Incentives do work in youth volunteering

This way of engaging young volunteers is considered by some as payment, thereby invalidating the voluntary aspect. But some young people are enthused by high-profile, "glitzy" volunteer schemes. These projects can serve as an entry point for young people who would not otherwise have considered volunteering in the first place. They raise the profile of volunteering and go some way towards altering the perception that it is dull or outdated.

However, incentives are not the be all and end all of making volunteering attractive. At Envision we are well aware that the word "volunteering" itself can have negative connotations. That's why we don't pitch our youth programme as volunteering. Instead, we say it is more about young people taking the lead. On our programme, young people identify the problem they want to tackle and are supported in designing and delivering a youth-led project tackling these issues. This kind of ownership of both issue and solution is what makes a lasting difference. This is much more effective than offering a quick reward. And it works, as demonstrated by the large number of young people who choose to stay involved with us once they have finished their projects, myself included.

Incentives can be used to complement volunteering experiences, such as in the case of the Castlehaven Project. Run by the arts festival Camden Crawl in conjunction with the Castlehaven Community Association and Envision, the initiative will engage 150 young volunteers in six-hour projects in the London borough of Camden. There is an incentive: the young volunteers will receive a ticket to one of the Camden Crawl performances and a day's mentoring with a media professional. However, the difference is that young people are directly involved in designing and delivering the projects. They are consulted on what kind of changes they want to see in their community and asked how best to carry these out.

Incentives do have a place in volunteering but it is more important to help young people develop ownership of the schemes themselves. As long as young people feel empowered, then making a difference will be enough of an incentive in itself.

- Talia Beni-Randall provides support to six teams at Envision, an education charity that empowers 16- to 19-year-olds to set up community projects.