- CSV offers gap years with a difference -

CSV is offering people of all ages the opportunity to experience an alternative ‘gap’ year in the UK volunteering with drug and alcohol users, young offenders and children with special needs.

This comes as thousands of young people across the UK plan for life after exams and in the wake of the Government’s recent reprieve on tuition fees for gap year students who defer going to University until 2006. Many can experience an alternative to the traditional ‘gap’ year abroad by spending time volunteering in the UK instead, with the help of the UK’s largest volunteering charity, CSV (Community Service Volunteers). (1)

Research by CSV shows that 88% of members from the Association of Graduate Recruiters thought a well-structured and constructive gap year helps to furnish graduates with skills such as communication skills, decision-making and relationship building. 79% agreed that graduates who possessed soft skills gained through volunteering progressed through a work organisation more quickly. (2)

CSV is challenging ‘gappers’ to become full-time volunteers. They can get involved in a social care or community setting and work with homeless people, refugees, socially excluded young people, disabled people and the elderly. Student top up fees and increasing debt as well as a competitive jobs and skills market are factors that may encourage school leavers and graduates to consider the career benefits of a constructive gap year in the UK, as well as the personal benefits of “putting something back” into their community.

Hazel Copping, 19, from Felixstowe, Suffolk has just completed a volunteering gap year placement at a school in Ottershaw, Surrey for children with speech and language difficulties. The children, aged between 5-11 years, communicate by a form of sign language which Hazel learnt. She helped get them ready for school in the mornings and put them to bed in the evenings, as well as teaching in class two afternoons a week. It is her first time living away from home, since completing A-levels at school.

She said: “I had never worked with children but I’ve learnt so much from the experience. The most challenging aspect of being a full time volunteer and living away from home for the first time has been getting used to being independent. I don’t have any parental restrictions, so I have learnt to manage my own time and get used to living independently. This has increased my confidence.” Hazel is currently looking for a job - possibly in a social care environment - and is considering going to University next year.

Phillip Dexter, 17, from Long Denton in Newcastle, who is taking a gap year break between his GCSEs and A-Levels, is spending six months volunteering with CSV in Scotland because he wanted “to gain some life experience by living away from home.” He is working at the Disability Resource Centre in Paisley for adults from 16-60 years with disabilities, which ranges from wheelchair users to people with learning difficulties. He assists the staff at the Centre with taking groups of adults out shopping, or on social outings to the cinema. He plans to start his A-levels this September.

Phillip says his volunteering experience has opened his eyes to some of the daily challenges facing disabled people.  He said: “I have learnt how hard it can be for a person in a wheelchair. Often people speak over the disabled person to their carer or to the volunteers like me who are helping them, rather than to the disabled person themselves. Sometimes they get ignored completely. Some people just talk to me and don’t speak to the person with the disability at all.”

21 year old Emma King from Nottingham became a CSV volunteer when she took a ‘graduate gap year’ between University and beginning a career. Emma volunteered at Bernard Brett House, a supported living centre for homeless people in Colchester, Essex, and now has a full time paid job there as a Project Worker. She said: “I had never worked with homeless people before I became a volunteer so it gave me the chance to chat to them and gain their trust, as well as giving me the experience needed to apply for a job at the centre when I had completed my placement. “

Each full-time, away from home volunteer benefits from free accommodation and food, plus a small weekly living allowance. (3)

For volunteer information and an application pack about full-time volunteering for people aged 16+ call 0800 374 991 or visit the website www.csv.org.uk to apply online.

For further press information: Martin Walford/Jason Tanner at the CSV Press Office
on 020 7643 1338/1428 or mobile 07791 987778. Latest press releases at www.csv.org.uk/press

Notes for Editors

1) CSV (Community Service Volunteers) is the UK’s leading volunteer organisation and creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their community through volunteering, training and community action. Each year 129,000 people give 3.8 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV.

2) CSV Reports on Time Well Spent, August 2000, page 2. (89 companies from the 450 members of the Association of Graduate Recruiters responded to a CSV survey in July 2000.)

3) Volunteers can start their 4-12 month placement at any time during the year. Full-time volunteers must be 16+. There is no upper age limit. Each full-time away from home volunteer receives £29 weekly allowance and free food or £35.50 per week or a combination of both, plus free accommodation with expenses covered. Expenses would include initial travel costs from their home to the project (the place of their volunteering) and return to their home at the end of their placement and costs incurred whilst volunteering such as travel and out-of-pocket expenses.