1. YOUTH VOLUNTEER
ENGAGEMENT SURVEY
2016
RFU NATIONAL YOUTH COUNCIL

2. 2National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
Volunteers are of critical importance in all levels
of our sport, particularly at grass-roots, where the
majority of youth participants experience rugby.
Volunteering provides a further way in which young
people can become involved in sport without direct
playing participation.
The purpose of the Youth Volunteer Engagement
Survey is to gain insight into the volunteer behaviours
of 16-24 year olds across England.
Findings from the survey look to highlight why
it is young people begin volunteering in the first
place, the barriers they encounter with volunteering,
and ultimately determine the ways in which we can
increase the number of volunteering participants.
The RFU National Youth Council (NYC) is a group
of twelve 16-24 year olds from across the country,
involved in all aspects of the game, working directly
with the wider Rugby Football Union to highlight the
views of young people.
One of the RFU’s key aims is to ensure up to 1
million young people have access to rugby within
schools and colleges by 2019. With this in mind, it is
vital that the young people themselves are involved
in the decision making process for the future of
the game. The current NYC has picked up where
the previous 2009 council left off, and acts as a
consultative body on a national level.
The council currently consists of 12 members
with a diverse range of experiences. We differ
in geographical location, ages, educational
background, career pathways and genders, but are
united by a passion for rugby and a drive to be part
of the improvement and development of the game.
The NYC
focuses on
three key
areas:
ABOUT THE NATIONAL
YOUTH COUNCIL
Influencing and
delivering the
Young Rugby
Ambassador
programme
The retention of
players aged 16-24
in rugby union
Working as a
youth insight focus
group for the RFU
having a direct
influence on new
RFU initiatives and
projects
YOUTH VOLUNTEER
ENGAGEMENT
SURVEY

3. 3National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
In order to gain an objective and representative
selection of data, an online survey was conducted
with the aim of gathering insightful opinions,
comments, and feedback. The anonymity of an
online survey allows participants to express their
views honestly and therefore provide more accurate
data.
Question topics were determined by the NYC
and phrased in such a way that young people could
engage with what was being asked.
Some key criteria addressed through the survey
questions are:
• What barriers young people face when trying
to get involved in volunteering?
• What motivates young people to volunteer?
• To what extent do young people volunteer and
in what capacity?
• Why do young people start/stop volunteering?
• What do young people enjoy/dislike about
volunteering?
In order to gather enough data for the survey to
present reliable and worthwhile results a large sample
size was needed. This was achieved by utilising all
available channels of communication both within the
RFU and the NYC members’ own personal network
within local areas. This included the Regional
Development Teams, the Touchline Newsletter, The
Young Rugby Ambassador contacts, and NYC peers
within every members’ own rugby community. As
the views of young people is the predominant focus,
it is important that a wide range of social media
platforms was used to promote the survey and gain
greater engagement. This included use of the NYC
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and email platforms.
The survey was also spoken about at a number
of events attended whilst representing the NYC,
including the Young Rugby Ambassador Celebration
Event, the RFU College Engagement Event, and at a
number of RFU sub-committee meetings. In order to
further increase participation, an extrinsic motivation
was provided, with each participant being entered
into a prize draw.
Open ended questions were included within the
survey to gather qualitative data establishing honest
opinions from each participant. This provided an
opportunity to express viewpoints in much greater
depth, encouraging participants to explore the
reasons behind their response to the question.
This style of question is demonstrated in Question
5, where the survey looked to understand what it
is the participant enjoys about volunteering within
rugby. A more honest overview was gained through
this qualitative method of question as there were no
predetermined specific categories that the answers
had to fit within.
The Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey ran
from 12/10/2015 to 20/11/2015, providing enough
time for the Youth Council to distribute the survey
via the communications strategy and then in time for
the data to be collated, analysed and presented in
the first quarter of 2016. In total, the survey received
961 responses from across all regions of England.
METHODOLOGY

4. 4National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
SURVEY SAMPLE
DEMOGRAPHIC
GENDER AGE
OCCUPATION LOCATION
53%IN EMPLOYMENT
41%IN EDUCATION
6%IN UNEMPLOYMENT

5. 5National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
RUGBY
PARTICIPATION
IN YOUNG
PEOPLE
PLAY
90%
78% club
32% uni
8% touch/tag
COACH
26%
VOLUNTEER
26%
13%
52% are female
members
REFEREE
12%
RUGBY
VOLUNTEERING
IN YOUNG
PEOPLE
VOLUNTEER COACH
52%
VOLUNTEER
REFEREE
14%
YOUTH
REPRESENTATIVE
10%
CLUB/CONSTITUENT
BODY COMMITTEE

6. 6National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
DO YOU VOLUNTEER?
YES
32%
NO
60%
WHY DO YOU?
WHY DON’T YOU?
41% To give back to the game
36% Enjoy volunteer work
35% To build on CV and
employability skills
22% To meet new people
31% Have never been asked
28% Do not have the time
12% No local opportunities
5% Tried to be involved but have
been turned down
?
WHAT WOULD MOTIVATE
YOU TO START?
25% Discount on coaching, first aid
and referee courses
25% Start enhancing my CV
21% Free clothes
WHAT MADE YOU STOP?
76% “I do not have enough
time to volunteer”

7. 7National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A MEMBER OF
AN RFU CONSTITUENT BODY COMMITTEE?
TEAM SUPPORT
YES
5%
NO
78%
Of those aged 25+ are
currently a member or have
been in the past
15% ? “I don’t know what a
constituent body is”
19%
CONSTITUENT BODY SUPPORT
55% “Agree I sometimes feel that
the views of young people are
taken into account by my constituent
body”
20% “Agree I do not feel my views
are taken into account at all” or
“do not know”
55% “Strongly agree I feel
supported by the team, club or
organisation I volunteer with”
32% “Somewhat agree”

8. 8National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
KEY FINDINGS
Young people from the 16-24 years age bracket want to get involved in
volunteering, however, they are unaware of the opportunities available to
them on both a local and a national level and how these opportunities can
be accessed.
Both existing and future volunteering opportunities need to be tailored to
ensure they are both relevant and accessible for young people. 76% of the
14-26yr old survey participants had stopped volunteering as they did not
have enough time. Volunteering is a time commitment, and this needs to
be managed to ensure the maximum number of young people can still get
involved no matter how much time they have to spare.
This motivation to volunteer does not differ between males and females, but
is in fact consistent across the gender divide.
There is a need to ensure that young people are provided the opportunity
to access coaching, refereeing, and other skills development courses. This
helps not only provide a further motivation to get involved and share new
skills, but also means the young volunteers feel they have something more
to offer the wider rugby community.
Finally, a significant finding is the lack of young people currently
represented on their local CB or club committees. Only 5% of this age
group’s survey participants have ever sat on a committee, and of the 14-26
age bracket, 19% are unaware of what a CB committee is. In this way a
large majority of the rugby community are not being represented in the local
decision making process.

9. 9National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
From the survey findings, the following actions
and recommendations could support with
overcoming the issues young people currently face
when engaging in volunteering within rugby.
Firstly, the survey found that 12% of young
people do not engage with volunteering due to a
lack of opportunity within their local area. This is
of specific concern in light of the 2009 RFU NYC
Survey1
which found that 12% held this view. It is
of significance that, six years on from the previous
Youth Council survey, the same percentage of
people still feel this way. Of this percentage 42%
come from data collected from Area 1. In order to
overcome this, the recently re-launched Young
Rugby Ambassador (YRA) programme could be
utilised. The programme has a high level of flexibility
allowing the young volunteers to tailor it specifically
to their volunteering wants/needs and record their
volunteering hours via their own personal online
portal. This is a key feature highlighted in the Sport
England 2014 Youth Insight Pack2
, where reference
is made to the need for a ‘broader offer’ that is
‘unique’ for each individual. To ensure the delivery
of this is successful it is essential that young people
feel that new opportunities made available to them
are fully supported by their clubs or organisations.
This need for support is highlighted in that only 40%
of current young volunteers feel strongly supported
within their roles. The extent to which it is needed
is highlighted through the references to ‘community
spirit’, ‘support’ and ‘camaraderie’ as reasons why
participants became involved in volunteering initially.
The support necessary could be provided through
the RFU staff, the CB, other club volunteers or their
peers.
Further to this, by signing up to the YRA
programme young people are connected via email
and social media to the RFU, allowing increased
communications channels and ensuring that the
local RDOs/CRCs are aware of the young people who
are engaged in volunteering in their areas. This may
help to raise awareness of the further opportunities
available to volunteer as communications can be
delivered directly to young people. In addition the
online portal enables tracking of the volunteer’s
activity, helping to keep them motivated to keep
updating their hours, whilst ensuring the RFU is
aware of their level of engagement.
A large proportion of Area 1, 2 and 3 respondents
stopped volunteering due to their friends dropping
out. Moving forward with this information, those areas
could focus on more group volunteer opportunities
and tasks rather than the individual ‘turn-up and
help-out’ approach. This is a further aspect that
can be tackled through the flexibility of the YRA
programme as group volunteering can be counted
as hours through the activity log system whereby
every volunteer will receive recognition for their time,
not just the group as a whole. There is a need to
make sure clubs are aware of this flexibility in the
scheme, so they know that hours can be clocked up
in this way, utilizing peer-to-peer motivation.
ACTIONS
I enjoy volunteering because of the
companionship with other volunteers
and the players we help. The extra
involvement with the club let me get to
know my teammates better
«
»

10. 10National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
The fact that the motivation level between
male and female volunteers does not differ clearly
highlights how volunteering opportunities need to be
made available across the full spectrum of the rugby
community. Once again, the flexibility of the YRA
programme is of benefit here as it can be tailored
by both the individual volunteer and the clubs they
are involved with to ensure it meets gender specific
requirements. We also suggest greater use of both
male and female role model case studies, which
could be distributed via social media to highlight
the wide range of volunteering options available to
young people regardless of gender. An example of
this style of case study based advertising is shown
in the ‘This is Rugby’ document which showcases
Laura Pettingale who recently refereed at the London
leg of the Women’s World Rugby Sevens tour 2015.
As highlighted in the survey findings, many young
people have to juggle a wide range of commitments,
with 76% of our survey participants stating not having
enough time to volunteer. As the Sport England 2014
Youth Insight Pack highlights:
The availability of volunteering that young people
can access on an ad-hoc basis when they have
time available is critical. For this reason we would
suggest that any volunteering opportunities that
are advertised to youth volunteers clearly detail any
dates at which attendance is critical right from the
beginning. This means commitments can be tracked
a lot more easily, and time can be managed more
effectively.
Sport England’s January 2016 review of
‘Motivations of Sports Volunteers in England’
highlighted how volunteering is ‘motivated by
different factors at different stages of people’s lives’.
The results of the survey showed that discounts on
coaching, and other development courses is the
motivation for 33% of young participants to begin
volunteering. A similar theme is shown in the way
35% of 14-26yr olds have begun volunteering in
order to build their CV and employability. A scheme
could be developed through which for every logged
hour of volunteering, a young person receives a
certain amount of discount off RFU led courses. This
would help increase the number of young referees
entering the game, and also help combat the drop
out of participants who do not wish to be involved in
rugby as an active player. Further to this, as young
people gain the opportunity to develop their skills,
they have something they can offer back to their
rugby community, this can help foster a group ethos,
where the young volunteer feels as though they are
part of something. This group atmosphere helps to
maintain self-motivation in the long term. Added
to this is the additional benefit of these courses as
CV boosters, creating further extrinsic motivations
for engagement with volunteering. This extrinsic
motivation is something which the Sport England
review notes refers to:
In order to combat the lack of young people
involved in their CB and club committees, the
NYC feels there needs to be a drive to change the
perception of young people, highlighting how they
can offer genuine insight into how the game is run at
grassroots level. In line with that it is also necessary
to raise awareness amongst young people into
what a CB does, as 19% of the 14-24yrs survey
participants are unaware of what a CB is, and only
2% are currently involved with the CB committee.
This change of perception could well be driven
through use of the YRA scheme, as this is a vehicle
through which the good work that the young people
carry out can be identified and key contacts within
the CB committee could be established. Allowing
the young volunteers to feel they have a voice in the
decisions of their Constituent Body would help them
to take ownership of the projects they are involved
with, making them more likely to be engaged in a
meaningful way in the long term. At present 55% of
14-26yr olds feel that their views are only ‘sometimes’
taken into account by their CB committees. A direct
link into the CB main committee, i.e. at least one
representative of the youth committee invited to
every CB committee meeting could be a way to
ensure the youth voice is valued in decision making.
Alike to the way the RFU National Youth council now
has a member sitting on every RFU Subcommittee
ensuring there is opportunity for youth input into the
highest levels of decision making.
There is a great need to remove as
many practical barriers as possible, and
allow volunteers breaks if they need to
without feeling like they will be judged
or penalised later
«
»
For young people with professional
aspirations, either within sport or more
broadly, volunteering as unpaid work
enables them to develop skills and
demonstrate competence which will be
of economic value to them
«
»

11. 11National Youth Council - Youth Volunteer Engagement Survey 2016
1
Youth Survey. London. RFU National Youth Council,2010.
2
Youth Insight Under The Skin. London: Sport England, 2015.