Volunteering: Teens With Disability | Raising Children Network

Volunteering: why it’s good for teenagers with disability, autism or other additional needs

As your child with disability, autistic child or child with other additional needs moves through the teenage years, you and your child might start to think about future work.

Volunteering can be a great way for your child to prepare for work. It can help your child:

• learn what’s expected in the workplace
• find out what sort of work interests them
• build workplace skills like teamwork, time management and punctuality
• gain confidence in the workplace and their own abilities
• build a resumé – your child could ask for a certificate of involvement to put in their work folder
• meet new people, who might be contacts for future job opportunities
• learn about the workplace support they need to do a job well.

When your child volunteers, it also gives organisations the chance to get to know your child and their interests, strengths and needs. This might help if your child wants to apply for paid positions at any of the places they volunteer.

The more experience your child can get in the workplace, the better prepared they’ll be to find work and stay in work when they finish education.

Finding the right volunteer work for teenagers with disability, autism or other additional needs

You can find the right volunteer job for your child with disability, autistic child or child with other additional needs by thinking about what your child likes to do and what they’re good at.

For example, your child might be keen on coding, being outdoors, playing sport, working with numbers, meeting people, cooking or spending time with animals. You can look for volunteer opportunities that tap into these interests. These might include:

• conservation or gardening
• animal care and welfare
• aged and disability visitor programs
• food programs
• sports coaching
• English as a second language programs.

It might also be worth finding an organisation that has a reputation for supporting volunteers or employees with additional needs. This might include not-for-profit companies or peak disability organisations.

It’s also important to consider the workplace environment – for example, whether the physical environment is accessible, whether the organisation will make adjustments for additional needs, and how the organisation treats volunteers.

Volunteering ideas and websites

Here are ways to find volunteering work:

• Talk to family and friends about opportunities in your local area. Your local council will have information on volunteering opportunities too.
• Use websites like Go Volunteer or Seek Volunteer to search for volunteer jobs based on interest and location.
• Try looking at the websites of organisations that work on specific causes – for example, conservation volunteers or the RSPCA.
• Ask your child’s school about helping your child to find a volunteering or work experience placement.

You can also check out state-based volunteering websites, which help to match volunteers with volunteering groups and opportunities:

• Volunteering ACT
• The Centre for Volunteering (New South Wales)
• Volunteering SA&NT
• Volunteering Queensland
• Volunteering Tasmania
• Volunteering Victoria
• Volunteering WA.