Young people contributing £300m a year to economy, says report

The amount of volunteering and donations made to charity by young people is contributing £300 million to the economy each year, says a new report from the Evangelical Alliance.

More than 700 teenagers aged 14 to 18 were surveyed for the Evangelical Alliance’s report, Young People Matter.

According to the report, 45 per cent said they volunteered once a month while 80 per cent said they donated money to charity each month. The amount of money donated to charity by young people each year was found to be around £110 million.

The report found that the youngsters spent an average of just under four hours volunteering each month, which when projected across England is equivalent to 33,000 full time workers and £210 million a year at minimum wage.

A significant amount of the voluntary work was undertaken through churches or religious organisations – 40 per cent – with 10 per cent of those describing themselves as non-religious still choosing to volunteer through a religious organisation.

Most said they volunteered because they wanted to help people (53 per cent) or because they wanted to contribute something to society (43 per cent), while others said they were encouraged to volunteer in order to gain a recognised qualification (41 per cent). The most common factors hindering volunteering were lack of time (54 per cent) and too much school work (52 per cent).

The report also found that the more active the young person was as a Christian, the more likely they were to volunteer.

Nicole May is a 17-year-old volunteer who serves on the panel of the Manchester City Council Youth Opportunity Fund, an initiative that encourages young people to engage in positive activities. She says her faith is one of the factors that led her to volunteer.

“My youth worker asked me if I wanted to volunteer, and I decided I wanted to give something back to the community, rather than just sitting at home watching TV,” she said.

“I am a Christian, and my faith motivates me to volunteer.

“I am also from the Afro-Caribbean community, and since a lot of young black people get bad press, I wanted to highlight the positive things happening in the community and dispel some of the negative connotations.”

In his foreword to the report, the Prince of Wales said he was “deeply impressed” by the efforts of young people and that these "deserve to be recognised more widely".

“I sincerely hope that young people themselves will be inspired by the findings of this report," he said.

“What is striking, as the report highlights, is the way in which personal faith and religious organisations encourage young people to volunteer.”

The Alliance’s General Director, Steve Clifford, said: “These results demonstrate what I have seen and known for years; that young people, contrary to the stereotypes, make a massive positive difference in our communities.

“Far too often they are branded as hoodies or gang members when the real statistics tell a very different story.

“I hope this acknowledgement of how many 14-18 year olds are motivated to volunteer by their faith will mean that schools and Government will work with faith groups to encourage this selfless giving.”