Where are the volunteers?

THE National Trust may not have intended to slag off young people, but it still seemed to suggest they were lazy and uncaring.

The heritage organisation's new report, Vital Volunteers, claimed yesterday that some of our finest buildings and landscapes were facing a crisis. It appeared to lay the blame on the lack of a volunteering spirit in the younger generation.

Only one in 25 of the Trust's volunteers is under 35, the report said. And there was a 'real danger' of a future crisis if the next generation of volunteers - who do everything from showing visitors around stately homes to bee-keeping, gardening and helping to preserve landscapes such as Brimham Rocks and the Yorkshire Coast - did not come forward.

Fiona Reynolds, the National Trust's director general, admitted at the launch of the Vital Volunteers report yesterday that volunteers were crucial to the proper care of the Trust's 280 properties and huge areas of land across the country.

"But the issue of how to bring in younger audiences remains a challenge. Our survey shows the National Trust as home to some of the most extensive and diverse volunteering opportunities in the country, but it is also clear where we need to commit more effort in the future," she said. "No volunteers means no National Trust."

She implied her organisation was not alone in having trouble attracting a younger generation of volunteers. "As society continues to change, we need to keep refreshing our approach to volunteering to ensure future generations and people from all backgrounds play a role in their local community - enjoying its heritage and natural beauty."

But is it true that the younger generation has lost the volunteering spirit - or is it simply that working in a stately home isn't for them?

Peter Brabban, the Trust's regional community and volunteering officer for Yorkshire and the North East, admits the NT's image is a large part of the problem. In our region, the Trust has no problem recruiting younger volunteers to work outdoors, he said - on everything from dry stone walling in the Dales to helping look after Brimham Rocks. "I think the truth is that our environmental work is quite sexy but our heritage work is not," he said.

The problem is that stately homes and heritage buildings such as Beningborough Hall and the Treasurer's House in York need most volunteers. The biggest category of volunteer worker in the National Trust is what is known as 'room stewards'. They are the often knowledgeable people who stand in rooms in some of our finest buildings and explain to visitors exactly what is special about them.

Peter was at a National Trust property in Northumberland recently when one of the room stewards pointed out to him the connection between the house and the anti-slavery movement. "It was fascinating."

Similarly, in the Treasurer's House in York recently, another room steward explained how the house's big clock with its huge pendulum worked.

It's that kind of knowledge and insight that can make a visit to an NT property so rewarding. But the average age of room stewards in the Yorkshire and North East region is 60, Peter said. Which illustrates the problem.

It is not, Peter stresses, that younger people are lazy or uncaring: it is simply that the traditional National Trust property doesn't seem to appeal to them.

"We have no problem getting younger people working in the countryside," he said.

The National Trust is reviewing the way its room stewards work, with a view to making the whole operation more interesting and attractive. Volunteers are being consulted as part of that review.

"We are working with our volunteers and our staff to look at how they would see that role in ten years time, and how we can make it more dynamic," Peter said. Once the review is complete, a new strategy will be developed to try to get more younger people involved.

Peter is optimistic. "If we can offer them an opportunity that will spark their imagination, they will get fully involved," he said.

:: Here are some we found in York

THERE is plenty of evidence that the volunteering spirit is alive and well in young people in York.

Young people across the city are getting involved in everything from looking after local nature reserves to working with elderly people, mentoring younger children, working in charity shops - and doing charity fund-raisers.

The tradition of youngsters such as the "Barrowers" - a group of seven to 14-year-olds who gave up their half term holiday to help out at St Nicholas Fields urban nature park a couple of years ago - is alive and well.

The faces may have changed, says Friends of St Nicholas Fields project co-ordinator John Brierley. But the spirit hasn't. "Young people do an awful lot here," he said. "All sorts of things, from clearing footpaths to planting bulbs and generally helping out."

The Millennium Volunteers are also thriving in York. In the five years since the group was set up, 1,200 young people aged between 16-24 have offered their services free of charge, working with organisations such as Age Concern, the Woodlands Respite Care Centre and Arclight.

At the moment, 300 young people are regularly active, says project officer Katrina Knowles. "They are doing an awful lot.".

At school, too, young people are more than willing to give up their own time to help others.

Canon Lee is a good example. It is one of several schools in the city that runs a thriving peer support scheme, in which older pupils offer support and advice to younger children who are being bullied or have other problems.

One such 'peer supporter' who willingly gives up his time is 14-year-old Sean Lawrence. "I was bullied all the way up to Year 7," he said. "I know what it's like. So I thought I'd just like to help other people being bullied."

He would be happy to do voluntary work outside school too, he said - working in the countryside, or helping to organise concerts for charity. He's not much interested in ancestral homes, he says. "But I would help out."

Fellow peer-supporter Natasha Francksen, 15, is another who says she's not that interested in helping out at the National Trust - at least not now. "I might when I'm older". She does do other voluntary work outside school, including helping out with netball at her former junior school, Clifton Without.

Toni Kidd, 15, is a member of Canon Lee's Active Citizens In School (ACIS) group. They help younger children with their homework, organise Christmas concerts and help out at parents' evenings. "And there is going to be a senior citizen's party. We're helping out preparing the food," she said.

It is simply not true that young people are unwilling to volunteer, she added. "I like helping people and that. It's fun."

Marilyn Shersby, the school's Key Stage 3 Student Support Worker and co-ordinator of the ACIS group, agrees that there is plenty of volunteering spirit among her young charges.

"Young people will get involved if they are approached in the right way," she said. "But I think asking them to go to the National Trust - there's very big generation gap."

To find out more about volunteering with the Millennium Volunteers in York, call Katrina Knowles or Holly Hennell on 01904 432498.

:: How to volunteer

The National Trust welcomes anyone over 18 as a volunteer. It is also happy for those under 18 to get involved, provided it is as part of a supervised group, or they come with their parents.

The Trust has more than 43,000 volunteers helping to look after the organisation's castles, stately homes, cliff tops and moorland. Between them, they give 2.6 million hours of their time.

Volunteers work as everything from room stewards (more than 50 per cent of NT volunteers in the Yorkshire region) to countryside wardens, bee keepers, firefighters - and even ghost hunters. In North Yorkshire, 45 volunteer toad patrollers saved more than 5,000 toads on the North York Moors.

There is, however, a danger of a shortage of vital volunteers developing. 59 per cent of National Trust sites need more volunteers - and there is evidence, the organisation says, that the next generation is not coming through. Only four per cent of NT volunteers are under 35.

To find out more about volunteering with the National Trust in our area, call 01904 771963.

Updated: 10:28 Thursday, June 16, 2005