Actively working to increase leadership capabilities of community members

Community Development Model

The participation of youth in the community “can contribute to young people’s healthy development by creating opportunities for them to influence, solve problems, inform, shape, design and contribute to an activity or idea.” (Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa, 2002).
Volunteers in Youthline not only gain community feeling and social inclusion, but also learn valuable transferable skills. Throughout the training, volunteers become confident, empowered and trained to find leadership within themselves.

According to the NZ Federation of the Voluntary Welfare Organisation (2001) one of the main reasons that volunteers come to an organisation is to get valuable training and work experience, which can help in gaining paid employment.  Thus, by participation in Youthline and in leadership programmes such as vOICE, volunteers not only grow personally but also gain skills that help them in all areas of their lives.