Youth Volunteers as Paradox Navigators in Volunteering Implementation: Youth voices on voluntary work during pandemic situation in Hong Kong

Volunteering research has broadened its focus beyond the intended volunteering programs designed by organizations to include the actual volunteers implement. The Clary et al.’s (1998) Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) based on the six functional motives has been widely applied and studied in motivational research, however there is an ongoing argument whether the model adequately explains the underlying motivation of youth volunteers (Butt, Hou, Soomro, & Acquadro Maran, 2017; Francis, 2011). In this action research of a community-based service program during the pandemic situations, we investigate the process of volunteering implementation by the youth volunteers. The process of youth volunteering implementation entails two seemingly contradictory dimensions of motives: values (express and act humanitarian or altruistic tendencies) and social (be with friends and do something that important others view favorably).

Studying 17 college volunteers and their 102 assigned care receiver and related care givers in 2 supervisory teams, we jointly address the effects of values and social in youth volunteers’ volunteering implementation under a preliminary study. Results indicate that students’ responses are varied towards the intended service-learning outcomes of the volunteering project, and the feedback has its significance. This paper will illustrate the answers through the data and comments collected from the respondent feedback forms, formal and informal qualitative interviews, and discussion meetings. Based on those data to summarize the insights or implications on how college students can gain from the voluntary service learning at the same time be able to discover their major obstacles which can influence their willingness to deliver voluntary contributions in the community.