Youth Outreach 101: Tips for Recruiting Young Volunteers

Across the many organizations I’ve interacted with over the years, one thing has become abundantly clear – organizations have a hard time recruiting and retaining youth volunteers (more on that in another blog post coming soon. That isn’t to say that there aren’t organizations out there that do try to bring youth into their communities, however, it’s becoming increasingly more apparent that fewer and fewer youth are becoming a part of your volunteer or support base,

You might be wondering, what can we do to change that? Well, great question! Keep in mind as you go through the tips below that not all of these will apply to your organization, but I believe the ideas will still transfer over.

Tip 1: Plan Out the Youth Volunteers Experience

Have you ever heard of an employee journey map (read more about it here )? Essentially, the employee journey map is a plan set in place that details every point of the employee’s experience in the workplace from beginning to end. The goal is for Human Resources and Communications professionals to better understand the needs of the employees and help them feel valued and engaged.

So why not apply this to volunteers? Why isn’t there a volunteer journey map? This is a great opportunity for your organization to create one for your youth volunteers!

It’s simple, think about all the points at which your volunteer will interact with your organization from the recruitment process to onboarding, to volunteering and offboarding. What steps do you need to take to make them feel engaged, fulfilled, and invested in your organization? There could be a structure to it, one like the employee journey map. The goal is to reflect on how they will interact with your organization, prepare for it and make sure they are engaged throughout the process.

Tip 2: Connect With Youth Where They Are

This is not a new concept, but one that many organizations tend to forget. In communications, they often tell you to think of your target audience and reach them on the communication channels they are already on. If you are trying to recruit young volunteers and only use Facebook, that might not be a fruitful campaign. If you want to recruit young professionals as volunteers, consider LinkedIn. If you’re looking for 18-21 years old most likely in university, try Instagram. Or better yet why not go directly to schools and see if you could partner with them to find volunteers?

What matters is that you are going to the youth and meeting them where they are. As much as you want youth to come to you, some will, but perhaps not enough to meet your needs.

Tip 3: Be as Specific as Possible

When recruiting volunteers, especially youth volunteers, make sure that your expectations and requirements are very clear from the beginning.

When youth are searching for volunteer opportunities or organizations to work with, they want to find the ones that they can easily identify their skill set with, fall in line with their interests, and share the same values as them. The goal of this is to ease the guessing game that occurs when young people are trying to find volunteer opportunities. Being clear and concise in what you need from your ideal volunteer will streamline their search and also lead your ideal volunteer to you.

Tip 4: Be Open to What Youth Have to Offer

Some organizations, already have roles defined as to what they need to be done by volunteers –this is fantastic. However, it wouldn’t hurt to see what youth have to offer. Perhaps they are skilled in website design and could help make your website more user-friendly. Or maybe they work in event management and have a few connections that you can leverage for your next community fundraiser or event.

Seeing what youth have to offer besides the already predetermined tasks you have for them can benefit and elevate the work you already do. Remember, people want to give back to your organization. A lot of the time, youth have already gone through the trouble of finding your organization, identifying with your issue or cause and reaching out to support you – they want to help.

Recruiting youth volunteers is not as hard as it may seem, in a sense it’s just about understanding your target audience and ensuring that you meet them where they are, can meet their needs keep them engaged and be open to what they have to offer.

If you're interested in getting more youth into your organization's volunteer base but require some additional help, don't hesitate to reach out—I'm here to offer support!