Dan Cook: "I enjoy the unpredictability"

By Julia Pearlman

The first thing that came to my mind when thinking about going to a youth club was spending 50p on a Friday night for a gossip, a game of pool or to huddle on a cold wooden floor watching a film. But these days, youth clubs are much more than just a place to hang out for a couple of hours, and as a volunteer you can get just as much out of the experience. You can get involved with an array of activities and sports and bring your own talent or skill to the group. At the same time, you can use the experience to meet different people, learn how to work in a team and how to demonstrate initiative - attributes that are much sought after by employers.

Young people often say that they value a safe, supervised place to hang out with their friends, and such places wouldn't be able to operate without the support of volunteers. Downside Fisher Youth Club, which supports socially excluded young people from Bermondsey and its neighbouring areas, is a good example.

"We get the equivalent of around £50,000 worth of voluntary contributions in terms of unpaid time people spend with us, and that's what keeps us running," says Danny Webb, manager of the club. "We're always on the look-out for new youth work volunteers. They don't need to have any prior experience with working with young people but they do need to have empathy, patience and a good sense of humour. As with learning any new skill, it takes time to understand how things work when you work with young people. Some come and volunteer for an evening and can't take any more and others are here for years or a long stint of 18-months."

Youth work volunteering certainly isn't a soft option. "At the moment I have a list of five potential volunteers to interview, yet I will be lucky to get someone to stay for a long period of time," Danny says. "If you don't understand kids, it can be hard work. You don't always see the results straight away, not like if you're working with disabled or elderly people where there is more of an immediate sense of reward. Plus, some young people may seem ungrateful or disrespectful, even if they don't really mean to."

However, it's not just the young people who can be hard to handle. Volunteers with a lack of patience or understanding can also be a struggle to work with, Danny explains.

"To manage them is a skill in itself, so it's very important that they have a good induction or a contract or agreement at the beginning. It's also important that we treat them with respect and as you would a paid worker. It's a great opportunity for volunteers to develop their skills if they want to take the profession of youth work further. At the moment we have this City whizz kid who comes in once or twice a week and for him it's a bit of light relief away from a busy office where he can work with some 'real' people. We also get a lot of people from European countries who feel they can learn more about our culture and language and you couldn't find a better platform for them to do this."

"If you've got a skill to offer then you can bring that to the club," Danny continues. "There's one guy who writes riddles and brings them in every week to do with the youngsters. You can have someone who has a mountaineering interest, for example, so if we go away on a trek then we have someone who is qualified in this particular field. So our volunteers can range from the bottom level of having no skills whatsoever, to an extreme level where they have qualifications and lots of experience."

Dan Cook is a volunteer for Downside. He heard about the opportunity through a friend of a friend who was a volunteer at the club.

"I've been working at the club for about 18 months now," he says, "and I really enjoy the unpredictability of it compared to my day job where at the Ministry of Defence. Getting to know and understand the young people at Downside took some time, especially because I wasn't from the area.

"I don't really have any specialist skills that I bring to the club, other than being an all-round sportsman, but enthusiasm and a sense of humour count for a lot. I get a lot from the club, it's definitely not a one-way relationship. For example, I was offered a place in the 2006 London Marathon, which is something I'd been trying to get unsuccessfully for years. When I was young, my quality of life was improved immeasurably by youth workers and volunteers, so I think it's important that these services continue from generation to generation."

Search the do-it.org.uk database for youth work opportunities in your local area.

quick search