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.
4 responses to “Young People Matter”
Looking at the picture above I realize, that the majority are girls! Even more girls are in volunteer service here in Germany. A german proverb says there are three “K’s” with women/girls: Kinder, Kueche, Kirche – children, kitchen, church.
How can we reach men/boys with the best message in the world? How can church be attractive to them without denying the gospel? It is a struggle – by now we only have little success here.
God bless.
Ralf
Thanks Ralf for your continued conversation. There have been a couple of books published in the last few years about men and church, like Why Men Hate Going to Church. It's an interesting debate!
Looking at the picture above I realize, that the majority are girls! Even more girls are in volunteer service here in Germany. A german proverb says there are three “K’s” with women/girls: Kinder, Kueche, Kirche – children, kitchen, church.
How can we reach men/boys with the best message in the world? How can church be attractive to them without denying the gospel? It is a struggle – by now we only have little success here.
God bless.
Ralf
Thanks Ralf for your continued conversation. There have been a couple of books published in the last few years about men and church, like Why Men Hate Going to Church. It's an interesting debate!