Anxiety, wellbeing and engaging young people in volunteering

Drawing from data collected for the Australian Youth Barometer, this paper examines the different ways young people understand volunteering, and how their understandings and activities differ from mainstream definitions of volunteering. Young people see volunteering as one aspect of social participation, which includes many types of unpaid community, social, or political engagement in a variety of forms and via various media, including social media.

Volunteering organisations have noted that it can be difficult to engage young people in volunteering. Our research suggests that young people want to give back to society and are seeking meaningful ways to make a difference. To connect young people who want to volunteer with the organisations that need them, we must recognise how young people understand and participate in volunteering, and the barriers that prevent them from participating as much as they would like.