Volunteering not just for the aged
The myth that only older people volunteer in the community has been busted by the Manawatu and Districts Volunteer Resource Centre.
Its figures show that 20 to 29 is the peak age for volunteering, with 550 people or nearly 40 per cent of its voluntary workforce in that age group.
People aged over 60 made up less than 8 per cent of its volunteers.
Centre co-ordinator Norelle Ward said many of the younger volunteers were students or jobseekers looking for ways to raise their profile and get work experience to strengthen their CVS.
One of them is full-time Massey University student Emma Robertson. She is 21, has a part-time job, and works as a voluntary writer for the centre, writing articles for community groups.
‘‘It’s good experience for me. It’s writing. I get into areas I’m interested in. And it feels good doing something for the community.’’
Another young volunteer is Mandy Kelly, a 29-year-old disability beneficiary, who contributes four hours a week at St Vinnie’s charity shop doing back office tasks.
‘‘I love doing the job. It gets me out of the house and meeting new people.’’
She said she hoped the experience would help her get a job when she was able to contemplate fulltime work.
Ward said some young people volunteered purely because they wanted to make a contribution. But for many, it was a way to build networks, gain work experience and skills and find a way into paid work.
She said the centre was careful not to place anyone in a volunteer role they thought the agency should instead be paying someone to do.
Ward said while people aged over 40 made up less than 30 per cent of the centre’s volunteers, that was unlikely to reflect the amount of volunteering people over that age actually did.
Many of them had their own networks that connected them to volunteer roles,
The centre does not handle sports volunteering.
City council employment portfolio spokesman Adrian Broad said it would be a shame if young people were volunteering only because there were not enough paid jobs.
But, it was a positive and often successful way for them to show prospective employers that they could work hard and had a good attitude.