In the report Engaging Youth in Lifelong Service, Independent Sector and Youth Service America discovered that teenagers who volunteer give more money and volunteer more time as adults than adults who never volunteered as a teenager. Report findings include:

• 44% of adults volunteer
  >> 66% (roughly) of these volunteers began volunteering their time when they were young
• Adults who began volunteering as youth are twice as likely to volunteer as those who did not volunteer when they were younger.
• High school volunteering recently reached the highest levels in the past 50 years.  
• In every income and age group, those who volunteered as youth give and volunteer more than those who did not.
• Those who volunteered as youth and whose parents volunteered became the most generous adults in giving time.

These findings are good news to the church for several reasons:

1. Teenagers are volunteering more than ever.
2. If your church uses teenage volunteers, you are doubling their potential to serve as adults.
3. If you can get the parents of teen volunteers to also volunteer, you will be maximizing the teenagers’ future levels of generosity.

I believe that reaching and training up the next generation is the most important demographic churches can focus on. Clearly, it is a time that shapes who they will be in the future.

For more on volunteering, check out our previous post about Volunteers That Stick by Jim Wideman.

[via Church Volunteer Central]