In collaboration with QUT and Volunteering Queensland I had the amazing opportunity to create and pitch a proposal to engage more youth in ongoing and meaningful volunteering. The intention was simple, get more young people involved in sustainable volunteering and make Queensland volunteer week a success. 

As part of a team of inspiring and skilled individuals we came up with a two pronged approach to achieving our mission. First, we decided one of the most important ways to ensure youth not only take the first step towards volunteering but also continue to do so on an ongoing basis was to put them in connection with charities that match their values and interests. From there we considered how best to engage youth and as a team determined that face to face engagement was the best approach. 

For the fist step we created a survey that would ask people a number of questions to put them in connection with the best charity for them. The survey asks about their values, time, skills, accessibility and many more questions which would then provide them with volunteering opportunities that fit these requirements; making the process of volunteering significantly less tedious and simplifying the process. This survey can also be put on the Volunteering Queensland website to make the process easy for everyone. Charities and volunteers alike. 

Finally, how do we engage more youth? Our proposal was an expandable program that involved volunteers setting up pop up booths in areas with had high traffic such as universities, markets, exhibitions and events. The volunteers would engage with the public and have face to face conversations with people who have questions about volunteering. Our volunteers can discuss the benefits and opportunities volunteering can provide them. They would take the people they talk to through the survey and initial sign up process so that they have taken the first step and taken the initial commitment to get involved. We know that many people think about and even want to volunteer but life gets in the way and we often don't take the effort to take the first step. Our volunteers are here to help that happen. Obviously, life often gets in the way and things go to the back of our mind so within a week we would reach out to the people who sign up to remind them to complete any further steps required to get the ball rolling. I promise you, a face to face conversation with people who know what they're talking about and are passionate about the cause will always be more convincing than any ad on the TV or on the internet.