Youth volunteering on decline since Sept. 11

updated 12:26 a.m. ET April 23, 2009

CHICAGO - Volunteering has helped define a generation of young Americans who are known for their do-gooder ways. Many high schools require community service before graduation. And these days, donating time to a charitable organization is all but expected on a young person's college or job application.

Even so, an analysis of federal data has found that the percentage of teens who volunteer dipped in recent years, ending an upward trend that began after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"They're still volunteering at higher rates than their parents did," says Peter Levine, director of Tufts University's Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, also known as CIRCLE.

But, he adds, there's been "a loss of momentum," which he hopes recent passage of the federal Serve America Act will help address.

CIRCLE researchers used data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey for their study, which was released Thursday and funded, in part, by the Corporation for National and Community Service. They found that one in three teens, age 16 to 18, volunteered in 2005, representing a peak in community service for all age groups since the survey began tracking volunteerism in 2002.

In 2006, however, that rate dropped to 29 percent and then to 28 percent in 2007, the most recent year for which data is available. Those are the lowest percentages for that age group since the data has been collected and just one percentage point higher than adults 25 and older each of those years.

Separate market research done for VolunteerMatch, an online site that links visitors with about 63,000 nonprofit groups, found a similar decline in queries from under-18 users.

But many agree that the reasons behind such numbers are more complicated than young people simply losing interest in giving back, especially in an era when so many worked without pay for the Obama campaign, while some who can't find jobs are volunteering to make use of their time and talents. Some nonprofit directors confirm that they've seen a surge in people seeking to volunteer since the recession hit.

"It's not just the incredible disappearing teen volunteer," says Robert Rosenthal of San Francisco-based VolunteerMatch.

Nonprofits struggling
CIRCLE researchers note a drop in funding in recent years for youth-oriented service programs such as AmeriCorps, which will receive new Serve America Act money next year.

Video   'Skilled volunteers' give and get April 24: Many unemployed professionals are turning to "skilled volunteering" as a way of giving back while keeping skills sharp. And as some are finding, it can be the catalyst to a new job. NBC's Ali Rosen reports. Nightly News

Nonprofits have struggled, too.

Project Sunshine, an organization founded by a college student in 1998, has more than 10,000 volunteers who visit hospitalized children. More than half of those are 22 or younger, and hundreds more have asked about volunteering in recent months, says executive director Beatrice Kernan.

"We hate to turn down new interest, but we're in a position of having to put this new interest on hold," she says, citing recent staff layoffs.

The difficult job market has caused some young people to look at AmeriCorps and service-oriented Teach for America, which recruits educators for low-income urban and rural areas. But even those opportunities can be elusive.

"One of my best students got wait-listed for Teach for America — and I thought holy cow!" says Deborah Halperin, a volunteer coordinator at Illinois Wesleyan University.

MORE FROM GIVING

Giving Section Front

$1,000 gold coin dropped in donation bucket     Hunger, America’s ‘dirty little secret’ Salvation Army kettles now take plastic NBA star O’Neal pays for slain girl’s funeral In sagging economy, man donates bras Gabriel bears WITNESS to rights abuses Child entrepreneur gives back big Filmmaker Perry gives $1 million to NAACP Chef Paula Deen hit in face by charity ham   Video: Soup kitchen chef raises standard of giving Giving Section Front   Add Giving headlines to your news reader: