Scottish Government agrees to all YouthVIP’s recommendations for new National Volunteering Framework
As part of the new National Volunteering Framework, the Scottish Government commissioned ProjectScotland and Young Scot to create a youth volunteering design team - YouthVIP.
The group’s role was to shape the future of volunteering by bringing in a valuable mix of creativity, views, experiences and a ‘question everything’ attitude.
The group identified themes around the experiences of young volunteers, and barriers for them and their peers. From these, they created thirteen recommendations to encourage more young people to volunteer and to improve the experience of those who currently give their time to their local communities.
The Scottish Government has announced that they will accept all the recommendations. This will help to reduce barriers to volunteering for young people in Scotland. It will also ensure that young people from all backgrounds get access to the life changing benefits of volunteering.
The Youth VIP Report will help us to shape our next steps and the wider delivery plan. It is clear from your recommendations that as well as knowing about the many benefits of volunteering you also brought great insight into the challenges and barriers that are preventing more people from getting involved which the delivery plan will need to address. Aileen Campbell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government
The recommendations are:
Youth inclusion training for volunteer providers.
Guidelines on supporting young volunteers that take account of their different needs and experiences.
Local network meetings to provide training for volunteer managers on best practice.
Create a legacy group of young people who will ensure a continued youth voice in the delivery of the Scottish Government’s National Outcomes Framework.
An annual volunteering summit to enable the sector to review progress against the objectives set out in the volunteering framework and the recommendations from Youth VIP.
Review of quality assurance marks for voluntary organisations and introduce criteria that focus on supporting young volunteers.
Display quality assurance marks on opportunity listings on Volunteer Scotland’s website.
A local area volunteering advisory scheme to connect young people with local volunteering opportunities.
Develop a set of principles, criteria and guidelines for schools to work towards becoming a Youth Volunteering Champion School.
Create a framework to support young people not in education, employment or training, to gain work-based skills and personal development through volunteering.
Roadshows to promote volunteering in local communities which enable voluntary organisations to deliver engagement activities suitable for young people.
Funding to support volunteer accessibility by providing money for transport, childcare, additional needs support or removing other barriers to access.
National forum to bring together the business and third sectors to identify, develop and implement volunteering programmes for the benefit of staff and the local community.
A scheme to support small and medium enterprises to develop working practices to support their staff to volunteer.
“Young people in Scotland have the highest volunteering rates of any group. To ensure their commitment levels continue, it’s essential that they are engaged in shaping Scotland’s volunteering strategy.”