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Rich Sundeen and Sally Raskoff of the University of Southern California have
been studying and writing about youth volunteers for 10 years. Their latest
article, "Ports of Entry and Obstacles: Teenagers’ Access to Volunteer Activities,"
appears in the winter issue of the journal of Nonprofit Management and
Leadership. Here are a few interesting items from that article:
HOW THE TEEN FOUND OUT ABOUT THE VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY
40% asked to volunteer by someone
- a friend asked - 43 percent
- a family member or relative asked - 31 percent
- a teacher asked - 25 percent
- someone at church or synagogue asked - 23 percent
- employer or someone at work asked - 3 percent
34 percent had a family member or friend either active in the organization or
benefiting from the organization.
32 percent entered the volunteer activity by participation in a group
- Churches/Synagogues - 64 percent
- School - 25 percent
- Other volunteer organization - 25 percent
REASONS FOR TEENS NOT VOLUNTEERING
- Personal schedule is too full - 33 percent
- No interest - 24 percent
- No one asked - 23 percent
- My age - 19 percent
- No organization asked - 17 percent
- No transportation - 14 percent
- Didn't know how to become involved - 13 percent
The most commonly cited reason for not volunteering, full schedule, was
correlated with older, white teens with parents who volunteer.
Males and older teens are more likely to indicate no interest in volunteering.
13% of non-volunteers, especially those who are female, non-white, and
younger, claim they do not know how to get involved.
Source: Volunteer Today.
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