Invisible Volunteering

As volunteering faces a decline across Australia, the contribution of millennials may sometimes be overlooked, as a quiet online revolution happens among young people in regional communities.

Researchers from Curtin University in Western Australia have found that young people often participate in ad-hoc or “invisible” volunteering — meaning the community can not necessarily see them as they fly under the radar.

“I think that millennials and young people do get a bit of a bad reputation when people talk about volunteering,” Professor Kirstin Holmes said.

“Young people volunteer at the same rate as older people; they just don’t want to do the same activities.”

Associate Professor Amanda Davies said “invisible” volunteering referred mostly to online work.

“They might be volunteering to update Wikipedia pages online for interest groups,” she said.

“Now that’s not going to be seen when you’re not turning up to the SES meeting.

“There are lots of different types of volunteering that are very much invisible — you can’t see it — and that has created this perception that young people simply won’t get engaged.”

 

Behind-the-scenes work

“I think it is definitely underestimated the amount of effort and time that it takes to get those types of things done. It’s a lot of behind the scenes work”

Source
ABC News