„Mín köllun er að hjálpa og reyna að láta gott af mér leiða“

The past two decades have seen increasing amounts of research on young people‘s civic engagement (Sherrod, Torney-Purta, & Flanagan, 2010). The main focus, how- ever, has been on their political engagement, rather than on their volunteerism that aims to help people in various ways (e.g., Higgins-D’Alessandro, 2010). This study explored young people’s views on their own volunteering, focusing on their motiva- tion, goals, and values. It also aimed to continue developing an analytical model of young people’s civic engagement by extending it to volunteerism. Five young people aged 14 to 20 were interviewed using semi-structured in-depth interviews. On one hand, the main result of the thematic analysis suggests that the young people participating in the study connected their goals to personal gains such as self- confidence, social competence and companionship. For example, within the theme of social competence they referred to different competencies. Some said they had improved in their social interactions, learned a lot through interpersonal communi- cation and strengthened their collaboration skills, as well as improving their conflict solving skills. Others also referred to ethical issues, they had learned about honesty and respect to others. On the other hand, and equally important, they connected their aims to societal gains like having an impact, being an active citizen with a voice, and being helpful to people across society.
Their views reflected various values of justice and human rights; thus, each of them had a personal focus, ranging from the rights of nations (e.g., Palestine) to the rights of minority groups such as handicapped children, as well as ensuring a voice for young people and women, and their wish to guarantee equal rights to a decent standard of living, including access to education, health services, and a livelihood. They called for justice, some offering examples on a national level and others on an international level. Also, they all emphasized helpfulness in relation to their volunteering: it is “a good feeling” to be able to help other people. They expressed empathy for the people they work with as well. For example, they put themselves in the shoes of people who need assistance and describe how hard they found the difficult situations some people live with and how much they would like to improve those situations. In addition, their sense of responsibility was clear; particularly their wish to be active as citizens and to serve as good role models for the youth they work with. Some of them felt their volunteer work had improved their understanding of people‘s different socio-economic situations (e.g., people with disabilities, poor children abroad) and of nations where human rights are violated. They said that the experience of working with these people had encouraged them to take further action. Similarly, Reinders and Youniss (2006) found that when volunteers communicate directly with those who receive the help, they experience their contribution as more important. They all said they would continue to volunteer throughout their lives. Also, the older ones in the group connected this experience to their future plans. One hoped to become a reporter and write about human rights, another planned to study psychology at university and hoped to connect it to volunteer work in the future, and the third intended to study sociology and political science based on her focus on the importance of encouraging young people to take active part in the development of society. They may well do so; studies indicate that volunteering at young ages and participating in service-learning projects predicts people’s later participation in volunteering (Hart, Donnelly, Youniss & Atkins, 2007).
The main limitation of the study is that only five young people were interviewed. Also, this interview method may be limited in the sense that some might find it difficult to express and describe their ideas and experiences. The study has at least three key strengths. First, using in-depth interviews – which focus on young people’s interest in volunteering, and their values, aims, and actions, based on the analytical model of civic engagement (Sigrún Aðalbjarnardóttir, 2007, 2008) – we can develop a more holistic picture and a deeper understanding of their civic awareness and engagement as related to volunteering. Second, it is valuable since so few studies have been conducted on young people’s volunteering, particularly with regard to adolescents up to age 20, using in-depth interviews with this focus. The third strength is its development of an analytical model of young people’s civic awareness and engagement by focusing on volunteering. Given these strengths, the study should make an important contribution to this field of study, on both national and international levels. We do hope that the approach and the findings of this study can be of use to researchers in this field of study, to those who organize volunteer work for young people, and to those whose everyday work involves cultivating important ethical and societal values among the younger generation.