Youth Development Insight

By Marisa Coyne  & Becky Harrington While some trend forecasters attend Paris Fashion Week and others comb Instagram metadata to spot the next big thing, leaders of volunteers look to academic papers, industry reports, and conference proceedings to understand the changing needs and demands of current and prospective volunteers. Volunteer scholars suggest that, in order for youth developers and other leaders of volunteers to build strong and sustainable volunteer systems, they need to question dominant norms and delivery models and adapt accordingly . In this season of trend forecasting, we share what’s 'in' in volunteer engagement.  Trend #1: Intention to volunteer is high … so is overwhelm US respondents to a pandemic-era volunteerism survey reported record-high intention to volunteer . At the same time, people living in the US are experiencing record-high stress and overwhelm . Youth-serving organizations who work with volunteers to deliver programs should establish volu

By Jaime Ballard " Investing " by  401(K) 2013  is licensed under  CC BY-SA 2.0 . I work for the Center for Research and Outreach (REACH) Lab conducting analyses and disseminating research from the REACH Lab to researchers and policy makers.  What is something you’ve bought that you feel great about?  When my first baby was born, we bought a cradle swing, and it was the only place the baby would sleep! I would walk by my sweet baby sleeping in the swing and think, “That is the best $80 that has ever been spent.” This is exactly the feeling we want our funders to have about our youth work – that they clearly see the benefits of their investment. Return on investment (ROI) is a way to show a program’s value in dollars.  Here are three ways we can use this approach in youth programming:    Share return on investment statements in your focus area Sharing even one sentence of the research on ROI in your focus area can help stakeholders see their funding as an investment, rather t