Effective Youth Volunteer Management: Insights from My Experience

I remember the first time I had to manage volunteers. It was a few years ago now and I was a campaign director for a municipal campaign in my area. We strategically planned to have the bulk of the volunteer team be youth.  Thankfully, we were successful in doing just that. That experience taught me so much, but it truly taught me what it takes to manage youth volunteers.  So today, I’m sharing with you 4 lessons learned from that experience and so many others on how to manage youth volunteers.

Lesson 1: Understanding the Busy Lives of Young People

In today’s world, we all have very busy and interesting schedules. What makes youth unique is that they very might be free on a Monday at 11 am but will be busy working on a Saturday afternoon.

I know to others during my experience, this was frustrating. But our team used it to our advantage. We were able to fill in gaps in our needs and schedule with youth volunteers which wouldn’t have been possible if the person volunteering with us was only available in the evenings or during weekends.

In short – use their unique schedules to your advantage. Reflect on what can be done during the day. Reflect on how you can make your team more productive by using their unique availabilities throughout the week.

Lesson 2: Highlighting the Impact of Tasks on Organizational Goals

Youth, like many others, need a sense of direction and purpose. First, you have to explain what they’re doing and then explain the impact of their tasks on your overall goal. Take the time to repeat and explain how their puzzle piece fits into the larger puzzle that your organization is trying to build.

By repeating these things, you’re ensuring that they understand their larger purpose and that they know their tasks are meaningful and contributing to making an impact.

Lesson 3: Empowering and Train Youth Volunteers

This goes for really any sort of volunteer that comes across your organization- train them! Give them all the tools, guidelines, and resources they need to succeed in their tasks. Not only will it save you time in the long run, but youth volunteers appreciate clarity and parameters on when to do things and how to do them. Ensuring that you get higher quality things done and saves you time in the end.

Lesson 4: Setting Clear Expectations

In many conversations that I’ve had, organizations are quick to get away from themselves and set very unrealistic expectations of their youth volunteers. Of course, they are there and want to help, but important boundaries must be set from the beginning. It isn’t fair to expect them to fulfill the role of someone full-time or paid. Setting realistic expectations for what you want from youth volunteers ensures less disappointment, conflict, or confusion in the long run.

Bonus tip: If you see a youth volunteer exceeding all your expectations, I’d go ahead and recommend hiring them – imagine what they could do for your organization if they were paid and full-time.

After managing youth volunteers in the past, I have learned a valuable lesson - they are some of the best possible people you could work with. I have never had more fun, felt so inspired, or been positively challenged as I have when managing youth volunteers.

Let me tell you something - having youth in your community is a game-changer. Youth are the ones who will help you grow your reach and ensure that you have long-term supporters. But it’s not only that - but they also bring in new energy and fresh ideas that can take your mission to new heights. With their optimism and readiness to fight for a better world, there is simply nothing that can compare.