Presentation delivered by Sam Sparrow, Head of the Volunteer Unit and Chris Wright, Chief Operating Officer at Catch22 on managing volunteering opportunities in disadvantaged communities. Delivered at Big Society In The North conference in March 2011

1. IMPROVING VOLUNTEERING
OPPORTUNITIES FOR “NOT THE
USUAL SUSPECTS”
Chris Wright, Chief Operating Officer
Sam Sparrow, Head of the Volunteer Unit

2. WHO ARE CATCH22?
Catch22 is a local charity with national reach. We work
with young people and others in seemingly impossible
situations.
Catch22 runs a range of projects and services across
England and Wales for young people and communities.
These include community activities, leaving care
services, education and training, youth justice, housing,
substance misuse and offender management.

3. WHAT DOES VOLUNTEERING MEAN
TO CATCH22?
Volunteers and volunteering are fundamental to
Catch22’s work with young people and others.
We engage around 1200 volunteers in our work, many
of which are young people or former service users.
As well as adding value to our range of work,
volunteering provides a key progression route for our
service users through to employment or training.

4. THE TARGET GROUP
Identifying who your target group is and what barriers they
have to accessing volunteering opportunities is vital.
There is a view that getting young people engaged in
voluntary activity is problematic.
There is a stronger view that disengaged young people
don’t want to get involved.
Both of these groups can be engaged and switched on to
volunteering with the right opportunities and some support.

5. BARRIERS TO ACCESS
Important to reinvent the definition of “volunteering” for
those who are traditionally harder to engage
The word volunteering often reinforces negative
stereotypes of who a volunteer is amongst the people
we work with.
We surveyed our young people about volunteering in
terms of “helping out” and received a very positive
response
185 responses with 66% already “helping out” in their
local community

6. BARRIERS TO ACCESS
When working with these groups, make sure your
opportunities are rooted in the community – easier to access.
Where this is not possible, make sure you can signpost to
other opportunities and be part of the network.
When combating awareness issues, word of mouth is key
with these groups.
55% of young people from our Helping Out Survey got
involved because they heard from a friend or were asked.

7. BARRIERS TO ACCESS
Former service users being encouraged to volunteer within
the service have provided us with role models with which we
can encourage new young people to volunteer.
Making sure the opportunity presented is flexible, realistic
and meets the individual needs of the volunteer (such as
meeting costs etc) helps to attract and retain those in hard to
reach groups.
Create relevant opportunities which identify ways in which
the volunteer can develop personally and professionally –
not just about giving back.

8. SOME EXAMPLES FROM PRACTICE
Our services by their nature and purpose offer
opportunities for young people to meet long term
social and economic outcomes, and the
volunteering opportunities we create flow from this.

9. A CASE STUDY: I HAVE A CHOICE
I Have a Choice gives young people the opportunity to get involved with
a range of specific volunteering activities which directly lead to training,
accreditation, work experience and employment
Since 2009, over 350 young people have had voluntary experience of
event management, basketball coaching and community radio
• planned and managed by
young people, for young people
• young people gain valuable
experience for future
employment
• opportunity to gain new
ASDAN qualification

10. A CASE STUDY: COMMUNITY
YOUTH VOLUNTEERS
The Community Youth Volunteering Programme helps young people to
gain experience in youth work through voluntary placements with
Catch22 and other organisations.
Since 2008 we have worked with over 200 volunteers who have devoted
tens of thousands of hours to youth clubs and services all over London.
• gives young people a range
of different work experiences
• helps to build their futures
through training and
accreditation
• many have secured
employment as Youth
Workers

11. A CASE STUDY: COMMUNITY
SPACE CHALLENGE
Community Space Challenge is about young people (aged 8 to 17)
taking on run down and forgotten spaces and changing them into fresh
green places for everyone to use and enjoy.
Young people often volunteer alongside older people from the area
which helps to build strong communities and engage different
generations.
• helps young people
understand their local
environment
• helps to reduce anti social
behaviour and crime
• offers new educational,
volunteering and employment
opportunities

12. CELEBRATE SUCCESS
“Volunteering gave me an idea of what I wanted to
do, a career path in life and then the service
helped me turn the idea into reality after realising
my potential”