45% of young people aged between 15 and 35 years participate in voluntary work according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS, 2023), for example in sports clubs, schools, care and nursing, youth organisations and in religious or philosophical organisations. The number of young people who volunteer has increased steadily since 2021, when it was 38%. There is no national stand-alone law on youth volunteering. Volunteering for all citizens, including youth, is part of the Social Support Act (2015) and promotes informal and formal social systems. The national government supports all voluntary activities. For example, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport) subsidises the Association of Dutch Voluntary Organizations (Vereniging Nederlandse Organisaties Vrijwilligerswerk (NOV). It has 375 member organisations (2023). Municipalities are responsible for the voluntary activities of their citizens and act as brokers to facilitate them in their own initiatives.

Highlights

Since March 2020 all young people between 12 and 30 years old can voluntarily donate an amount of time to do social service: Social service time (maatschappelijke diensttijd MDT- Doe mee met MDT). Young people can work in a variety of sectors: nature & animals, sustainability, engineering and IT, politics and government, education, media and culture, sports, safety, and welfare and care. Social service trajectories have different levels of intensity and take 80, 200 or 320 hours in a maximum of 6 months. Participants receive supervision, often training, and a certificate or other reward afterwards. In 2023, 121 projects have been funded, allowing approximately 105,000 young people to start an MDT trajectory.