Why Volunteer?
Join Leading Youth Forward
- Help make a positive impact
- Become part of the LYF community
- Develop leadership skills
- Meet new people and make life-long friends
- Learn from young people
Leading Youth Forward supports a variety of volunteers to help us with our cause, depending on your preference, availability, and experience. Our Committee will provide you with training, place you in a role, and deliver ongoing support throughout the program. At LYF we are in this together and no volunteer goes it alone.
What's involved?
We understand you lead busy lives and our Committee strives to make volunteering with LYF a fun and enriching experience. All dates are provided at the start of each calendar year.
We ask that those signing up to volunteer as a Mentor consider their availability as consistency in the relationship between Teen and Mentor sets the foundation for positive outcomes. We completely understand if you have a family, work, or life events and thank our pool of freelancers and event helpers for being available for these situations.
Become a part of the LYF community
Volunteering with LYF is a commitment and we can’t thank our volunteers enough for dedicating their time to making a difference in the lives of at-risk young people.
In addition to the Youth Events planned by our Committee over the course of the year, our Volunteer portfolio organises a number of ‘volunteer only’ events, allowing you to connect, have fun and form friendships.
This includes an event held soon after each Teen Big Day Out, such as lawn bowls, a night out or morning brunch. Our ‘Party with a Purpose’ Cocktail Fundraiser is held in winter as well as an end of year celebration and awards ceremony for our volunteers.
LYF Volunteer events are either ticketed events or discounted experiences, thanks to the generosity provided by Perth businesses.
The program doesn't just help the teens with community, friendship, and fostering a sense of identity, value and self-worth. I've felt those effects as a mentor as well.
Information for Volunteers
Frequently Asked Questions
We ask our Volunteers to commit to the full calendar year when signing up to mentor, which includes a weekend camp and four Big Day Outs (the last one being held in November). Our Freelancers and Event Helper volunteers sign up for each event based on their availability.
All new volunteers must attend in-person training, held in February each year. This is a supportive environment, facilitated by our experienced Training & Development Management. Guidance is also provided by our Advisory Panel for training.
Apart from the LYF camp in March, we ask our Volunteers to pick-up and drop-off the Teen that they are paired with for each event. This provides additional support for the Teens Caregivers, knowing the young person in their care will be picked up and dropped safely home after each LYF event.
At LYF, you are never in it alone, including when driving with a LYF Teen. Driving buddies will be paired at the start of the year, ensuring there are always two volunteers to pick-up, drop-off and transport Teens to each event.
Our Committee take into consideration a variety of factors when carefully pairing a Teen with a Mentor. If for some reason we do not have an even ratio of Mentors to Teens, our Volunteer Portfolio will ensure this is communicated with you, as well as opportunities to Volunteer as a Freelancer or Event Helper.
Yes you can. Most new volunteers start out as a Freelancer or Event Helper to either see what it’s like or due to what their capacity permits at the time of joining LYF.
As soon as you know you have more availability, are able to commit to all BDO dates and are interested in building a regular connection with a teen, please inform the Volunteer Manager.
There’s not always available teens for mentor pairing right away but your interest in changing your volunteer status will be strongly considered for the following year.
In regards to changing from mentor to freelancer, ideally, we would prefer once you commit to mentoring, you stay as mentoring, especially after that first relationship/interaction is established. We do however understand life can change. We strongly encourage open communication with the Volunteer Manager and Vice President to make sure the teen remains the forefront of mentoring changes.
We understand that our Volunteers lead busy lives and that the availability or location of our Volunteers may change. We aim to foster a supportive environment with open communication. If your situation or availability to Volunteer has changed, please reach out to our Volunteer Manager.