Volunteering in the youth sector

Volunteers play an important (and often unsung) role in supporting a wide range of activities, anything and everything from running sports clubs to providing charitable services, to manning community centres.

In 2022, research conducted by SQW for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) examined the impact of local youth clubs on young people’s outcomes. During this study (and alongside analysing quantitative data) we spoke with a wide range of stakeholders across the youth sector and local government. We heard that while volunteers have always provided important support to local youth organisations and activities, reliance on volunteers over the last decade has grown as local funding for youth provision has been scaled back.

However, much less was known about how volunteers support the youth sector and how this affects the nature of activities that are delivered. Consequently, DCMS recommissioned SQW and its partner, UK Youth, to investigate this.

Our research – Volunteering in the youth sector research – has today been published. The research focuses on open access youth provision that any young person can attend. The study ran between September 2023 and March 2024 and was led by SQW in partnership with UK Youth, a national youth charity.

By drawing on 20 case studies drawn from youth organisations across England, the study answers the following questions:

  1. Who volunteers and why?
  2. What do volunteers do?
  3. What are the rewards and impact of volunteering?
  4. What factors impede and support volunteer retention?
  5. How are volunteers recruited?
  6. How are volunteers trained and supported?

Contributors to the study emphasised that, straightforwardly, without volunteers many youth activities would not be possible. However, recruiting and retaining enough volunteers can be challenging. Furthermore, supporting volunteers is not a ‘cheap’ option – organisations must spend considerable time and resource finding (and training) the right people. However, the benefits can be enormous – volunteering with young people can be hugely rewarding and impactful.

An executive summary is available here.

You can read a sister study about enrichment and the youth sector, also published today, here, and the original ‘Youth Evidence Base’ studies, here.