Young Citizens in Action, a Voluntary Service Bureau initiative, carried out research to update their information on all young people aged 16-30 registered as volunteers with VSB. The research aimed to investigate the approaches and attitudes to volunteering of those registered. Additionally the research explored their opinions of the current Political and Social Awareness Progress gauging attitudes to the Internet, voting, and community participation.
The first question asked our participants if they were currently volunteering. 45% of those asked said that they were volunteering at that time. All of the work and companies that they volunteered with were all organisations registered with VSB.
The nature of the work they carried out ranged from youth work, to advisory group for childrens law centre, to Desktop publishing.
The hours of volunteering offered per month by each of the participants also varied greatly. Some volunteers could give under five hours, some around twenty hours, whilst at extreme levels some could give upwards of one hundred hours of their time. 55% of the sample participants said that they were not volunteering at the time of the survey. The principal reason given was that they did not have enough free time, often this was clarified with additional explanations of the other demands on time, such as school work and part-time jobs.
When asked why they had started to volunteer, the majority of participants indicated that they were doing it to help others. Many also indicated that they were volunteering to meet new people and develop their own skills. Less prevalent answers included that they were volunteering to help them with their CVs, and to access training for skills development.
For Young Citizens in Action's own records the participants were asked if the process of becoming a volunteer through VSB was clear. A majority of 53% thought that the process was clear. 20% said that they felt the process was unclear. Reasons for this included that they 'werent sure about how to get started' and they 'were not sure what to do when the initial placement finished'. To make the results representational it is important to acknowledge that 27% of the sample made no response to this particular question.
In order to investigate if this age group could be further influenced into volunteering, the sample were asked if they would be interested in getting involved in up and coming projects and new volunteering opportunities. A strong majority of the participants said that they would. This represents a very positive and strong promise for Young Citizens In Actions future success with this age group. Of the remaining 31%, 19% said that they were not interested and 12% did not respond whatsoever. Overcoming these negative attitudes represents a challenge for Young Citizens In Action. Clearly there is a need to foster new and exciting projects and methods of communication that will help convert the 31% of uninterested participants.
Having investigated general attitudes to volunteering the second part of the survey was concerned with the Political and Social Awareness element.
To introduce the concept of Internet communication Young Citizens In Action requested the participants to give their e-mail addresses. This was an optional part of the survey and it was indicated to the participants that their e-mail address would be used on future occasions as a way of communicating
Further surveys and other information. In addition to the request for an e-mail address the participants were asked to give their date of birth. The purpose of this was to ensure that all future correspondences with participants via e-mail were suited to their age group. 77% supplied e-mail addresses. This overwhelming majority of young people who are in essence 'online', represents a very positive and exciting statistic for Young Citizens In Action in their aim to communicate with young people through this medium. 94% of the participants supplied their date of birth. Again this simple piece of information will help Young Citizens In Action make their online communications as comprehensive and tailored as possible.
Having established statistics on e-mail opportunities, the survey then began to explore the general attitudes to politics and the levels of political awareness of the participants. A strong percentage (86%), were aware that Assembly elections at Stormont had been planned for May 2003. This was a significant finding as it indicated that young people in Northern Ireland are at least aware of the political mechanisms and key political events that affect this country. Whilst 50% of our respondents said that they would not use their vote, this is not representative of their attitude. The fundamental reason why this percentage was so high is because many of the participants do not yet have the right to vote as they are too young. Refreshingly those who were old enough to vote cited its importance for reasons such as 'every vote counts in order to make changes' and also that they believe 'it is important for young people to be heard'. These findings are reinforced by the additional question that asked the participants if they voted in the local election in June 2001. Again the majority did not vote at this time because of their age.
The survey then progressed onto more exploratory levels, investigating the participants party political mindsets and their attitudes to the Internet. In response to the dual approach question 'Have you ever looked at any government website?' only 8% said that they had. This represents an interesting finding for Young Citizens In Action, because whilst so many of the respondents said that they have internet access (83%), only 8% are actively using this access to further their knowledge or interest in party politics.
When questioned specifically about the three principle media of current affairs communication (newspapers, news programmes on TV, and news programmes on the radio), it emerged the news programmes on TV were the most effective and regularly engaged medium of 'news' communication followed by the participants (92%). This was closely followed by newspapers (69%), and subsequently by the radio news programmes (56%).
Having now established how young people are currently communicated to, it was important for Young Citizens In Action to investigate their access levels, attitudes and approach to Internet usage, with particular reference to current affairs and political/social issues. The purpose of this question was to gauge the feasibility levels for the planned audit on young people attitudes to be conducted via the Internet. As previously identified 83% of the participants had Internet access, spending in the range of 1 to 30 hours per week online. Key advantages of the Internet were identified as ease of access, speed, efficiency, and high information levels.
When asked if they had ever looked at the YCIA website only 19% of
respondents said that they had. This represents perhaps the greatest challenge of all. Whilst the young people are clearly interested in political/social issues and they have internet access, and are willing and enthusiastic about using it as a medium of communication, the principal barrier is making them aware of the website, and actively encouraging them to log on and make use of its facilities. It would appear that if this could be achieved, the prominent use of an 'online communication' could be an exciting and fully feasible project!
