It aims to frame and inform conversations at the IVCO 2023 conference: ‘A New Generation of Volunteers as Changemakers’ taking place between the 22nd and the 26th of October in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Its goal is also to advance the volunteering sector’s collective knowledge of how to design and implement more responsible and impactful volunteering with and for young people.
As the world faces the existential threat of climate emergency and the persistence of global injustice and inequality, young people are increasingly seen as key players in meeting these challenges. This is not only because they face the consequences of past generations’ actions, but also because they bring energy, dynamism and innovation to bear on these issues. Volunteering by young people sits alongside diverse forms of activism, advocacy and youth organising as a critical mechanism for achieving change. But does the celebration of youth volunteering in policy-making, organisational strategies and social media reflect an approach that values young people as changemakers? Or does it offer cover for a reluctance to change, decolonise and democratise? This paper explores these issues and presents a set of critical challenge questions for thinking about enabling youth volunteers to be the changemakers the world so badly needs.
The paper provides context, unpacks three key questions, and provokes further conversation, new thinking, and action by volunteer-involving organisations. These questions are as follows:
- How are young people volunteering, and how do they want to volunteer?
- How can organisations develop programs that are truly youth-led?
- How can we create a more conducive enabling environment for youth volunteering?
Using examples of organisational practice, stakeholder commentary and wider data and evidence, the Challenge Paper highlights the importance of
1) The context for exploring youth volunteering;
2) The need to avoid homogenising youth volunteers and youth volunteering;
3) The challenges of shifting power around organisations’ approaches to youth volunteering; and
4) The importance of youth voices in creating an enabling environment and shaping the youth volunteering landscape.
The paper’s challenge questions are framed to promote dialogue and action that supports young volunteers as key actors in development spaces, positioning them as central figures in creating meaningful change through their volunteer efforts.
Download the Challenge Paper here.
