2.1.3 Participating in social and environmental actions in your school-in-community
We all have a vested interest in seeing youth succeed. Regular access to civic-engagement opportunities can lead to better outcomes for children, young adults, and their communities. Youth who volunteer are more likely to perform better in school and work and become civically active adults. The table below lists the volunteerism sections in Life Orientation CAPS.
Importance of Children Serving as Volunteers
Personal development
Volunteering can have benefits for young people’s personal development; building self-esteem and confidence as they are experiencing a sense of achievement and personal satisfaction from being a part of something meaningful, helping others, and seeing the positive results of the work carried out.
Social capital
Young volunteers value meeting people and making friends through their volunteering. Volunteering has been found to provide young people with opportunities to develop new social networks and relationships with people from similar situations or backgrounds to theirs (‘bonding’ social capital); and different backgrounds who they would not normally have had the opportunity to get to know (‘bridging’ social capital).
Citizenship
This benefit relates to changes in young volunteers’ awareness of their community, their ability to engage with it and feel part of it. By bringing young people together with people from other parts of their community, volunteering has been found to bring about a greater awareness among young people of the issues faced by their community or society more generally, and develop a greater sense of belonging.
Lifelong giving
Giving also promotes lifelong giving.