IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v99y2019icp418-428.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Volunteers' practices in mentoring youth in distress: Volunteers as informal agents for youth

Author

Listed:
  • Yanay-Ventura, Galit
  • Amitay, Gila

Abstract

Whereas the literature deals extensively with volunteering with at-risk youth, relatively little research has addressed the practical work strategies of the volunteers themselves. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the strategies employed by youth mentoring volunteers based on qualitative research with 28 volunteers, two-thirds of whom defined themselves as former youth in distress. This focus enables us to learn about ways of coping with marginality from individuals who actually experienced it. The results point to six strategies that were reflected in the interviews: honesty and directness, listening, informal activities, refraining from judgment and containing anger and resistance, bridging between youth and caregiving entities, and cultivating a realistic sense of self-efficacy as volunteers. In essence, these strategies seek to increase access to the youth, to provide them with unconditional support, and to enable volunteers to supplement the professionals for the benefit of the youth. Though not professionals, volunteers create an agency-promoting environment to help youth escape marginalization.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanay-Ventura, Galit & Amitay, Gila, 2019. "Volunteers' practices in mentoring youth in distress: Volunteers as informal agents for youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 418-428.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:99:y:2019:i:c:p:418-428
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.02.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740918311010
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.02.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Spencer, Renée & Drew, Alison L. & Gowdy, Grace & Horn, John Paul, 2018. "“A positive guiding hand”: A qualitative examination of youth-initiated mentoring and the promotion of interdependence among foster care youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 41-50.
    2. Freeman, Richard B, 1997. "Working for Nothing: The Supply of Volunteer Labor," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 140-166, January.
    3. Haski-Leventhal, Debbie & Ronel, Natti & York, Alan S. & Ben-David, Boaz M., 2008. "Youth volunteering for youth: Who are they serving? How are they being served?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 834-846, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Limor Goldner & Adar Ben-Eliyahu, 2021. "Unpacking Community-Based Youth Mentoring Relationships: An Integrative Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-29, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marcela Sefora Nemteanu & Teodora Mihaela Tarcza, 2016. "Volunteers Trust In Organizational Mission, Leadership And Activities Effieciency," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 995-1001, July.
    2. Eva Macková & Vojtech Stanek, 2005. "Teoretické prístupy k ekonomike dobrovoľníctva ako fenoménu sociálnej práce [Theoretical approaches to the economics of volunteering as a social labour phenomenon]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2005(5), pages 634-645.
    3. Douglas C. Bice & William H. Hoyt, 1997. "The Impact of Mandates and Tax Limits on Voluntary Contributions to Local Public Services: An Application to Fire Protection Services," Public Economics 9704002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Samuel Cameron & Mark Fox, 2011. "Half Full or Half Empty: The Economics of Work–Life Balance," Chapters, in: Samuel Cameron (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Leisure, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Linardi, Sera & McConnell, Margaret A., 2011. "No excuses for good behavior: Volunteering and the social environment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(5), pages 445-454.
    6. Donatella Furia & Alessandro Crociata & Massimiliano Agovino, 2018. "Voluntary work and cultural capital: an exploratory analysis for Italian regional data," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(3), pages 789-808, December.
    7. Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani, 2016. "Labor Donation Or Money Donation? Pro-Sociality On Prevention Of Natural Disasters In A Case Of Cyclone Aila, Bangladesh," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 61(01), pages 1-26, March.
    8. Becchetti, Leonardo & Ciciretti, Rocco & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2015. "Corporate social responsibility, stakeholder risk, and idiosyncratic volatility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 297-309.
    9. Bruno S. Frey & Stephan Meier, "undated". "Pro-Social Behavior, Reciprocity or Both?," IEW - Working Papers 107, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    10. Dolan, Paul & Krekel, Christian & Shreedhar, Ganga & Lee, Helen & Marshall, Claire & Smith, Allison, 2021. "Happy to help: the welfare effects of a nationwide micro-volunteering programme," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114387, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Asimina Christoforou, 2005. "On the Determinants of Social Capital in Greece Compared to Countries of the European Union," Working Papers 2005.68, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    12. William F. Stine, 2008. "An empirical analysis of the effect of volunteer labor on public library employment," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 525-538.
    13. Aoki, Yu, 2014. "Donating Time to Charity: Not Working for Nothing," IZA Discussion Papers 7990, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Samantha de Martino, 2017. "Essays on incentives and pro-environmental behaviour," Economics PhD Theses 0517, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    15. Torgler, Benno & García-Valiñas, María A. & Macintyre, Alison, 2011. "Participation in environmental organizations: an empirical analysis," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(5), pages 591-620, October.
    16. Pamela Wicker & Christoph Breuer, 2015. "How the Economic and Financial Situation of the Community Affects Sport Clubs’ Resources: Evidence from Multi-Level Models," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-18, February.
    17. Stefania Ottone, 2008. "Are people Samaritans or Avengers?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(10), pages 1-3.
    18. Federica VIGANO & Andrea SALUSTRI, 2015. "Matching profit and Non-profit Needs: How NPOs and Cooperative Contribute to Growth in Time of Crisis. A Quantitative Approach," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(1), pages 157-178, March.
    19. Alessandro Cusimano & Chiara Paola Donegani & Stephen McKay, 2022. "Later pensions, lower social capital?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(4), pages 2150-2160.
    20. Tanguy Brachet & Guy David & Reena Duseja, 2010. "The Effect of Shift Structure on Performance: The Role of Fatigue for Paramedics," NBER Working Papers 16418, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:99:y:2019:i:c:p:418-428. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.