TheSite Leaders network is for young people who are interested in the development of TheSite.org and want to share their thoughts and ideas about how we shape our services. Every fortnight, we host a live chat where members touch base, chat about how the latest discussions are progressing and consult on new topics. Within these sessions we have an opening round. Each member is offered the chance to feedback on a question that we pose which in some way relates to TheSite.org, the digital world in general or their life experiences.
This week’s opening round was all about Trustees. Today marks the end of Trustee’s week, so what better time to capture their thoughts? Here’s a low-down of the questions and answers.
Firstly we asked, do you know what a Trustee is? Seven out of the ten chat attendees (aged 16-25) said ‘No’. Out of the two who said yes, when asked to define what a trustee was, they were able to give a good overall definition, but assumed a trustee worked for an organisation and didn’t realise they are volunteers. To provide them with straightforward, and comprehensive information about Trustees, we gave them a factsheet from Do-it.
Next, with this new knowledge, we asked them, does the role of trustee appeal to you? Here are some of the responses:
“I Think that this kind of role would be well suited to me as I think I am business minded and also I think that I would be able to contribute loads of time to helping charities.”
“Yes, I’d like to do this to be able to help out and have a say about how the charity is run.”
“I think the role of a trustee would suit me as i like to think am pretty business minded and love working with a range of different people.”
So, it was clear that while the knowledge about these roles and getting involved as a young person isn’t as widely accessible as it could be, certainly the passion for getting involved is.
So how did they think it could be better communicated?
“These roles could be promoted by careers advisors.”
“Put more out there in the media, maybe magazines, and websites of course that are aimed at young people.”
“Educate people about what it means to be a trustee as part of the curriculum.”
“I think that the role could be advertised to younger people by promoting to those without employment like at at online jobs search sites and also promoting it through people stuggling to find jobs.”
“The image of trustees needs to be improved – for me the image of a trustee is an older person, a retired person who knows a bit about money and then sit around and occasionally vote on the direction of something, but i don’t know much about it.”
Now, we know in the sector there is already some information available to young people who access services like Do-it, hence why young people are on the boards of charities like Young Achievers, but this session with the TheSite Leaders suggests it’s still very much a minority who have access to this information or know where to find it in the first place. We need to keep informing and engaging young people about the opportunities available to them – all through the year, not just during these useful awareness raising weeks.
Being better informed is certainly necessary and one awareness raising week is unlikely to make much difference. I think if you asked many adults to define a trustee, they wouldn’t have much idea either. I wonder how YP would feel about trustee liability though: it puts many adults off becoming a trustee and some refuse to stand unless the organisation has trustee indemnity insurance even though this still won’t protect against negligence.