{"id":2313,"date":"2026-09-29T09:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T07:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futureisyouth.com\/?post_type=resources&p=2313"},"modified":"2026-09-29T09:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T07:15:19","slug":"volunteering-gives-more-than-you-might-think-experiential-learning-and-future-planning-in-youth-work","status":"publish","type":"resources","link":"https:\/\/futureisyouth.com\/ro\/resources\/volunteering-gives-more-than-you-might-think-experiential-learning-and-future-planning-in-youth-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteering Gives More Than You Might Think \u2013 Experiential Learning and Future Planning in Youth Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

We often think of volunteering as helping others: someone dedicates their time and energy to doing something for other people or for a community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In youth work, however, it can mean much more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is at the heart of our T\u0151l\u00fcnk Nektek (From Us to You)<\/strong> programme, which started in 2011. The programme is based on the idea that young people are not only participants, but also creators of something that creates value for others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the programme, young people first come together as a team and then jointly plan and carry out a volunteering action for another community. They decide what they want to create, take responsibility for different tasks, make decisions, collaborate, and experience what it means to take shared responsibility for something in a real-life situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volunteering as a real-life learning experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Organising and carrying out their own volunteering action brings out a wide range of skills that are difficult to develop through conversation or training exercises alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have to make decisions. Listen to each other. Divide responsibilities. Make plans, adapt to unexpected situations, and manage conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of practising teamwork in a simulated situation, young people experience what they are capable of achieving together through a real task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their feedback at the end of the programme, the young people themselves highlighted areas such as teamwork, expressing their own opinions, building connections, paying attention to others, perseverance, and openness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But an even deeper learning also took place: experiencing that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am capable of doing something that is valuable to others.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can be particularly important for young people who have had few genuine opportunities to make decisions in many areas of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agency is the feeling and experience that I am able to make decisions, take action, and have some influence over what happens to me and around me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In T\u0151l\u00fcnk Nektek, this takes very concrete forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An idea becomes a programme.
A commitment becomes a completed action.
A shared plan becomes a real experience for another community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And along the way, young people experience that they have a voice, that they have responsibility, and, most importantly, that they can make a difference<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this sense, volunteering is not simply about helping others. Young people step into a new role: they become the ones who have ideas, knowledge, and energy to contribute to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New tools, new opportunities<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As part of the ReConnection project<\/a>, we had the opportunity to enrich our existing methods with the experience of TANDEM from Slovakia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We brought our experiential and trauma-informed approach to the collaboration, while TANDEM introduced us to self-reflection and future-planning tools that we found particularly inspiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, new elements were added to the T\u0151l\u00fcnk Nektek process. After the volunteering action, we created more intentional space for young people to pause, look back at what had happened, and connect their experiences with the way they think about themselves and their future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the experience of \u201cI can do it\u201d to planning for the future<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thinking about the future is not simply a matter of planning techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For someone to set goals for themselves, they also need to believe that their own decisions and actions can have an impact on how their life unfolds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why we found it particularly meaningful to connect the volunteering process with self-reflection and future planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions emerged:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did you learn about yourself?
What were you good at?
What was difficult?
What would you do differently next time?
How could you use this experience in other situations in your life?
And now that you know you are capable of this \u2013 where would you like to go from here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reflective step is crucial, because an experience does not automatically become conscious learning. But when we help a young person recognise that they persevered, found the courage to speak in front of others, resolved a conflict, took responsibility, or saw a task through to the end, these experiences can gradually become part of the way they see themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this starting point, conversations about education, work, relationships, or even the more distant future can look very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where volunteering and future planning meet<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The programme also brought an important insight for us: volunteering and future planning are valuable tools in their own right, but together they can be particularly powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One provides real-life experience of taking action; the other helps young people make sense of that experience and connect it to their own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps this is one of the most important roles we have in youth work: creating situations where a young person does not simply hear that they have opportunities, but experiences for themselves that they can take action, they can learn, they can make a difference \u2013 and that their own future is worth thinking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curious to see where the future takes these young volunteer groups?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re ready to grow through nature, challenges, and meaningful connections, keep an eye on our newsletter! Subscribe to be among the first to hear about upcoming opportunities. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We often think of volunteering as helping others: someone dedicates their time and energy to doing something for other people or for a community. In youth work, however, it can mean much more than that. This is at the heart of our T\u0151l\u00fcnk Nektek (From Us to You) programme, which started in 2011. The programme […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2314,"parent":0,"template":"","resource_category":[57],"resource-tag":[63,76,67,75],"class_list":["post-2313","resources","type-resources","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_category-fiy-blog","resource-tag-empowerment","resource-tag-futureplanning","resource-tag-volunteering","resource-tag-youthwork"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVolunteering Gives More Than You Might Think \u2013 Experiential Learning and Future Planning in Youth Work - Future is YOUth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/futureisyouth.com\/ro\/resources\/volunteering-gives-more-than-you-might-think-experiential-learning-and-future-planning-in-youth-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ro_RO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Volunteering Gives More Than You Might Think \u2013 Experiential Learning and Future Planning in Youth Work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We often think of volunteering as helping others: someone dedicates their time and energy to doing something for other people or for a community. 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