by Author Music for Good

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Voltage Programme: Maintaining the Engagement of Young Volunteers

Challenges to maintaining engagement, as experienced in the Youth Music Voltage programme

This page is part of a resource collection for practical guidance around providing volunteering opportunities.

 

Organisations involved in delivering the Voltage volunteering programme encountered challenges with maintaining engagement of the volunteers. These included:

  • The geographical location, and issues to do with rural isolation and transport
  • Other commitments the young people had in their lives
  • Other issues or challenges in the lives of the young people
  • Managing expectations and different needs and levels of ability within volunteer groups
  • Keeping up momentum and interest

Overcoming challenges

Over the course of the three-year programme, organisations delivering Voltage developed some effective methods for maintaining engagement. (Of course it is always dependant on a number of factors, including a young person’s own position to decide to not continue with the project or because they may progress onto something else equally as positive.)

Some of ways in which Voltage partners endeavoured to maintain engagement were as follows:

“At The Sage Gateshead we were clear to reiterate that the volunteers do not need to commit to the same level of commitment throughout the entire period of the project: they can alter their level of commitment to fit in with their lives.  Volunteers are required and supported to be clear about what they can commit to.  With this information the cohort is able to make things work.  

"For example we had one volunteer who was attending the weekly Tuesday evening Voltage sessions, writing music with the group and volunteering at events.  This volunteer was then offered an opportunity outside of the Voltage project to take part in a bands project and she did not have time to be involved in both.  The volunteer felt able to approach Voltage staff members and explain that she would be not attending Voltage volunteering activities upon completion of her current agreed short-term goal, that she would be attending another project for a few months.  About six weeks later the young person re-engaged in the Voltage project. 

"Making it clear to the young people that they are very welcome but that they are not under pressure is keeping retention rates good.  When the volunteers get very busy they do not feel that they have to quit the project entirely, but that they can take a break.  Other projects that I lead on do not provide this degree of flexibility and I think that it is a point of learning that I will be taking into other areas of my work with young people. 

“The Sage Gateshead used the following techniques to help maintain engagement:

  • Using Facebook to maintain communication (considering online safety, moderation and management)
  • Weekly sessions as a group which balanced music making, discussion, forward planning and review
  • Setting short term and realistic goals
  • Making use of the excellent facilities at The Sage Gateshead as an incentive
  • Activities and overall volunteer experience designed by the volunteers”

Putting on an event for other young people and the community is a tangible goal for young volunteers to work towards

 

“In SoundLINCS the IDEA of an event is sufficiently familiar to most young people for it to be a realistic proposition for them to imagine themselves doing it.  This is a little counter-intuitive as planning and delivering a successful event is a complex task with many subsets of activity.  The important principle is that young people FEEL that it is something they can do – and want to do.  The many subsets of activity provide a broad range of opportunities that can potentially appeal to a wide range young people’s interests. 

"For example – we found that one young person was very motivated to design flyers but their circumstances prohibited them from getting involved in their distribution.  Two other young people, however, lived near the event location and took responsibility for distributing flyers.  Our group of volunteers wanted to arrange a raffle and one young person took the primary responsibility for making it happen.  One young person was interested in photography and became the event photographer whilst another was interested in technical sound and oversaw the live sound engineering.  These examples evidence that the subsets of activity offer a diverse range of volunteering opportunities that appeal to a wide range of young people’s interests. 

“Whilst it would be possible to list all the individual activities/successes of Lucky For Some, there is a bigger picture going on that the detail doesn’t help to illustrate.  Our volunteers wanted to plan and deliver a successful event that engaged the wider community of Market Rasen and created a positive image of young people.  By any measuring system applied they achieved this, and received local and national press coverage.  We believe that our key principle of empowering young people to be aspirational in their thinking certainly contributed to the success.

“Our summary of the ‘what contributed’ would be:

  • Offer starting points that volunteers can relate to
  • Empower volunteers to bring their aspirational ideas to the starting point
  • Develop starting points into projects with many subsets
  • Don’t lose sight of the big picture whilst sorting through the details”

For more tips on working with volunteers, particularly those in challenging circumstances see the section on working with young volunteers at elevated risk.