by Elaine Sihera

Created on: October 25, 2009

Encouraging your teen to volunteer is not such an easy task because he/she is more likely to say that they really haven't got the time amidst all the work and studies they have, while the less confident, more shy teen, would say they wouldn't know what to do. But volunteering is not just helping others. It is guaranteed to help the teen too, emotionally and physically, in ways he/she probably wouldn't expect. The main challenge for the parent is to get the teen seeing the possibilities and understanding what is involved, as well as the possible rewards, for themselves, and there are five steps to this.

First step is to try to establish what your teen is interested in. What are their hobbies? What do they spend their spare time involved in? What things do they talk of doing, or wish they could do? This is the time to have some good chats to identify their interests and to help them assess how they could use those interests to help others while building their own skills in the process. For example, many teens might see voluntary work as hands-on in every respect. But sometimes, simply handing out leaflets that raise awareness of health issues like AIDS can raise awareness among the general public of useful ways they can prevent it. That's a detached kind of help which might not need regular commitment but is extremely useful in keeping people informed. The more confident teen can take the next step and actually give talks in schools on this issue, or others, which would improve their own interactive and presentation skills.

Second step, mention the possible benefits of volunteering. What the teen actually learns or take away from their experience is up to them, but there are eight main ones they could enjoy:

a. Increased self esteem, much greater confidence and feeling of value.

b. Alleviate boredom and helps teen to structure his/her time constructively and in more manageable ways.

c. Empowers the teen when he/she is able to see the effect, and results, of what they can help to achieve or inspire.

d. Opportunity to learn useful new skills that can be of value in the workplace, new problem solving ideas and greater awareness of themselves and others.

e. Improve personal teamwork skills by having to work with others in structured and directed ways.

f. Opportunity to meet new people and to make new friends, to build social and networking skills. In effect, volunteering removes the focus on the self by helping the teen to relate to peers more positively, and give

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