by Author Music for Good

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Voltage Programme: Supporting Young Volunteers

Challenges with supporting volunteers experienced in the Youth Music Voltage programme

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

 

Young people recruited as volunteers in the Voltage programme came from a range of different backgrounds and many were living in challenging circumstances, such as looked after children and those from BAME communities or NEETs. Organisations running the Voltage programme reported on the challenges with supporting and managing young volunteers, which included:

  • Ensuring there is a suitable staff member to manage and support volunteers effectively
  • Managing and supporting young people’s different needs
  • The logistical challenge of planning inductions, training, meetings and activities at times and in places which were suitable for all involved
  • Ensuring the induction and training process is engaging despite having to cover topics such as policies and procedures

Each Voltage project had an identified Voltage Coordinator. Click here to see an example of a job description for a Volunteer Coordinator.

Volunteers are not members of staff but it is important that they have a role, an induction and are treated as part of the team. The volunteering experience will be more successful all round if it has positive outcomes for the young person and for the organisation. Voltage organisations found it crucial that volunteers should have an induction, regular supervision and should be entitled to expenses (see guidance on expenses for volunteers).

Some of the ways in which Voltage organisations supported and developed the skills of their volunteers are listed below.

Wirral Youth Theatre designed a varied training programme which covered the following areas:

  • Introduction to Voltage training and making a video diary
  • Life maps and song writing
  • Introduction to Arts Award
  • SMART objectives
  • Roles and responsibilities and boundaries (click here to see role descriptions for Voltage volunteers)
  • Personal Development
  • Learning styles and planning taster sessions for other young people
  • Presentation skills
  • Team building task and presentation
  • Introduction to evaluating practice
  • Delivery of taster sessions
  • Reflection on taster sessions
  • Equal opportunities, prejudice & discrimination
  • Recording and monitoring

The key is to make it fun, creative and mix practical sessions (music making) with the training elements.

Wirral Youth Theatre made a film to promote the voltage programme. In it volunteers reflect on how the training and support provided by WYT has affected their lives:

 

 

New Roots

“I believe the Voltage programme has helped our organisation to strike a balance between understanding the various issues affecting young people involved and nurturing the commitment required. As part of the project, the one-to-one support sessions and the personal development plan assisted in developing a supportive relationship between the young volunteers, the coordinator and the organisation as a whole.”

A tool for supporting volunteers across the Voltage programme was the use of individual learning plans and mapping. (See practice write-up on mapping and reflection and click here for an example of an individual learning plan.)