunteers in controlling COVID-19 in Rwanda

During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries were in emergencies to contain the envisioned danger. Rwanda was no exception. Among strategies adopted by the country to control the pandemic were community interventions by youth volunteers. Using social movement and self-determination theories, the paper investigated the policy perspective of the motives for the voluntary engagement of these youths in controlling the pandemic so that these motives could be documented for future emergencies. A qualitative approach was adopted to explore what motivated these youths by analysing government discourses, where data were collected from six government policy documents. The content analysis was done after grouping the data into two categories and subcategories using MAXQDA 22, a qualitative data analysis software, for data mapping and visualization. The results indicate that youth volunteers have been mainly motivated by institutional-level motives, whereby government leadership mobilisation and coordination had a high occurrence, and under the individual-level motives category, civic-mindedness behaviour occurred high. The paper argues that conducive policies are a key motivation for social work community practices. Social workers should advocate for conducive policies to increase the productivity of voluntary activities. Another study involving talking to youth volunteers may complement the current findings.

Analysis on the Teaching Path of Youth Volunteer Service Integrated into Ideological and Political Courses in Colleges and Universities

The Internet, big data and the Internet of Things are developing like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Volunteer service on the express train has become an important way for contemporary youth to participate in social practice and improve their quality. As the core course of ideological and political education for college students, ideological and political courses in colleges and universities, how to effectively integrate the elements of youth volunteer service, and improve the effectiveness and pertinence of ideological and political courses, has become an important topic facing ideological and political education in colleges and universities. This paper starts with the necessity of integrating youth volunteer service into the teaching of ideological and political courses in colleges and universities, analyzes the opportunities and challenges of integrating youth volunteer service into ideological and political courses, so as to put forward the path of "one body and two arms" to help improve the effectiveness and appeal of ideological and political courses in colleges and universities.

From Earning to Learning: Reasoning and Participation in Youth Co-design of Digital Badges

Youth co-design has the possibility to reframe learning and participation, repositioning and remediating youth roles. However, youth co-design processes can also unintentionally reproduce normative forms of power and learning. This paper describes how co-design processes can position youth as having full agency for the design of a digital badge system, yet their participation and design are still guided by existing normative concepts of learning. We asked: How do youth roles, positioning, activity structures, and materials shape youth agentic participation in co-design and the disruption of traditional hierarchical design processes? This paper documents the youth co-design of a digital badge system that represented participation in a program at an aquarium where youth volunteers interpret exhibits for aquarium patrons. In coordination with faculty at a local university, the badge system culminated in college credit for qualifying high school youth. During the co-design process, youth initially imported school-based frames of learning and participation that constrained definitions of the who, what, and how of learning. However, with the support of new physical and conceptual resources, the design team expanded how they framed learning and participation, while still maintaining some school-based products and processes. This paper contributes to literature on including youth in design processes, indicating the importance of scaffolding for agency and participation.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth volunteering behaviors: Evidence from Northern Ireland

AbstractYouth volunteering is associated with a host of individual benefits, in addition to the service provided to organizations and communities. However, little is known about the volunteering behaviors of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) youth. This is a large and growing lacuna in the literature, as recent demographic surveys show that younger people are far more likely to identify as LGBTQ than those in older generations across many countries. Using Hustinx et al.'s Inequality in Volunteering model as a theoretical lens and analyzing survey data from 16‐year‐olds in Northern Ireland, this research explores whether LGB youth experience inequalities in volunteering activities relative to their non‐LGB peers. Measures of volunteering activities include propensity to volunteer in formal and informal settings, motivations, location for formal volunteering, and experiences while volunteering. Findings indicate that LGB youth are less likely to volunteer in sports or religiously oriented organizations, more likely to volunteer in order to expand social networks, and less likely to report feeling appreciated by the organizations they volunteer with. I discuss implications for philanthropic organizations wanting to move towards creating inclusive environments for LGBTQ youth volunteers and call for increased investment in data collection within gender and sexual minority populations.

Study on the Application of "Time Bank" to College Students' Volunteer Service System in the Context of Rural Revitalization

With the idea of inclusiveness gradually penetrating into the philosophy of governance of colleges and universities, college students' volunteer activities are gradually enriched, and college students have become the most energetic group in youth volunteer activities. Student organizations and associations at the college or school level have become the main field and position for college students to carry out volunteer service activities in various colleges and universities. They arouse students' interest and achieve the purpose of recruiting college students' volunteers by means of credit awards, personal enhancement, and outings, etc., and then carry out volunteer service activities on the basis of which they provide various services for others or the society to promote the development and progress of China's society. According to the survey, college student volunteers have reached 83.1% of the total number of volunteers, college students have been the main force in the body. However, from the current situation, the conditions of volunteer service are still lacking, the contemporary university volunteer group students do not have a comprehensive understanding of volunteer service, awareness is weak, and volunteer activities are mostly top-down type of promotion, passive volunteer service also deviates from the original intention of the spirit of volunteerism. Therefore, with the development of the new era of volunteerism, how to cultivate and improve the awareness of college students volunteering has become an urgent task.

Study on the Path of College Youth Volunteer Service Participation in Rural Grassroots Social Governance under the Background of Comprehensive Rural Revitalization

Study on the Path of College Youth Volunteer Service Participation in Rural Grassroots Social Governance under the Background of Comprehensive Rural Revitalization

The Need for Training Resources for Volunteer Youth Leaders on Teaching Preparation and Delivery

In recent decades, pragmatic youth ministry has produced resources on engaging programs, relational equity, practical organization, or family ministry. While all of these are helpful and necessary, they have left a gap in teaching formation resources for volunteer youth leaders. This article surveys the trends in recent literature, reviews current resources, and seeks to show the importance of teaching resources for youth volunteers that address both preparation for teaching and flexibility and adaptability when teaching.

Community NGO intervention for Alzheimer’s patients rehabilitation

AbstractBackground Alzheimer’s patients Rehabilitation services aren’t well‐developed concept in resource‐Poor nations due to poor economics & lack of expertise. With limited resources we wanted to explore these rehabilitation services in rural villages. Rural/tribal areas of India lung Alzheimer’s patients [Ca] patients lack rehabilitation support available only in city hospitals. Our 12‐year CBO is training youth volunteers & traditional faith halers in marginalized communities to provide rehabilitation.MethodAround 1340 cases of Alzheimer’s will be in rural/tribal of India by 2025, but hospitals lack dedicated Rehabilitation program. patients returning to villages after onco‐therapy in cities urgently need Rehabilitation support to suit their economic, social, cultural background. Since August 2018 Our NGO clinic started free advise on Rehabilitation. [n = 91]. With 6 trained nurses, two physicians, we screened patients. Average age 62 years, M:F ratio 75:25. Our support services devised as‐per need of Patients in consultation with family & stretched over 21 months included conselling, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation. Responses assessed with Quality of life scale by Flanagan Quality of Life Scale (QOLS) & psychological evaluation by Likert psychometric scale. This presentation demonstrates project in developmental stages & basic operational facts. Initially started as practically oriented guidance center & later developed in well‐organized set‐up offering free rehabilitation services in villages. It comprises NGO staff and traditional faith healers.ResultOur program highlights variability of psychological & Socio‐medical aspects in rehabilitation. Patents needed medical interventions in 18%, psychological approaches in 84% while remaining 16% needed combination of both.ConclusionThis is pilot project running on community donation. We plan to document, evaluate this in large sample size, but resource restriction didn’t permit. To overcome this, we plan networking of European NGO’s, advocacy experts at AAIC‐2023 Venue for better study design, technical support & collaborative efforts. I do not claim “I transformed whole community of patients but we had certainly taken initiative by this cost‐effective approach”.

Motivation in self-regulation of youth volunteer activities

The research is devoted to the study of youth motivation for volunteer activities. The theoretical basis of the presented study is the concept of youth’s self-regulation. According to its provisions, the motivation of volunteer activity can be considered as an indicator of socio-cultural self-regulation and social adaptation of young volunteers in those situations when certain volunteering practices are considered by them as part of their world. The article analyzes the results of a sociological survey of young students of the Sverdlovsk region aged 14 to 24 (N – 996, quota sample, 2022). The study revealed that the motivation for the volunteer activity of the student youth of the Sverdlovsk region reflects the trends for concretization in the youth consciousness of volunteer efforts and the importance of understanding the possibility to get applicable results both for society and for themselves, аs well as the preference for voluntary practices of constructive civic behavior that enable young people to fulfill their potential. Altruistic motivation and self-confidence motivate high school volunteers. The motivation of students volunteering over the past two years has become more pragmatic and is associated with building social networks and expanding employment opportunities, while studying at a university – with the need to pursue a professional or socio-political career. According to the poll results, it is proved that the internal motivation for volunteering activity as a reflection of the interiorization of values of volunteering and the acceptance of this activity is not formed by the external environment, where youth volunteer projects are organized by the school, youth organizations, and depends on the regularity of volunteer participation of youth and the consequence of this involvement, volunteer self-identification. Certain evidence of young people’s adaptation to the conditions of volunteering popularization and its acceptance is the practice in which they acquire, as volunteers, the experience of related online activities. It is these practices are matched with the demands of society and the inner motivation of volunteering determine the willingness of youth to continue this activity.

“Why are we doing this in the first place?”: youth motivations, school environments, and volunteer experiences in a system of compulsory school-based volunteerism

ABSTRACT Compulsory volunteerism is required in many countries, with the goal of building long-term capacities for service in adolescence, yet the policy may not necessarily result in volunteerism or civic engagement in adulthood. Little is also understood about different school-based volunteering environments and how they interact with youth volunteer motivations. We aimed to understand varied experiences of mandatory school-based volunteerism – resulting from interactions between youth motivations and school environments – using in-depth retrospective interviews with 50 young Singaporean adults. Findings indicated that schools’ volunteerism culture and practices intersected with and influenced youth volunteer motivations in important ways. Schools with a strong intrinsic culture of volunteerism provided high-quality experiences to benefit everyone, whereas youth in schools that were extrinsically or minimally focused on volunteerism often reinforced individuals’ extrinsic motivation or amotivation for volunteering. Because interactions of youth motivations and school environments resulted in different volunteer experiences, understanding how compulsory volunteerism can be better tailored may potentially raise rates of long-term service. This study has implications for best practices in schools that may make compulsory school-based volunteerism more beneficial for youth.