Maltese Youth joined forces together with numerous Non-Govermental Organisations in Malta and discussed ways to improve youth involvement in voluntary work. The outcome of these dialogues is a Policy Paper by Y Plus entitled: ’Voluntary Work – A Youth Perspective’.
Y Plus association aims to motivate youth unlock their full potential and develop into better citizens and encourages youth to be active in society by volunteering. Moreover, this Policy Paper is a project funded by the Erasmus+ Grant and is also in line with Erasmus+ priorities.
’Voluntary Work – A Youth Perspective’, discusses the benefits of voluntary work whilst giving the adequate attention to difficulties and barriers youth often encounter when striving to volunteer. Such boundaries, more often than not, result in youth deciding not to do voluntary work because they feel that their presence is more thought of as being ’in the way’ of the other volunteers and hence, their work is not fully apreciated, or else because youth feel forced to do such work because it is obligatory when it comes to the Systems of Knowledge Project.
This Policy Paper acknowledges the disadvantages which surround the whole idea of voluntary work. For instance, one cannot deny that voluntary work is not given adequate attention and promotion as other kinds of work and as a result, some people might feel that they are not qualified enough to volunteer because they are not sure if they have the necessary skills to help.
In light of all of these hurdles, Y Plus came up with a number of incentives to help promote the fruits which one receives from volunteering as well as to address the uncertainties and the difficulties youth may face when considering voluntary work. These recommendations include; the setting up of a volunteering infrastructure targeting youths, adapt and improve legal and policy frameworks, introducing voluntary work recognition and accreditating schemes and improving voluntary organisation management.
Undoubtedly, there are many students from Sixth Forms and University as well as other young people in Malta and Gozo who volunteer already or aspire to do some sort of voluntary work throughout their life. This Policy Paper is a great tool which strives to widen the opportunities and open new doors for such people in our society.
The full paper can be found on: https://issuu.com/y-plus/docs/voluntary_work_-_a_youth_perspectiv