‘Volunteerin’ actually has helped me’:
Young People’s Views on the Benefits of Volunteering in Areas of Multiple Deprivation
James Davies
Summary
This report presents initial findings from a broader PhD project looking at young people’s (aged 12-18) attitudes towards, and experiences of, volunteering in areas of multiple deprivation in Glasgow. The broader project examines young people’s perceptions of volunteering, how they feel they benefit from it and factors enabling and inhibiting access to opportunities.
Thereport focuses on the benefits which volunteers and volunteer-managers attached to volunteering.Itargues participants placed greatest value on the relational aspects of volunteering. Young people described having limited opportunities for social interaction outside their volunteering environments and often suggested that, without the opportunity, they would either be at home or walking around the streets. The relationships developed offered opportunities for bonding with, and receiving support from, young people and staff at the organisations. From these bonds, young people felt their confidence and social skills were enhanced and noted favourably the sense of pride and responsibility that accompanied being able to help others. The relational side of volunteering also offered young people a way to get out of their ‘wee bubble[s]’, thereby potentially reducing the constraining effects of territorialism and religious affiliation on individual mobility across the city.Although the discussion section notes caveats in terms of establishing causality between volunteering and the benefits reported, the dataanalysed in this report present a largely positive story.
It is important to note that data analysis is still ongoing. As such, the report is currently in draft form meaning its analyses and theframing of the data may alter as the project progresses.
Contents
Summary
1The benefits of volunteering
1.1Social interaction
1.1.1‘We’ve got nothing to do’: Limited opportunities to socialise
1.1.2‘[Not] getting mad wi’ it’: Alternative forms of socialising
1.1.3‘It can feel like a second family’: Developing relationships
1.2Confidence and wellbeing
1.2.1‘Completely changed your confidence’: Confidence through social interaction
1.2.2‘They’ve really helped my confidence’: Confidence from volunteer coordinators
1.2.3‘Volunteerin’ actually has helped me’: Confidence to transitions
1.3Challenging social divisions
1.3.1‘We’ve managed to break barriers’: Enhancing spatial mobilities
1.4Conclusions
1.4.1Implications for practice
References
1
1The benefits of volunteering
This report presents findings relating to the benefits young people felt they derivedthrough volunteering. As argued in the literature review, volunteering is often promoted as a way of enhancing employability prospects, CVs, personal wellbeing and generating positiveoutcomes for society. Establishing causality, however, was shown to be problematic, partly due to external factors – a volunteer will struggle to move into employment if there is a weak labour market – and personal attributes – those who volunteer may have higher levels of wellbeing prior to volunteering. While this thesis cannot assess whether volunteering did help young people transition into other destinations or objectively enhance their wellbeing, it can provide insight into what the participants felt they gained through volunteering.
The report is divided into three sections. The first explores how volunteering provided young people with opportunities for social interaction in the context of having limited leisure options. It also examines the relationships participants reported developing and the significance of these in their lives. The second section looks at how volunteering was reported to have enhanced the participants’ self-confidence and self-esteem. It argues the development of these attributes was related to the social interaction and relationships that emerged through volunteering. The third section investigates the extent to which volunteering was considered to enable participants to challenge the constraints territoriality and religious affiliation could impose on them. While the report is broadly positive in its analysis of what participants considered they gained through volunteering, the final section explores limitations to these outcomes and highlights the importance of social context in understanding volunteering.
1.1Social interaction
Growing up in a deprived area creates both opportunities and challenges for social interaction. For example, while researchers have found a greater prevalence of children’s outdoor playgrounds in deprived areas of Glasgow, their quality has been queried (Ellaway, Kirk, Macintyre, & Mutrie, 2007). Moreover, persons living in the most deprived areasof Scotland are more likely to perceive a higher prevalence of neighbourhood problems and anti-social behaviour than those in less deprived areas (Scottish Government, 2016a). These factors suggest there may be limitations placed on localised leisure opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition to this, the lower spending power of those from deprived areas, by virtue of having lower scoreson the SIMD’s income domain, creates barriers for participating in private sector leisure activities. It is within such a context that this section examines the ways in which volunteering was considered by participants to offer opportunities for social interaction.
1.1.1‘We’ve got nothing to do’: Limited opportunities tosocialise
A persistent theme during the fieldwork, among volunteers, ex-volunteers and non-volunteers alike, was the perception that there was little to do in the areas where they lived:
Boring in’t it, there’s nothing else to do, we’ve got nothing to do like, just walking about yourself, like, with pals.
(Callum, 15, ex-volunteer)
There’s nothing really else to do where we stay, like, there’s only like a park in thewhole scheme.
(Niamh, 14, volunteer)
Despite being recruited from areas in the most deprived quintile of the SIMD, many of the organisations from which young people were recruited to the study were in areas within the least deprived decile concerning access to services. While this indicator does not include access to leisure services,[1] it suggests the organisations were located in comparatively built up areas. The extent to which young people are able to participate in leisure activities, however, is contingent upon spending power, knowledge of activities to engage in and an ability to travel to them. It has been argued that, in Glasgow, gentrification and the costs of participation mean young people are more likely to spend time indoors than they would have been in the past(Batchelor & Whittaker, 2015). The participants echoed this perception and believed that, without access to the organisations through which they volunteered, they would have little else to do other than lie in bed or use their mobile phones.Volunteering and attending the organisations were often considered to provide ways of getting ‘oot the house’ (Matt 15, volunteer):
You wouldnae be doing anything but sitting in the house if you never went out and did stuff […] I volunteer on a Saturday, now see if I didn’t have, I’d probably lie in my bed until three o’clock rather than get up and be out by twelve.
(Emma 14, volunteer)
I don’t know because I didn’t like know really about all this stuff if it, if it wasn’t for [Sports Charity 3], I’d pretty much be in ma bed right now.
(Isla 16, volunteer)
Yeah, I’ve done it from like the age of seven I’ve volunteered, like it’s just a good way to get you off, like, not doin’ anything in the house, like a way to get you out and just enjoy it like.
(Katie 14, volunteer)
In the context of growing up in areas the participants perceived to offer them little to do, the organisations provided a route into regular social activities. Without a comparison group, it cannot be determined whether these experiences were specific to young people in deprived areas. Given that households in the most deprived quintile are more likely to report they do not mange well financially (Scottish Government, 2016a),however, young people from such backgrounds may be more likely to experience financial barriers to leisure activities. Indeed, accounts of what participants did in their spare time emphasise the notion of restricted opportunities:
DonnaIf like I wasn’t volunteering and stuff like I wouldn’t be, like I’d probably be on the streets and stuff.
EmmaI’d probably be in ma bed.
DonnaAnd like I wouldn’t be doing anything else, like I’d probably be stuck on ma phone and stuff constantly.
(Both 14, volunteers)
I don’t do much else so I might as well come here and enjoy it.
(Ryan 16, volunteer)
JD[2]What sorts of things would you do in your like spare time like outside of the clubs?
[Brief pause]
AbbieI don’t know [brief pause] no’ much, me and Amy would like just go on walks or something.
JDOk, where would you go for walks?
AbbieRound the block. [Laughs]
(Abbie 15, volunteer)
Participants indicated that without the organisations their leisure time would consist of socialising on the streets or staying at home. When discussing the positive aspects of volunteering, a number of participants stated it offered a way of socialising off the streets. When asked whether there were issues with people being on the streets, some described anti-social behaviour and criminal acts in their local areas.Ryan (16, volunteer), for example, stated there were ‘a lot of things like fighting’ in the area in which he grew up, Niamh (14, volunteer) discussed ‘drug users and gang fighting’ as well as tensions between Celtic and Rangers supporters while Scott (15, volunteer) recounted a recent ‘bad thing’ that happened where he lived:
Last week with the Old Firm[3] happening, erm, one of the old houses in ma street, a guy was shouting, walking down the, threatening people with a shovel and then shouting like Rangers songs and taking his top off and that, then his next door neighbour, he went down and booted the door, like really hard and then there was, he was just jumping about and then the police ended up getting phoned and then he got taken away like overnight.
Instances such as this were felt by Scott to be ‘hard’ as ‘you don’t really know like how ‘ae get away from it, like how to, like ignore it ‘cos it’s happening all the time’. His perception of the widespread nature of such behaviour resonates with statistical data indicating anti-social behaviour and neighbour related problems to be more common in deprived areas (Scottish Government, 2016a). For Callum (15, ex-volunteer), street based socialising was linked to the instigation of such behaviour: ‘it causes crime ‘cos there’s nothing else to do’. He believed the exposure of younger people to street based crime, as perpetrated by older groups, influenced the former to mimic such behaviours in order to ‘fit in’:
If other people are doing it then it influences other people to do it because they’re older, if people’s older then you’re looking up to them and they’re doing the crime and usually the young wans copy them […] the wee wans are gunnae, they’re looking up to them for stuff taedae and they’re gunnaedae the same because they’re doing it.
Callum states younger groups look to older ones for ‘stuff taedae’. In the context of growing up in areas where participants perceive there to be little to do, copying such behaviours may be a way of bonding, creating friendships and attaining status. Labelling behaviour as anti-social, however, is problematic due to varying perspectives on what such behaviour looks like. Niamh (14, volunteer), for example, felt socialising with her peers in public spaces was sometimes misinterpreted as anti-social behaviour:
It makes you feel as if you can’t go out in like your own scheme and like your own area because people are gonnae jump to conclusions and think that you’re up to no good, like, wi’ young people that’s what they always think, like they always think young people are up to no good, they’re, like, you could do something and they’d be like, “Ohh, it’s graffiti or being violent towards each other", when really it’s just a carry-on or a way 'ae amuse yourself for a while ‘cos there’s nothing else do to.
Nathan (14, volunteer) and Matt (15, volunteer) expressed their annoyance at being moved on by the police for congregating in public spaces with their friends:
NathanPolice can, like, when you’re out with a big group of friends.
MattThey’ll just pull you up.
NathanMake you, yeah, pull you up and tell you to move and that just ‘cos you’re out with a big group of friends and it can be quite intimidating to other people.
JDMhmm, how does that make you feel I guess, when that happens?
MattLike when they tell you to move, it’s like you’ve never done anything so it’s like you don’t want to move but you really need to ‘cos it’s the police.
JDMmm, is that something that happens often?
MattSee that happens to me a lot because I’ve got, like all ma friends, once we all go out, we all meet up and there’s lots of us, so, you know, just go walking about, the police always pull us up and tell us to leave and, like, they think we’ve been fighting or something.
The organisation where Nathan, Matt and Niamh volunteeredwas located in the most deprived decile of the SIMD’s crime domain.[4] More broadly, young people aged 13 and 15 in Scotland’s most deprived decile are more likely to drink alcohol outdoors than at home, compared to those from the least deprived decile (Murray & McVie, 2016). These factors may lead to the police patrolling disadvantaged areas and thus being more likely to approach groups of young people on the assumption they are engaged in illicit practices. Indeed, one of the volunteer coordinators, Tracey, stressed that while she thought the police ‘dae an amazing service […] a lot of the time they just target young people for no apparent reason’. While this might be understood as an attempt to prevent crime, such encounters were experienced unfavourablyby young people. Nathan, for example, felt it was ‘demeaning’ as ‘you’re automatically suspected of doing something when you’ve not even done anything’ while Matt stated it ‘annoys you really, ‘cos they just think bad of you’. Such encounters were considered to reduce young people’s willingness to socialise in public spaces, as illustrated by Niamh’s remark that it was‘too much hassle so that’s why naebody really goes out, so everybody just really stays in’.
The young people’s accounts of the areas in which they grew up indicated a deficit of leisure pursuits, other than socialising in public areas, which was problematic due to concerns over crime, anti-social behaviour and being moved on by the police. In contrast to the participants’ perception of having nothing to do, researchers have found the number of outdoor play areas in Glasgow, per 1,000 people, to rise as deprivation levels increase (Ellaway et al., 2007). This ostensibly positive finding, however, was queried in light of the quality of such playgrounds, their maintenance and the ways in which they are used. Indeed, households containing children, aged 6 to 12, in deprived urban areas of Scotland have been found to be less likely to consider it safe for children to play at playgrounds, parks, games pitches or on the streets than households in less deprived urban areas (Scottish Government, 2015). The same study also found those in deprived areas to be more concerned about children being harmed by adults in such environments. Theseconcerns were echoed during my fieldwork, with participants noting tensions in areas affected by sectarianism could leave them feeling ‘uncomfortable in certain places […] because you don’t know what’s going to happen’ (Niamh 14, volunteer).
Data generated during the fieldwork adds complexity to understanding how young people interact with public space. On the one hand, participants indicated they spent time socialising on the streets due to limited opportunities to do otherwise. On the other, participants reported being moved on by the police, thus makingcongregating in such spaces difficult.The following section explores the notion that volunteering provided young people with alternatives to socialising on the streets and consuming alcohol, activities volunteers indicated their peers engaged in. It is beyond the scope of this study to assess whether the participants’ accounts of their peers’ activities are an accurate reflection of how they spent their spare time. Indeed, researchers have argued that today young people are more likely to spend time indoors than previous generations(Batchelor & Whittaker, 2015) suggesting the opposite may be the case.[5]Their comments may, therefore, reflect broader discourses concerning young people’s use of public space as a threat and volunteering as a way of ameliorating such concerns.
1.1.2‘[Not] getting mad wi’ it’: Alternative forms of socialising
For some of the participants, volunteering was considered to offer an alternative to staying at home or socialising in public spaces. This section examines how volunteering was perceivedto offer opportunities for social interaction and how it could enable participants to temporarily get away from difficult personal lives.
During a focus group with volunteers at a sports charity, I enquiredwhetherthe participants felt it was important to have friends involved in volunteering. They indicated they had made friends through volunteering, but that it was not an activity they considered to carry much credibilityamong their friends or peers outside the charity:
FayeLike I’m the only out of ma friends at all that do anything like this, ‘cos they’re always like out and at parties and I’m […] just like, “No, I’ve got this session tomorrow, whatever”, but no I don’t think so ‘cos I’ve tried to rope some friends in but they’re like, “Nah”. [Laughs]
DonnaBut you’ll get a lot of, you’ll get a lot of people that’ll like, if you say, “I do volunteering”, they’ll be like, “Oh that’s pointless, you could be out doing this or doing that”.
Faye“Getting mad wi’ it”.
JDYeah?
DonnaCould be out with your friends and all that, and you’re like, “I’d rather be volunteering”…
EmmaI’d much rather be here.
DonnaAnd helping kids rather than going out and drinking and on the streets and stuff it’s…
EmmaOr lying in your bed like me
(Faye 16, Emma and Donna 14, volunteers)
The volunteers in this extract differentiate themselves from their peers by outlining their preference for volunteering over activities such as drinking on the streets. Evidence indicates adolescents are more likely to be users of multiple substances, including alcohol, cigarettes and drugs, if they truant, are excluded from school or spend their leisure time unsupervised or in unstructured activities,such as socialising on the streets (Black & Martin, 2015). By volunteering, participants were in structured and supervised activities which may explain why they felt able to differentiate themselves from their peers. In contrast to this, when asked what they did in their spare time, a group of non-volunteering females indicated that, other than shopping and sitting around, alcohol and drugs were used: ‘I don’t think anyone our age would actually think about volunteerin’ or anything, they’re all too busy getting mad wi’ it an’ all’ (Taylor 16, non-volunteer). Unlike the volunteers, who stated volunteering kept them away from underage drinking, the females in this non-volunteerfocus group described their spare time activities as follows: