Wednesday, 27^th October 2010

The Importance of Volunteering

In the wake of the International Year of Volunteering +10 (IYV +10) and the European Year of Volunteering 2011 we should take a moment to consider why we have these dedicated years and what are the issues to be considered and the challenges to tackle. To do this I want to open a discussion by asking important questions and try to answer some of them while remaining humbly aware that the topic is too wide to exhaust it within one blog entry.

What is volunteering and why is it important? What does it bring to us as volunteers on a personal level as well as professional level? Is voluntary work sufficiently recognised? Where is the link between youth work and volunteering? What is the importance of non-formal and informal learning in volunteering? Are youth organisations offering volunteering opportunities in an inclusive way open to all?

Many important questions open for debate but I want to first look at some of the hundreds of definitions out there and numerous interpretations as well as explanations why volunteering is important and to whom and then focus on the importance of volunteering for youth work and youth NGOs.

A volunteer is someone who gives time, talents and professional expertise on a voluntary basis and without any remuneration (NCSS, 1977b).

Volunteering is the commitment of time and energy, for the benefit of society, local communities, and individuals, outside the immediate family, the environment or other causes. They are undertaken out of a person free will, without payment except for the reimbursement of out of pocket expenses (Volunteering, Ireland, 2000).

Volunteering is an activity undertaken out of free will, where the motivation is not monetary gain and the action is of benefit to others (International symposium on volunteering, 2001).

Volunteering is about the professional or the volunteer offering a needed service by personal commitment without equivalent financial compensation (A Strategy for Scouting: The Proposed Concept, WOSM, 2002).

The concepts of free will, personal motivation and offering of an expertise and/or service without monetary gain are at the core of volunteering. These values should be the cornerstones of civil society engagement and the entire youth work should be based exactly on these basic principals.

We commit our free time as volunteers to a given cause, we become activists, we gain valuable experience, learn new skills and pass on know-how to our peers or to our target group in a given activity. Even though we do this without aiming at earning money we should have certain rights as volunteers and get a certain level of recognition for the skills learnt via volunteering and experiences gathered in this way. This is exactly the point in which I see a difference between youth volunteering and volunteering in a different age group.

Young people volunteer in a different way than older generations do. Older generations of volunteers might fit perfectly into the first definition mentioned above, namely offering their time and professional experience on a voluntary basis. Young people do that as well but many of them first and foremost develop their personal and professional experience thanks to being a volunteer. This is where the importance and link with the non-formal and informal education comes into play. A young volunteer not only commit his/her time and energy for the benefit of a given society and/or group and/or given cause but also gains valuable experience and acquires new skills that s/he would otherwise not.

I can testify with my personal experience and example that this is the case. I have been fortunate enough to take advantage off many volunteering opportunities such as getting involved in my local community as a child in a more traditional sense of contributing to society. But then thanks to my engagement in youth organisations and participating in the European Voluntary Service I have greatly benefited from non-formal and informal learning possibilities. This was how I managed to develop my managerial and leadership skills, improve my language skills, gain my team-work experiences as well as intercultural competences. All these things have never been offered to me in my formal education.

That is why I truly believe volunteering to be the oxygen needed for youth NGOs to breathe and flourish. It is namely youth NGOs that provide the above-mentioned possibilities that I was fortunate enough to benefit from. But are all youth NGOs offering equal access to these volunteering opportunities to all in an inclusive manner?

As a unique platform it is very important that YFJ celebrates the International Year of Volunteering +10 and the European Year of Volunteering 2011 properly, using the momentum to advocate for better recognition of youth volunteering and non-formal education that accompanies it. However, we also need to capitalise on the year, so that its achievements could lead to further improvement of the rights of volunteers beyond 2011 and across all Europe.