Young People Matter
Last week the Evangelical Alliance published a report titled ‘Young People Matter’ suggesting that teenagers contribute around £300m each year to the economy through voluntary work. Between September and December 2008, they surveyed around 700 14-18 year olds and found that 45% of young people regularly volunteer once a month, and 80% donate money to charity.
Interestingly, there seems to be a strong link between faith and volunteering:
Almost 40% of the voluntary work carried out by young people takes place through churches or religious organisations.
Even 10% of those who declared themselves non-religious still volunteer through a religious organisation.
Personally I don’t find this news surprising as many of the young people I work with volunteer at other groups, but it is great to have a positive article in the national press that highlights how generous young people are!
You can read the BBC report on the publication here, and download the full document here.
