Youth Employment UK is joining over 700 organisations saying #iwill for young people in National Volunteer’s Week
Pledge day
7th June 2017 – Young people across the UK as young as 10 are doing inspirational things in their communities every day to help others, through social action activities such as campaigning, fundraising, or volunteering their time. This National Volunteer’s Week, we want to celebrate the role that young people can play and the difference that taking part in social action makes to themselves and others.
However, not every young person gets the opportunity to be involved and feel the benefits of taking part. That’s why over 700 organisations, including Youth Employment UK have pledged #iwill, to show what they will do to encourage and enable more young people across the UK to take part in social action.
As part of National Volunteer’s Week, today Youth Employment UK is celebrating its #iwillpledge to increase opportunities for young people to make a difference. Youth social action is defined as ‘young people taking practical action in the service of others to create positive change’ and within Youth Employment UK social action opportunities are available as part of becoming a Youth Employment UK Ambassador.
Since pledging, Youth Employment UK has embedded the principles of good social action into our national Volunteer Ambassador Programme. We have also encouraged businesses to recognise social action on a young persons job application/and or CV, building this into our Youth Friendly principles.
Working with business, education and voluntary sector partners, the #iwill campaign aims to ensure that all young people can access social action opportunities, whatever their background. The recent Youth Social Action survey found current levels of participation by 10-20 year-olds stand at 42%. The #iwill goal is to raise this to 60% by 2020, which will mean an additional 1.5 million young people are active in their communities. However, as involvement in social action creates a double-benefit, strengthening communities and enhancing the skills of young participants, a further goal of the campaign is to ensure that all young people across the UK have access to opportunities.
Charlotte Hill, CEO of Step Up To Serve, the charity which coordinates the #iwill campaign says: “We are delighted that Youth Employment UK has pledged to support our work, and today is sharing their progress to inspire others to take part also. If we are to make involvement in social action the norm for 10-20 year-olds we need partners to commit to tangible actions just as they are doing. The involvement of Youth Employment UKwill undoubtedly help us progress towards our challenging goal.’
Next Steps:
- Find out more about the #iwill campaign visit the campaign page
- To find out more about becoming a Youth Employment UK Ambassador here
