Despairing at lack of volunteering opportunities for DS

[StrikesAtticFlat]

Tearing my hair out with DS21. He is about to start his final year at uni. We asked him this summer to seek voluntary work or an internship to help his future career (Birmingham area). He has an internship lined up but has wasted weeks being unable to start due to admin errors (partly his fault, partly theirs). Meanwhile he says he has applied online for over 15 volunteer positions with charities - ranging from Age to Shelter to the RSPCA to Compassion in World Farming. NONE of them have got back to him...not one. He has been around local charity shops and they don't need anyone.
I am veering between disbelieving him and despairing that there is nothing for an enthusiastic, intelligent young person to do in a huge city even when they are not asking for pay!! I am now just praying that the internship actually happens but it will be another couple of weeks even if the admin stuff is indeed sorted...
Does anyone have any ideas of what else he could try re volunteer work?
He has applied to the following: Tabor Living/ Helping Hands Birmingham/ Age UK/ WWF/ RSPCA/ RSPB/ Botanical Gardens (the only one to get back to him! They aren't recruiting any volunteers because of the drought). Greenpeace...etc etc.

You have to stop interfering, every time you interfere you erase a little bit more of his self-esteem and motivation.

Find an issue in your own life to focus on instead.

Care homes often need companion volunteer visitors

I expect it's mainly because of his short availability. Unis go back in a month or so now. If he had contacted then in April or May to work from July to September I think there would have been more interest.

Please read my last post. Thanks!

Sorry, I posted on the wrong thread.

How is he coming across? Seems odd he is rejected by them all. What is his manner like?

Are there any unusual local options? We have a park near us with a mini steam train who often need people on running days to sell tickets/drinks and do cleaning. We also have a local woodland with a group of active volunteers who meet twice weekly to do maintenance.

Are there any local festivals coming up?

When applying for jobs in the future, there are other things that will appeal to an employer. Organising activities, DD organisations social activities and a group to look at implications of something related to her course - just so happened her future employer was really interested in what she'd done.

They are not even straight rejections - just no replies at all either way!

Thanks. Luckily he does have a few other things in his arsenal already. But there’s always room for more.

He has tried a very local place, yes, but they don’t need anyone (I even checked this too!!). Thank you.

Thanks again, all. Maybe I need to be content that he does at least have an internship and back off about the rest!! Food for thought. I appreciate all the replies.

Firstly, and yes, I did see that you said he started looking in May, but even if he hadn't - just don't tell them he's only available for a month or whatever. Anyway, if it's local and one day a week, maybe he could stay doing it alongside his work.

Anyway, regarding places like RSPCA - both my DDs are volunteering for animal rescues atm (they're both studying/working full time during the week now) and both of them had initially contacted by email to ask about volunteering opportunities. Neither heard back for ages. So both of them (different rescues in different parts of the country) went directly to the rescues and asked face to face. Only to be told a version of 'oh my god yes please, we really need volunteers we're just too busy to read and answer the emails'. And they really are, very short staffed. One of them is RSPCA btw. Maybe actually going to these places and doing it the old fashioned way will help.

Is he just looking for something for the summer or this year? Realistically, training up and maintaining volunteers takes up a lot of resources. I very much doubt that a 21 year old about to launch into paid work will be attractive to any organisation. It will be a few months and he’ll be busy with something else. It just isn’t worth the resources it requires if he isn’t looking for a long term role.

Get him to try his local Foodbank. I work in one and we recently had a young man who volunteered with us for a couple of months after his a levels and a young lady who was at the local uni and it complimented her course.
We prefer volunteers who can commit regularly but we are always appreciative of extra ad hoc help

Is he only available for the summer, or is it more longer term availability than that?

I volunteer a lot with a charity that employs less than four FTE staff, and has in the region of 40 active volunteers.

Recruiting volunteers, vetting them, onboarding them, training them etc takes (proportionally) a huge amount of time, and a lot of that is volunteers’ time. And staff and volunteers are incredibly stretched due to high demand by the charity’s clients at the best of times, and even more so during the summer holidays. So if he doesn’t have long term availability, or hasn’t said that he does, that may be a reason why he’s not hearing back.

Cross post!

im afraid I agree with other posters that the summer period is probably too short to become a regular volunteer because of the induction training and managing of volunteers. If he was already volunteering during his course that might transfer more easily to the summer months. Certainly now I think it’s too late possibly a small local festival that hasn’t got its volunteers already lined up is all I can suggest. It’s tough out there if he can get involved at anything at uni to add to his cv next year that would be good. I also think for the future going to the place where the activities happen and actually talking to someone might help as volunteer coordinator might be themselves volunteering or work a few hours a week. Best of luck to him - and you it’s so hard trying to help in the right way!

Quite often hostels run on volunteers - i believe you get free board, though have to pay for food. He could live semi-independently and see another part of the country.

Really? My DS just graduated and is already volunteering in a local charity shop while looking for work. He said they were desperate for people.

Charity shops typically take up references at an early stage so check he has given a suitable referee with email address who is available to give reference (so not a uni lecturer who is off for the summer or slow to respond to emails). He may need to chase, either charity or referee. (Annoyingly I have personally experienced a charity taking up a reference and then not getting back to me despite very positive reference - very poor practice IMO).
Sympathies on needing to chase 21 year old. One of mine got degree, so finished uni, came home and applied for a minimal number of jobs over the summer. Come September we dispatched back to uni to do a Masters ..... (now a productive member of society I should add)

Nothing at all wrong with a parent giving their 21yr old son a bit of a helping hand. He needs it. Simple as that. He has plenty time to build resistance etcetc. And he will. But the job market right now is beyond appalling and his mum throwing in the odd suggestion or helpful link will help his confidence and encourage him on.

So keep doing what you are doing @StrikesAtticFlat.

One of the issues with volunteering is that it costs the charities money to train people, get DBS etc. They may also want a regular commitment. If he’s only available for a few months it won’t be in their best interest.

Has he tried his university intranet? My uni’s employability hub sends me loads of emails on a virtually daily basis, with opportunities for voluntary work - much of which can be done remotely or involve working on week long residentials over the summer. I’ve even shared a few of these with DC, who is at a different university.

I do tend to find that young adults, despite growing up with the whole internet in their pockets, are absolutely rubbish at researching and finding out about these sorts of things.

Thank you so much. This has actually made me well up. Thank you.