Does volunteering improve employability? Insights from the British Household Panel Survey and beyond

Policy interest in the role of volunteering as a route to employment is enduring, with an assumption that links between volunteering, employability and employment are positive and straightforward. This has largely been supported by existing evidence, although there have been few longitudinal studies testing the theory. Analysing data from the British Household Panel Survey, we used multivariate techniques to explore the effects of volunteering on moves from being out of work into work; and on retention and wage progression for people in employment. We suggest that the relationship is complex: volunteering may have a positive effect on the labour market position of some individuals in some circumstances; for others it may have a negative, or no, effect. We offer some suggestions for the variations we found: the limitations of the dataset and our analysis; a limited concept of employability; and too narrow a view of volunteering and its impact

Transformative spaces in the social reintegration of former child soldier young mothers in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Northern Uganda

A significant but insufficiently considered category of female former child soldiers is those that become mothers as a result of rape or through relationships with “bush husbands”. This article reflects on learning from a participatory action research (PAR) study which aimed to facilitate the social reintegration of formerly associated young mothers and other war-affected vulnerable young mothers in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and northern Uganda. We argue that it is useful to delineate 3 nodes of individual-community relations which we identify as possible transformative spaces in psychosocial programming for social reintegration: the intersection between individual emotional experience and the emotional climate, between individual agency and public engagement, and between individual and community resilience. The PAR study involved 658 young war-affected mothers across 20 communities in the 3 countries. The results demonstrate how the PAR mobilized positive emotions and aligned the activities of the young mothers’ groups with individuals with power to facilitate change (community leaders) and contributed to limited transformative change. Further research is needed on engaging men and on tackling structural factors in interventions with war-affected young mothers

The transformative and emancipatory potential of participatory evaluation: Reflections from a participatory action research study with war-affected young mothers

The Participatory Action Research (PAR) study with Young Mothers in Liberia, Sierra Leone and northern Uganda which took place from 2006 to 2009 aimed to understand what ‘reintegration’ meant to young mothers formerly associated with armed groups. It also implemented social action initiatives designed by study participants to promote their wellbeing and achieve reintegration. We evaluated the study using multiple participatory evaluation methods, situating evaluation as part of the cycle of research and action. This approach facilitated young mothers’ participation in developing the criteria by which the study and its reintegration outcomes would be judged. We describe each method and what we uniquely learned from using a participatory evaluation approach. We discuss how this approach is well-suited for complex studies, can enhance data quality, increases capacity of all involved in the evaluation and supports the critical reflexivity necessary for participatory studies to succeed

Community-based reintegration of war affected young mothers: participatory action research (PAR) in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Northern Uganda

In this report, we describe a community-based participatory action research (PAR) project involving approximately 658 young mothers and over 1200 of their children living in the three war-torn countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Northern Uganda. Instead of using internationally-defined notions and adult-centric statements about what reintegration is, we sought to understand reintegration from the young mothers’ perspectives, learning from them about what constitutes successful reintegration for themselves and their children. The project supported the young mothers in implementing actions that they thought would assist them in achieving their notion of successful reintegration. The project was implemented through an academic-NGO partnership that brought together a team from 10 non-governmental organizations, three African academics and four Western academics collaborating on the project over the course of nearly four years. A central goal of the project was to support the implementation of the Paris Principles by providing inputs from the field about how to do reintegration with a strong emphasis on participation in different country contexts. The project centrally involves young mothers as highly-active participants who take leadership roles in program development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, working to reduce the powerful stigma they face through their garnering of local resources. The project works to develop organizational capacity to implement programs using highly participatory approaches. Underpinning all our work was the principle of “Do No Harm.” Operationally, the project took place in twenty field sites in the three countries. At each field site, agency partners established groups of approximately thirty young mothers who joined together to work collaboratively to identify the problems they and their children were facing and implement initiatives to try and mitigate those problems. Problems identified across the twenty sites were remarkably similar, reflecting difficulties with social stigma, access to education for the participants and their children, access to affordable medical care, and sustainable livelihoods. With local supports and social action funds, young mothers’ groups prioritized their problems and came up with ways of addressing these challenges. Creative social action initiatives included hiring a nurse to teach about hygiene and sanitation, micro-credit to support individual petty trading, opening group businesses like a restaurant or a weaving cooperative, and building a collective groundnut farm on land donated by community members. In addition to the support experienced through the group process, these actions worked to increase the well being of the young mothers and their children and to bring them into the fold of the community. The findings of this multi-year project are highlighted below, followed by recommendations to practitioners, donors, and policy makers operating in the field of reintegration and post-conflict child protection. Multi-media presentations are available on the project’s website: www.pargirlmothers.co

Participation as principle and tool in social reintegration: young mothers formerly associated with armed groups in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Northern Uganda

Experience of traumatic stressors within armed groups can negatively impact social cognitions of mastery, self-efficacy, and control. This could be compounded by postreturn conditions of stigma, little access to education, and limited means of livelihood. We explore an intervention that placed girlsâ participation as a central organizing principle. Based on study reports and ethnographic field work, we examine how young mothers transformed their identity and membership within communities of return through drama, songs and poetry, and engagement in social actions. Meaningful participation offers a culturally grounded intervention in which the impacts of traumatic stressors on individual functioning and the social relational world are directly targeted, resulting in a positive modification of developmental trajectories for young women and, ultimately, their children

Building meaningful participation in reintegration among war-affected young mothers in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Northern Uganda

When young mothers, formerly associated with armed groups, return to communities, they are typically social isolated, stigmatised, and marginalised. This creates reintegration challenges for themselves, and their communities. Their children face child protection problems such as neglect, rejection and abuse. In this paper, the authors describe an innovative field practice - community based, participatory action research (PAR) - that meaningfully involved formerly associated young mothers, and other vulnerable young mothers, in their communities. The project took place in 20 field sites in three countries: Liberia, northern Uganda and Sierra Leone. It was implemented through an academic, nongovernmental organisation (NGO) partnership. The participants were 658 young mothers, both formerly associated with armed groups and other mothers seen to be vulnerable. Within the context of caring psychosocial support, these young mothers organised themselves into groups, declined their problems, and developed social actions to address and change their situations. Some project outcomes included: young mothers and their children experiencing improved social reintegration evidenced by greater family and community acceptance; more positive coping skills; and decreased participation in sex work for economic survival