How to Attract Youth Volunteers: 3 Creative Recruitment Strategies

Recruiting volunteers, youth specifically, has almost become an art form. With a constant flow of information and endless opportunities being presented to people, it's hard to cut through the noise and find youth who will connect with your organization. Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

However, the thing that distinguishes organizations that engage youth from those that don’t is their willingness to go where the youth are. If there’s one piece of advice I will repeat until I turn blue, it's that you have to go where the youth are. The onus is on the organization to begin building that bridge with the youth. How do you do that? You go to where they are and engage them from there.

Now, what does this look like? You've exhausted all the usual techniques, but here are three innovative ways you can recruit young people.

Method 1: Host a Volunteer Open House

Essentially, once every few months, once a year or whatever you prefer, host a volunteer open house targeting youth specifically. This is a time where you get to introduce your organization to community members, highlight what you do, and the impact you make and then develop on the opportunities that youth can have within your organization.

The key to making this as successful as you can: tailor the event to young people. Make it fun, make it engaging and interactive. If you have youth volunteers or youth staff already, encourage them to attend and speak from their perspective. Have food, drinks, music and overall create an ambiance that highlights your organization and is fun, lively and welcoming. Make youth want to come back.

Method 2: Create engaging and FUN volunteer opportunities

No one wants to sit in a room alone for hours on end and stare at a screen doing something that doesn’t mean a whole lot.

The key to recruiting volunteers is to create opportunities that are exciting, fun, and directly correlate to your mission. You have to be able to express that and communicate it to prospective volunteers. It's one thing to have dull tasks, but is there a way you can make it engaging, and fun and do it with other people? Essentially, how can you create a positive experience for the volunteer? How can you help them make unforgettable memories while also making sure they help you advance your work and mission? It's time to get creative and be creative in how you communicate those opportunities.

Method 3: Reach out to youth-serving organizations

An underutilized resource by many organizations is their fellow counterparts, the youth-serving organizations that already exist in their broader community. Not only do they have insights into the youth in your community, but they can potentially help bridge the gap between youth and your organization.

Think big about who you can reach out to and set up a call to discuss what the youth in their community might need from you. See from there what can be matched with your needs and then you might have a little more insight on how you can frame your opportunities to attract youth to your organization.

One thing I find is lacking in the volunteer sector, is enthusiasm and excitement. Youth and people in general, want to help and volunteer, but we forget how positive of an activity it is. We forget how to infuse the fun, excitement and engagement in it.

Your organization needs to revitalize your volunteer programs with fun, new and exciting opportunities again. It doesn’t matter what the opportunity is, it's about the environment, ambiance and the way you communicate it to youth volunteers that matters.