Volunteering and young people who have a disability – experiences and benefits
The Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS) has created a collection of short films that focus on young people with disabilities and volunteering. This page includes three films that star young volunteers talking about their experiences. Find out their advice for other young people thinking about getting involved in volunteering.
The Youth Disability Advocacy Service has created a collection of short films that focus on young people with disabilities and volunteering. This page includes three films that star four young volunteers. They talk about their experiences and share their best advice for other young people thinking about getting involved in volunteering.
Watch:
- Introductions and experience
- Skills and experiences
- Tips and messages – for young people with a disability who are thinking about volunteering
The films feature:
- Jarrod Marrinon, a volunteer with the Youth Disability Advocacy Service at the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria
- Con Stratakos, a volunteer at Northland Youth Centre
- Lisa Morskate, a volunteer at Eastern Access Community Health (EACH)
- Elvira Alic, a volunteer for No Limits at Grit Media.
You can also watch Volunteering and young people who have a disability – benefits and advice. These short films feature people from the organisations these volunteers are involved with. See what they think are the benefits of involving young people who have a disability, and find out who of our four volunteers is described as the 'James Bond' of their organisation...
Introductions and experience
This film introduces each of the volunteers, and asks them:
- What are some of your duties?
- What are the best things about volunteering?
- What skills and experience have you gained?
If you are having trouble watching this film you can:
Skills and experiences
This film asks each of the group what they have gained from their experience as a volunteer.
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Tips and messages for young people with a disability who are thinking about volunteering
Great advice from both volunteers and volunteer organisations on how to get involved, be involved and find the right role for you.
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Transcript: Introductions and experience
What is your name and where do you volunteer?
Jarrod Marrinon (volunteer with the Youth Disability Advocacy Service at the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria): My name is Jarrod and I volunteer at YDAS at YACVic which is in Flinders Street in Melbourne.
Con Stratakos (volunteer at Northland Youth Centre): My name is Con and I volunteer at the Northland Youth Centre, here.
Lisa Morskate (volunteer at Eastern Access Community Health [EACH]): I'm Lisa. I work at EACH in Bayswater.
Elvira Alic (volunteer at Grit Media): My name is Elvira Alic and I've been doing volunteer work and contract work for No Limits. I'm currently the co-host of season 11 coming up.
What are some of your duties?
Jarrod: My role specifically is to do the promotional side of things – like pumping out YDAS' name on social media and adding content to their website. But I do some other things as well, like go to transport meetings.
Con: I help set up. I do the shopping, I help pack up and set up and all that.
Lisa: I do fundraising. Counting – making separate boxes for each of the sites that we have down here. And I count all the money when it comes back and that goes towards the Christmas party and other stuff for volunteers.
Elvira: Here at Grit we offer a free for service work. We have two TV shows, it Chair Chat and No Limits with Channel 31. The Boldness is our radio show with 3CR Melbourne and we also run some youth workshops for young people with disabilities.
What are the best things about volunteering?
Jarrod: We have a lot of variety at YDAS. I am never doing the same thing for too long. One week I could be writing a press release, and the next week I could be in Sydney giving a talk to 1000 people about how awesome it is to be a young disabled man. The people I work with are fantastic as well; so it's a good environment and lots of variety.
Con: Helping out and doing all this wonderful work.
Lisa: I'm working with Pete my colleague. We have lots of fun. We get up to lots of mischief. So, Joy has to keep an eye on us to make sure we do all of our work and get everything done.
Elvira: It has actually given me an opportunity to combine both my passions. I'm quite creative and I'm passionate about advocating for people with disabilities. So, I've been able to actually combine the two. I love new and different things and I love learning and being thrown in the deep end. A lot of volunteering, you're not expected to have the skills that are required. So it's about learning, and that's really… I love that about volunteering and regardless of where or what you are doing it's about learning something new.
Proudly produced by:
- Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS)
- Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc (YACVic)
- Grit Media – 'Shamelessly disabled'
Transcript: Skills and experiences
Narrator: What skills and experience have you gained?
<phone rings>
Jarrod Marrinon (volunteer with Youth Disability Advocacy Service): I learned how to answer the telephone…
Georgie Ferrari (chief executive officer at YACVic) offscreen: Good can you get that one?
<laughs>
Jarrod: I come into YDAS two days a week. It has taught me a lot of office etiquette; how to be punctual, how to write letters and behave in meetings. Just to be a bit more professional in the environment I'm in and, yeah, just to fit the role of what I am doing at the time.
The skills I've learned here and picked up, I could carry into my professional and working life – jobs – and it will help me in my role.
Con Stratakos (volunteer at Northland Youth Centre): I've done a film. I was on the radio. There was a Young Citizen of the Year award, which I won.
Lisa Morskate (volunteer at Eastern Access Community Health [EACH]): I'm a lot more chatty, you would say. I was quiet when I first started here. Typing skills, I am getting better at that. Counting. General office-type stuff.
Elvira Alic (volunteer at Grit Media): Confidence is a big thing. But I think that reliability also that it has taught me. So, actually having somebody tell you that – you need to have deadlines and that you actually have to do it.
Proudly produced by:
- Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS)
- Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc (YACVic)
- Grit Media – 'Shamelessly disabled'
Transcript: Tips and messages for young people with a disability who are thinking about volunteering
Jarrod Marrinon (volunteer with the Youth Disability Advocacy Service at the Youth Affaris Council of Victoria): I would suggest that you do something you like doing. There is no point in volunteering if you don't actually like what you are doing. Volunteering is not all about feeding the homeless. I mean, if you like you can feed the homeless if you like. But not everyone likes doing that. But there are other opportunities to volunteer in different environments. It is just finding something you like doing.
Georgie Ferrari (chief executive officer, Youth Affairs Council of Victoria: I guess I would add – don't be put off. One of my favorite quotes is a Chinese proverb which says: 'Fall down seven times, get up eight'. So it is sort of like, if the first organisation says, 'We don't have any place for you' or the second organisation says, 'Oh no, we couldn’t possibly take a young person with a disability because we wouldn’t know how to work with you', just keep trying, you will find a place that will have a spot for you and be able to really utilise your skills in a positive meaningful way and don't be put off by organisations that may not be ready for you – because you will find one that is the right fit.
And if you come across any discrimination about an organisation sort of going, 'Oh, sorry no, we can’t because we would have to make this modification and we can’t,' don’t forget that you can also challenge that and you can help the organisation learn that they can take you on if they just, you know, accommodate this or that which is actually quite minor and the benefits for both you and the organisation are great.
Con Stratakos (volunteer at Northland Youth Centre): Volunteering is the best. I think it's a good idea for people to do that, you get to help out other people.
Lisa Morskate (volunteer at Eastern Access Community Health [EACH]): Talk to an adult or somebody that knows people that have done it before, so talk to someby who has done it and enjoyed it. Have a look in the newspaper, online or bulletin boards in your local area. Just take a step forward and have a go. Give it a try.
Elvira Alic (volunteer at Grit Media): A lot of the time it is about proving yourself, regardless of if you have a disability or not. Even just building those skills, you're going to benefit from it.
Proudly produced by:
- Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS)
- Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc (YACVic)
- Grit Media – 'Shamelessly disabled'