Young People in Focus

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The 'Altruism' Projects:

Challenging stereotypes about young people (completed)

It just felt right really, nothing more complicated than that. I just thought 'Yeah, I'm going to get off my backside and do something about this because it's wrong.

15 year-old campaigner against nuclear testing

Background

TSA has long believed that insufficient attention is given to the positive outcomes of the adolescent years, and to the contribution that young people make to society. During 1994-1996 the Trust undertook two pieces of research looking at adolescent altruism - at what young people do outside of their own immediate interests. These two projects are outlined below. (See TSA project sheet 'Youth and Social Action' for more recent work in this area).

Project 1: Young people as volunteers and campaigners

This project was called "Challenging The Image". It was funded by the Johann Jacobs Foundation in Switzerland. It explored the involvement of 14-16 year-olds in voluntary work and campaigning.
The research was based around case studies of young people at three different schools, located in Birmingham, the north-east of England, and on the south coast. Questionnaires were administered to 1,160 young people in these schools, and 103 individual interviews were undertaken. The following questions were addressed in the research: How many young people are involved volunteering and campaigning? What do they do, and how much time do they give? Why do they get involved? What effect do these experiences have on them? Why do some young people not get involved? How can we encourage young people's participation in society?

The results of this research showed that a significant proportion of young people are involved in a range of voluntary and campaigning activities. The young people were, for example:

• volunteering with the Red Cross, in hospitals and schools, and with the elderly members of national groups such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth
• campaigning for locally based causes including greenfield sites, improved local facilities, and changes to transport services.

These results were widely reported in the media when they were released, with articles in the Guardian, Independent, Times and Telegraph. A summary of results and articles/book chapter are available from the Trust. The National Youth Agency published the results as a book in 1999, entitled 'Challenging the Image: young people as volunteers and campaigners.'

Project 2: Young people with disabilities as volunteers and campaigners

The second project was funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation. This study looked at the ways in which young people with physical and learning disabilities are encouraged and enabled to get involved in community activities. Young people with disabilities are often seen as receivers of care, rather than as individuals who are themselves contributing positively to their communities.

There were two parts to this project. First, a national survey was undertaken to identify what voluntary, campaigning, and community activities young people with disabilities are involved in. This survey found that young people with disabilities were involved in a range of voluntary and campaigning activities. These included:

• campaigning for housing and homelessness issues
• working on peer education projects
• fundraising for a range of charities and causes
• campaigning in relation to disability issues and disability awareness
• undertaking environmental work.

The project also included a number of case studies of particular projects, to look at the issues involved in more detail. A number of positive outcomes for the young people and those they were volunteering with are identified. The study also identified good practice issues, and the organisational implications of enabling more young people with disabilities to get involved in voluntary activities.

A final report on the research for this project has been submitted to the Gulbenkian Foundation, and a summary of the findings is now available from the Trust. Presentations on this work were made at the British Institute of Learning Disabilities, and the International Association for Special Education. An article on the results was published in 1998 in the journal 'Disability and Society'.

Publication of the Findings

The results of both projects were officially released at the Trust's conference "Challenging the Image: Young People as Volunteers and Campaigners", held in Leicester on 19 March 1997. Young people were the main presenters at this event. The findings of both projects were also published in Youth Action in March 1997, and as a chapter in a book edited by M Yates & J Youniss 'Roots of Civic Identity: International Perspectives on Community Service and Activism in Youth' published in 1999. An article was also published in the Oxford Journal of Education on this work.

For related and more recent work, see the 'Youth and Social Action' project sheet.

Project Workers

Debi Roker and Katie Player were responsible for both the projects described here.