AN EXPLORATION OF FACTORS IMPACTING YOUTH VOLUNTEERS WHO PROVIDE INDIRECT SERVICES By Andrea M. McArthur
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION PURPOSE
The purpose of this research was to identify successes, challenges, and improvements to make to indirect volunteering for youth.
It is hoped that this research shall benefit youth volunteers, staff, and clients of indirect services.
The research included an investigation of issues related to: motivation, leadership, barriers to engagement, and role ambiguity since there are major gaps in the literature related to youth who are providing indirect volunteer services (Tessier et al., 2006; Stoneman, 2002; The Calgary Immigrant Aid Society, 2005; Fried et al., 2008).
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION RATIONALE
Youth volunteers, 15-24, make up 18% of Canada’s volunteers.
A 5 year research initiative between volunteer associations, organizations, and Universities took place to study trends in the volunteer sector called the Canada Volunteer Initiative (2002-2007). Much of this research focused on youth volunteers.
Much of the research explored youth’s motivations to volunteer, leadership opportunities available to them, and barriers to engagement., however, role ambiguity was not explored.
No literature seemed to explore indirect services let alone identify this type of volunteering.
CHAPTER 1 - Definitions Indirect Service
Services that are not front-line based. These include awareness raising and fundraising activities by volunteers (National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, 2008; Volunteer Mid-South, 2009).
Engagement
The process of being actively involved and participating in a community, commonly through volunteerism (Stoneman, 2002; Canadian Federation for Sexual Health, 2005).
Motivation
The aspirations, drive, and willingness of youth to volunteer. For organizations, this concerns their recruitment and retention efforts (Imagine , 2005).
Barriers to Engagement
All aspects of the volunteer position and the organization that youth volunteer for that limit them from participating to their fullest potential (or for some at all). They include language barriers, socio-economic barriers, organizational barriers, barriers related to one’s social location, and hidden barriers (The Calgary Immigrant Aid Society, 2005).
Leadership Opportunities
Opportunities for providing direction, inspiration and motivation to a team as well as opportunities to demonstrate and take on real and meaningful decision making responsibilities (Stoneman, 2002).
Organizational Governance
Definitions
All bureaucratic and political aspects of the operation of an organization. The governing body of an organization is normally a volunteer board or council (Stoneman, 2002; Canadian Federation for Sexual Health, 2005).
Role Ambiguity
An experience of gaps in one’s understanding of their job or position as a result of duties or outcomes of the work that is to be done that are not clearly laid out (Fried et al., 2008; Volunteer Mid-South, 2009).
Job Design
A well organized, strategic, and thorough approach to developing volunteer position descriptions which results in matching the right volunteer with the right job (Bowen, Luchuk, Hiscott, MacKenzie, Sanderson, Shouldice, & Stratton, 2001).
Awareness Raising
Included in and akin to the definition of advocacy service by Student Volunteer Connections of Guelph (2011), awareness raising “covers any volunteer role that incorporates people addressing an issue on behalf of the public's interest.”
Fundraising
Akin to the definition of philanthropy by Student Volunteer Connections of Guelph (2011), fundraising “primarily involves monetary donations to charities, whether it is from a massive corporation or a single person.” In addition, from the work carried out by the pool of participants in this study, it also includes an activity of solicitation of funds from donors to provide funding for a service or project carried out by the organization that one volunteers for.
Volunteer
Volunteers “give their time freely with no expectation for monetary reward. Their hours of service ensure that many activities are accomplished and that many people are helped” (Volunteer Canada, 2006).
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW UNDERSTANDING PARTICIPATION
Volunteer Canada (2009) considers volunteering to be a “core value” to Canadians.
Changes in the ways that people volunteer over the last decade have inspired politicians, organizations, and volunteer associations to achieve a greater understanding of volunteerism (Brody, Cowling, Nissing, Paine, Jochum, & Warburton, 2009).
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW A) THEORIES OF VOLUNTEERISM: PARTICIPATION (Brody et al., 2009).
Citizen and state relationships: People are more likely to volunteer in participative democracies which involve the majority of people in decisions that affect their lives.
Democracy, civil society and social capital: Theories of social capital emphasize the relationships between one’s own capital (networks, resources, education) and participation.
Space and place: Ideas of place and space are closely linked to the notion of ‘community.’ Community is about much more than the social ties and networks that bind it, the physical setting in which these social networks exist is just as important.
The ubiquity of power relations: Different forms of power need to be understood in relation to two dimensions: how spaces for participation and engagement are created, and the levels of power (from local to global) in which they occur. Understanding each of these as separate yet interrelated dimensions permits these dimensions to be analytically linked together.
Life course and life spheres: Other factors which impact participation include age, life events, life cycle, generation membership and the climate of participation.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW B) THEORIES OF PARTICIPATION: JOB DESIGN ď‚—
Volunteer Canada borrowed a tool applied and heavily researched in the corporate sector, common to Volunteer Management Theory called Job Design Theory
ď‚—
If volunteers can be matched to a job that appropriately utilizes their skills, enhances their learning, and positions them in a way that clearly contributes to the work of the organizations, they will be more clear about their roles and more satisfied with their work (Bowen et al., 2001)
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What motivations, barriers to engagement, and opportunities for leadership affect youth volunteers who participate in indirect forms of service?
How does role ambiguity impact indirect forms of service?
What strengths and challenges affect youth volunteers who provide indirect forms of service?
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY EPISTEMOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK
The interpretivist framework allowed my own bias to be acknowledged that guides the rationale.
Interest lay in values as expressed directly from participants reflecting on knowledge gained through shared experiences.
METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK
Grounded theory guided the design, delivery, and analysis of the semistructured, in-depth interviews.
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY METHOD
Purposive sampling – agencies were selected and contacted by myself to diversify the type of projects youth volunteer participants were engaged in. Staff contacts were requested to be involved in the recruitment so that youth who had volunteered long-term could participate.
Semi-structured, in depth interviews were conducted so that feedback was adequately shaped by participant responses.
Open coding, suiting the interpretivist framework took place whereby “essences” from participant’s dialogue influenced the formation of core themes not formed directly by the questions, along with all of the sub themes in the results.
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY PARTICIPATING AGENCIES
One agency involved youth in raising awareness about racism in Toronto.
Another agency involved youth in raising awareness for youth in various GTA communities about youth rights and the law.
A youth governance board for a funding agency involved youth in awareness raising, fundraising and advocacy for member organizations about issues facing GTA communities.
A university chapter for one of the organizations engaged youth in awareness raising and fundraising to aid civilians affected by conflict in Darfur.
A volunteer association engaged one participant in raising awareness to youth about volunteer opportunities and importance of volunteerism, the other fundraising for cancer research.
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
Six core themes emerged from the data analysis.
Three reflected common topics from the literature: motivations to volunteer, leadership opportunities, and barriers to engagement.
Role ambiguity emerged as core theme for youth who are indirect volunteers.
Two new themes emerged that are unique to this research: empowerment and power imbalances, and the meaning that youth ascribe to their volunteer roles.
Main Themes Motivations of Youth to Choose and Maintain Participation in Indirect Forms of Service
Sub-Themes Upward Mobility Community Membership Interested in Issue Interested in Organization Desire to Make Change Education Convenient and Responsive
Origins of Leadership Opportunities for Youth Volunteers who Participate in Indirect Forms of Service
Desire for Upward Mobility Personal Attributes for Leadership Intrinsic Motivation to Be a Leader Leadership Opportunities That Are Connected to Existing Role or Title Undertaking Public Education Teamwork Promotes Leadership
Barriers to Engagement of Youth Volunteers in Indirect Forms of Service
Presence or Lack of Inclusive Practices Lack of Resources Power Imbalances Complexity of the Work Difficulty Connecting with Potential Volunteers, Clients, and the Community Competition with Other Organizations and Clubs A Poor Location and Lack of Space Age Discrimination Prerequisites
Main Themes Sub-Themes Perceived Ambiguity of Volunteer Lack of Clarity About the Volunteer’s Role and Their Work Roles Developed for Indirect Lack of Clarity About the Organization Forms of Service Creating Clarity About Their Role Creating Clarity About the Organization Understanding the Clients Achieving Clarity by Perspective Taking Describing the Indirect Service Role Challenges of Role Ambiguity The Emergence of Empowerment Empowerment of Selves and Power Imbalances in Youth Empowerment of the Service Community and Clients Volunteer Roles Lack of Empowerment in Individuals Lack of Power in Community Power Imbalances
The Meaning that Youth Ascribe to Their Volunteer Experiences
Importance of Volunteering to Youth Volunteer Participants Importance of Volunteering to the Community and Clients Youth Volunteering for the Wrong Reasons Exploitation of Youth Volunteers Importance of Volunteering Related to a Specific Issue Emerging Gems of Volunteering
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Motivation for Volunteering There were a few new reasons why youth were motivated to volunteer. First, youth were motivated to volunteer to change something about a cause that they were interested in. Some youth also found their organization interesting to volunteer with. Youth who were indirect volunteers were particularly interested in conducting public education. Some youth also found the volunteer work they were currently engaged in convenient. Interest in the Issue Being Addressed by the Indirect Service [Marcus] “What motivated me to volunteer and to go into this field? Basically just seeing what’s going on in a lot of communities, going into situations that I see youth going through around here, going through everyday life motivated me to say I wanted to change things the way I see them.”
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Leadership Opportunities What was new to indirect volunteering was that youth performing this type of volunteering were interested in public education positions and found building on this skill to be essential to performing their work. Youth believed that true leadership is carried out in teams of volunteers, not by individuals. Teamwork Promotes Leadership [Chloe] “I can tell board members have amazing leadership capabilities, they always ask me, ‘do you need me to do anything?’ A lot of people I’ve met are part of our own leadership committees, the youth council organizations, If they’re part of something, they create a group, they’re awesome, they all bring something together.”
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Barriers to Engagement Themes that were new to the literature included racial and cultural acceptance, age barriers, language barriers, and gender barriers. Sometimes indirect volunteering was challenging to perform due to the complexity of the work. Youth also believed that mandated volunteering presented a barrier to valuable participation. Age Barriers [Chris] “…it’s hard to get youth to take initiative.”
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Role Ambiguity Since role ambiguity emerged as a core theme, it can be assumed that this is an important issue for youth who are indirect volunteers. Many youth were unclear about their own volunteer roles because they did not have a standard position description. They often also didn’t know what the outcomes of their work were. Many youth were also unclear about the full scope of the work carried out by their organizations. Lack of Clarity About the Organization [Iris] “I would still like to see our cabinet take on a specific financial goal, like a fundraising goal because, sometimes I feel like we talk a lot, we brainstorm a lot but, we don’t really have set in stone goals.”
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Role Ambiguity (continued) Another unique sub theme involved participants discovering who their clients were during the interviews. Understanding the Clients [I] Before getting into the next questions about your volunteer role, if you could think of or describe your clients, if you could pick out groups of people who would be clients of the work that you’re doing who would they be?” [Bonnie] “Oh clients?”...“If I said something like the general public, would that not be a good answer?”
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Empowerment Although there is some literature about youth volunteers being empowered by their work or disempowered by their organizations, youth’s experiences were considered unique to their type of volunteer work. Power Imbalances [Chloe] “…Since it’s lead by youth, a youth for youth organization, it really attracted me, also because sometimes, like, you know when organizations have hierarchy structure, sometimes youth who have brilliant ideas might be scared to bring it out because of the structure, but because (organization) is led by youth, we all feel safe to discuss open ideas and new ideas.”
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Meaning Youth also discussed how meaningful their volunteer work was, which is important to continually explore in all literature on youth volunteers. Importance of Volunteering to Youth Volunteer Participants [Chris] “I find that um a lot of students in high school they’re required to do 40 hours and I know it’s a big task to really get started and I think a lot of young people in high school especially complete their 40 hours because they do the 40 hours because they’re forced to to graduate but they don’t see the benefit beyond those 40 hours and I think that that’s a big issue in terms of volunteerism.”
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION
The sub-themes verified findings in existing literature on youth volunteerism.
The sub-themes also provided fresh insight into issues not discussed in literature about some of the similar core themes, notably public education being the type of leadership position sought by youth who are indirect volunteers, complexity of the work being a barrier to participation, and one’s racial and cultural background not being a barrier to participation.
Role ambiguity, empowerment and power imballances, and the meaning of volunteerism were core themes that were unique to this research.
A conceptual framework emerged from the results producing a diagram of indirect volunteering, a volunteer engagement model specific to youth who are indirect volunteers, and a conceptualization of how to reduce role ambiguity.
Figure 1. The indirect volunteering path of service outputs to results for clients.
Figure 2. Three pathways that prevent and promote successful outcomes for youth volunteers providing indirect services.
Figure 3. Factors that contribute to role ambiguity, role clarity, and actions that youth volunteers and the organizations they work for can take to reduce ambiguity.
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS
Strengths and challenges that emerged in results should serve as strengths to pursue and challenges to avoid for organizations.
Community service learning tools can help to make volunteering more meaningful for youth and outcomes of indirect volunteering more clear for youth volunteers and the organizations they work with.
Job Design can help reduce role ambiguity by engaging youth in the cocreation of their own volunteer position descriptions.
Core Theme Motivations of Youth to Choose and Maintain Participation in Indirect Forms of Service
Strengths -Youth are motivated to volunteer in an indirect service capacity for a variety of reasons, including upward mobility, seeking community membership, being passionate about an issue, interest in a service organization, a desire to make change, interest in public education, and sometimes the volunteer opportunity is convenient for them.
Challenges -Despite the many reasons why youth are motivated to volunteer, there are barriers to engagement that prevent them from doing the work that they are motivated to do, including insufficient advertising and an inconvenient location on the part of service organizations. -Some youth are motivated to volunteer only for self-fulfillment and ego-boosting -Some youth are not motivated to volunteer at all, as it is “hard to get youth to take initiative.�
Origins of Leadership Opportunities for Youth Volunteers who Participate in Indirect Forms of Service
-Opportunities for upward mobility help youth grow as leaders within their organizations -Leadership is infused in indirect service volunteering as many youth who choose this type of volunteering either already have strong leadership qualities and skills, have a desire to become leaders or improve their leadership skills, and have staff assuming that leadership is part of their volunteer role. -Public education is integral to awareness raising and fundraising activities and also a highly valued leadership activity by youth volunteers. -Indirect service youth value teamwork as the best form of leadership.
-Some youth feel they struggle to improve their leadership skills because they are overshadowed by other youth volunteers who they see as natural leaders. -Indirect service youth engaged in public education are discouraged by apathy from the public, and lack of feedback from their audiences following an awareness-raising or fundraising event. -Efforts from staff reward leadership by singling out individual youth volunteers detracts attention from the leadership that takes place in teams of youth.
Barriers to Engagement of Youth Volunteers in Indirect Forms of Service
-Youth identified many barriers to engagement but also offered insights into where and how their organizations could be successful at reducing these barriers. Despite some lack of inclusive practices, all volunteers felt their organizations were very diverse and inclusive when it came to race and culture. Volunteers also felt their organizations were successful at reducing power imbalances when they focused on teamwork. Their organizations could prevent youth from becoming discouraged by complex work with unlikely goals by engaging youth in episodic, hands-on opportunities that are fun. Articulating to youth the connection between their service outputs and the impact of these outputs on stakeholders and clients was another way that one organization successfully made indirect service work less complex for their volunteers. Making youth feel part of the action was one way that organizations could assist to connect volunteers with future stakeholders such as other volunteers, clients, and community members. Place-making and branching off to satellite locations were ways in which one organization was successful in resolving issues to do with location and volunteer space.
-Youth identified many barriers to engagement that kept them from volunteering to their fullest potential, including a lack of inclusive practices for younger youth, male youth, and newcomer youth with a limited grasp of the English language. A lack of personal and organizational resources was a barrier restricting volunteer recruitment and participation, along with access to clients and community members, as was competition with other organizations and club chapters. Power imbalances, such as hierarchical structures in the organization lead to volunteers doubting that they had the power to change the issues they were passionate about through volunteering, as did the complexity of the indirect service work. Lack of sufficient location and space restricted volunteers’ access to indirect service opportunities. Prerequisite skills limited the type of youth who could participate in indirect service work. Overall, youth felt that indirect service work was only attractive to and understandable by over-achieving youth.
Core Theme Perceived Ambiguity of Volunteer Roles Developed for Indirect Forms of Service
Strengths -A handful of youth were very clear about their volunteer roles and the work of the organization and seemed more satisfied with their organizations overall. -Youth who were unclear about their volunteer roles and the work of their organizations became more clear with guidance and mentorship from staff, and being offered an orientation and training materials from the organization. -Youth became more clear about who their clients were, how they valued their work, and the components of their indirect service role overall when probed with interview questions that made them reflect on these components of their volunteer role, suggesting that they may not have done this before and that reflection may be a useful tool to help indirect service youth become more clear about their work.
Challenges -Many youth were unclear about their indirect service roles and the work of their organizations. -Many youth were also unable to initially name who some of their clients and stakeholders were -One participant felt that youth value direct over indirect service work because youth can see results of direct service work immediately. -Another participant felt that communities see indirect service youth as a “luxury” as they accomplish little if they cannot accomplish their work directly. This participant believed that communities value direct service volunteers instead.
The Emergence of Empowerment and Power Imbalances in Youth Volunteer Roles
-Youth found that indirect service work could be empowering for themselves because this type of volunteering allowed them to educate, influence, and motivate others to do something about their issue of interest, and to turn their issue of interest or their “passions” into volunteering. -Youth found that indirect service work could be empowering for the communities they were serving because doing so allowed them to engage in place-making in their communities.
-The aforementioned barriers to engagement were disempowering for youth volunteers. -Youth felt particularly disempowered when their volunteer work was taken advantage of by other youth who just wanted to fulfill their mandatory 40 hours of service requirement, and overshadowed by other youth volunteers who seemed to naturally have strong leadership qualities. -Factors such as organizational hierarchy, turnover, large scale projects, competing organizations, and an apathetic public made indirect service work ineffective for communities. These same factors also made it apparent that there are problematic institutionally driven power imbalances in the indirect service climate.
The Meaning That Youth Ascribe to Their Volunteer Experiences
-Indirect service volunteering gives youth an opportunity to explore their own values, turn their passions into volunteering, become immersed in their communities, make their mark and make change, learn along with their service clients, and seek meaning in how fun their volunteer work is for their clients.
-Sometimes, youth volunteers volunteer for the wrong reasons, such as fulfilling their mandatory volunteer service requirements for high school and boosting their egos. -Some indirect service volunteers feel exploited doing this kind of work as one volunteer was treated like a “little helper” at one of the organizations. -It is difficult for any youth volunteer to pick only one organization and issue to volunteer for. -Youth acknowledge that grassroots organizations are limited in capacity to carry out their work. -It is essential for youth volunteers to want to see feedback with their work.
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
With no follow-up, no feedback about practice recommendations was obtained from participants.
Future research should explore outcomes of Community Service Learning for youth engaged in indirect volunteering.
Future research should also be conducted with staff, community members, and clients as all are stakeholders of the indirect services that youth provide.
To better understand barriers to engagement, more research needs to take place with youth who are not volunteers.
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIAL WORK
“Participation is considered a tool for reforming public services and for providing services that are better suited to people’s needs and that are more efficient” (Brody et al., 2006, p. 6).
The third sector, which includes the volunteer and nonprofit sector, has a great benefit for the welfare state, and often shoulders a large percentage of social services in the field of social work (Evers et al., 2004, p. 14).
It is hoped that by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of how youth conduct their work in the volunteer sector the result will be noticeable benefits to our social services.
The focus on indirect volunteering is also relevant to understanding how social services are carried out by volunteers at a macro-practice level.
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LITERATURE
This is the first known research to identify indirect services as a type of volunteering and explore issues related to youth who are indirect volunteers.
New findings emerged under each of the core themes that have been researched in prior literature, adding to the knowledge base on these topics.
This research adds to the literature on role ambiguity in the volunteer sector and is the first to explore role ambiguity among youth volunteers.
Practical applications for Community Service Learning and Job Design were explored.