What makes young people participate in social action and what benefits do they get from it? Alma Economics was commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to conduct a Rapid Evidence Assessment to answer these questions.

We wanted to ensure that our search covered as many studies as possible to answer these questions thoroughly. We used keywords to find relevant academic papers as well as evidence from organisations that are involved hands-on with youth social action. As expected, we found a very large number of papers which we then shortlisted to include the most relevant studies in a systematic way, using clearly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. We ended up with the most relevant and recent international and UK-based evidence.

Volunteering pushes young people to develop empathy and confidence, become more civically engaged, and build a stronger sense of belonging to their communities. However, there are many inequalities that prevent young people from reaping these benefits, and greater attention should be paid to the inclusivity of social action programmes to ensure that they reach all young people. The internet and social media can help with this, as they push more young people to volunteer and allow them to contribute to issues that are important to them.

➥ The full report can be found here.

➥ Our Evidence Map can be found here.