4 Steps to Get Young Volunteers Involved in Social Change
April 25th, 2016
Today’s young adults possess passion and energy in abundance. They are ambitious, smart, creative, and driven by a desire to help others. They know how to bring new technologies and networks of peers to bear on the hard work of community building. They are dreamers and doers in equal measure.
All of which makes them integral to any effort to take on our toughest social, civic, and humanitarian challenges. Indeed, the question most grant makers — ourselves included — struggle with is not whether to engage this generation in our work but how to do so most effectively.
But helping organizations adapt to the needs of young leaders while remaining true to the needs of communities — and foster a mutually beneficial relationship between the two — is easier said than done.
We know young adults are attracted to opportunities for social and civic engagement. We also know they have high expectations for the quality and effectiveness of those opportunities and that they want them to fit neatly into their way of life, skills, and values.
A recent study by Repair the World, an organization our foundations both support for their work to promote volunteerism, offers one approach for achieving this intricate balancing act. “Building Jewish Community Through Volunteer Service” looks at the organization’s Communities program, which places full-time fellows in cities to put together projects that work on pressing local needs and involve young Jews in volunteer service.
COURTESY OF REPAIR THE WORLD
Repair the World, an organization that promotes volunteerism, offered various approaches to engage young adults in social work in a recent study.
While the report focuses on what the group learned engaging young Jews, its insights are relevant for any organization invested in taking a data-driven approach to engaging young adults in working for social change. It’s also notable that the group is led by David Eisner, who spent five years as the chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service, where he got a national view of what matters most in jump-starting volunteerism.
Here are some of the findings:
Peer leadership is the name of the game. The Communities program rests on the creativity and influence of young adults. Fellows are in charge of forging collaborations with local organizations and recruiting volunteers from their own generational ranks. The study found near-universal appreciation among project participants for the fellows, and three out of four credit fellows with helping them stay involved with Communities.
Periodic and regular participants reinforce each other. One of the strengths of the Communities program is the interplay between occasional volunteers and the fellows who are in it for the long haul. For volunteers, the no-membership, no-commitment approach works: By the second year of the program, half are coming back three or more times for additional opportunities. The open-door policy means volunteers can carve out space in their schedules to do good while balancing other interests and demands on their time — a crucial perk for millennials. And interacting with the fellows gives volunteers a window on opportunities for an ongoing, meaningful engagement in service and Jewish life.
People walk through the door for different reasons. Young adults show up to make an impact for those in need. But the experience serves multiple purposes: Volunteers are there to do good, connect with like-minded peers, meet new people from other backgrounds, and have a positive social experience.
Reflection leads to meaning, and meaning to action. The Communities program helps volunteers put their service in a broader context, drawing parallels between the work at hand and Jewish thought and tradition. The program also allows for reflection at the end of the experience, facilitated by a skilled leader who uses a range of tools and methods — Jewish and secular — to help individuals find personal meaning in the service just completed. For example, volunteers might study a piece of Jewish text, discuss the history of civic engagement in their community, or share personal experiences of how their lives have been changed by service.
Doing this after the service activity is critical so participants fully absorb what they just accomplished and better understand the people they served. Moreover, as the study found, authentic reflection helps volunteers give deeper meaning to the work they have done — and that makes them more likely to return.
Importantly, the report also reflects the very real impact Communities is making. Organizations supported by Repair the World fellows now have additional capacity to pursue their missions, and volunteers and local neighborhoods have developed mutual trust and understanding.
For example, in its second year, Repair the World Pittsburgh recruited 30 percent of the volunteers who serve as mentors at Higher Achievement, allowing the organization to grow from serving 100 youths a week to 150.
In Philadelphia, Repair created the Philly Farm Crew, which provides volunteers to local urban farms, many of which donate their produce to local food pantries and which have significantly boosted their capacity with the additional help. At the same time, the Farm Crew has built community among the volunteers and increasing retention and a sense of belonging.
Building projects that appeal to millennials takes work, and there’s still more to be done. We invested in Communities with the knowledge that the most effective approach will take time to crystallize. But Repair the World is offering a promising path for all of us who want to empower young adults to pursue social change and are willing to speak their language.
Chip Edelsberg is executive director of the Jim Joseph Foundation. Lisa Eisen is vice president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.