Sutton Youth Volunteer Strategy Consultation

Overview

The vision of this consultation is simple; we want to shape the future of volunteering for young people by listening to their views, ideas and finding out the barriers to volunteering. We want to take everything we hear and use it to shape what volunteering will look like for young people in the future.

We will commit to upholding 3 distinct values throughout this consultation:

LISTEN – We will take time to gather the views and opinions of young people around various volunteering related issues.

RESPOND – We will learn from young people and create a response to everything they have said – this response will be a ‘LBS Young Peoples Volunteering Strategy’

ENGAGE – We simply don’t want the strategy to be a document that sits in somebody’s office, we want the strategy to be a living document that guides an active response from both the Volunteer Centre Sutton and the Local Authority. We want to engage young people into the living out this strategy.

Why your views matter

The London Borough of Sutton has a rich history of Volunteering. Over the past 2 years Volunteer Centre Sutton has drawn data from the community that is evidencing a changing face of volunteering in LBS. For the first time in VCS’ history, young adults aged between 18-25 years are now the most widely represented volunteer in Sutton (30%).

At the same time we are struggling to increase numbers of young people (under 18) who volunteer. Yet feedback suggests young people want to get involved in their community, but there simply isn’t the quantity or quality of opportunities that will really engage young people. We have an opportunity, to use our 18-25 cohort as role models for young people getting involved in volunteering, and inspire a new generation to roll up their sleeves and make a marked difference in the streets and communities in which they live, learn and play. But we need to create volunteering opportunities that excites, and means something to this young people. We must listen, we must respond and we must engage this incredible generation of young people we have in Sutton.

What happens next

A partnership between Volunteer Centre Sutton and LBS’ Youth Engagement Coordinator will develop a consultation package by the start of May 2014. Between May-July this consultation will be rolled out across local schools, universal youth groups, targeted/statutory groups (incl. LAC, NEET YOT & Disability teams) and voluntary sector organisations. By September 2014 we will have developed a draft document for further consultation during the autumn and by January 2015 the document will be launched in all its glory!... Then the real work and living this document out begins!