Opinion Piece - Georgie Ferrari

This is the original version of an opinion piece that appeared in the Herald Sun Newspaper on Tuesday January 10, 2006. The piece that appeared in the Herald Sun was edited slightly to fit word and space limitations.

Young people already happily volunteer
So Dont Force them

The old adage that says those of us who forget history are destined to repeat it may be true for the NSW Branch of the Young Labor Party who last week called for a return to compulsory national service.

The Whitlam Government abolished Australia’s previous National Service scheme in 1972, with good reason. With the onset of the Vietnam War evasion of national service was not uncommon and the prosecution of evaders was often harsh and publicly shaming.

This recent call for a return to a compulsory system that would provide for either community or military service for all young people is a step back in time and would not find widespread support among Australia’s youth.

While the sentiments behind Young Labor’s call are well intentioned they miss the mark in terms of why and how young people volunteer in Australia and what works best with regard to encouraging volunteering amongst 16-24 year olds.

Most Australians would support a call for more young people, indeed people of all ages, to get involved in their community through volunteering. And there are many initiatives in Victoria and across the country that are aimed at doing just that. Where Young Labor miss the mark is in their call for the scheme to be compulsory. Community service and volunteering is most successful and best achieved when it is exactly that – voluntary!

In 2004 The Youth Affairs Council of Victoria published, in partnership with the Victorian Office for Youth a series of three booklets aimed at encouraging youth participation and community involvement. Through our extensive research for these booklets we spoke to many young people and service about what enabled volunteering and what ensured its ongoing success.

Young people spoke of the importance of their ability to identify organisations and causes that were significant to them, to volunteer for services that they believed in. Some were motivated to volunteer for career progression and work experience, others to meet new friends. All indicated that the most successful and enjoyable experiences they had were where the work was meaningful, valued and acknowledged.

Services we spoke to talked of the importance of being prepared and ready for their young volunteers, to understand their motivations for volunteering and to find the best fit for them within their service. Many spoke of the steep learning curve they had experienced in welcoming young volunteers into their organisations and the responsibility that came with it. They spoke of their need for information and support to ensure a positive experience for both organisation and volunteer.

A proposal to thrust thousands of unprepared and perhaps unwilling volunteers on unsuspecting organisations in the name of compulsory community service is ill conceived and would ultimately fail. Regardless of age from an agency’s perspective an unwilling volunteer is worse than no volunteer at all.

Young Labor’s call also neglects several important trends in Australia that are worth noting here. In comparison to several other countries including the UK, volunteering in Australia is on the increase. A 2004 report card on volunteering produced by Volunteering Australia showed that volunteer participation rates in Canada and the Netherlands are declining. In contrast 10.4 % more Australians were volunteers in 2002 than in 1995. While these ABS figures represent the population over the age of 18 other sources indicate young people are also active volunteers.

ABS data from 1996 shows that 11% of 15-24 year olds were volunteers compared with 27% of 35-44 year olds. While this figure might seem low, we need to understand that young people often face significant barriers to volunteering. These barriers include lack of transport, the need to focus on paid employment and education and simply not knowing where to go to access information about volunteering.

Several studies have also shown that young people, when asked to self identify their volunteer activities fail to place many of their day to day activities in a volunteering category. In other words there may be significant under-reporting of the voluntary work carried out by young people across Australia on a daily basis.

Young Labor also fail to recognise the many schemes and initiatives already in place to support young people’s community involvement. Here in Victoria we have the Advance program, co-ordinated by the Office for Youth. Last year Advance saw over 10,000 school aged young people participate in community services and organisations, with 333 schools involved.

In April of this year the Inspire Foundation will launched “Act Now” a website aimed at helping young people take action on social issues that affect them and their community. There are many other examples of such work.

Instead of calls for a compulsory scheme aimed at imposing community service on young people and services how about a national strategy to encourage and support volunteering and community participation for all? A strategy that demonstrates the importance and value of volunteering, a strategy that helps young people identify organisations they would like to volunteer in, a strategy that assists organisations to work meaningfully with young volunteers and above all a strategy that asserts the importance of the voluntary nature of voluntary work.

For more information contact
Georgie Ferrari
Executive Officer
Mob: 0411 484 428

Cheryl Naik
Young Media Spokesperson