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1. National Programme for Youth Volunteering

2. Funding

3. Characteristics of youth volunteering

4. Support to young volunteers

5. Quality Assurance (QA)

6. Target groups

National Programme for Youth Volunteering

There is no national programme for youth volunteering in Sweden.

Funding

The Swedish Government encourages and supports youth volunteering mainly through providing financial support to the civil society. Youth organisation can apply for both organisational grants and project grants. More information on government grants youth organisations is available in chapters 2.8 Raising awareness about youth volunteering opportunities and 5.6 Supporting youth organisations. 

In 2024, the government introduced two grants where the target group is civil society organisations in general, i.e. not only youth organisations. With these annual grants, the government wants to enable organisations to reach new target groups and create new forms of voluntary engagement. 

One of the grants that the government introduced in 2024 is aimed at organisations that work with volunteer coordination, for increasing the opportunities for better matching and coordination between those who want to volunteer and non-profit organisations. MUCF (Swedish agency for youth and civil society) is tasked with annually distributing SEK 20 million (about 1 800 000 euro) to organisations that have nationwide activities or carry out activities of national interest.

The other grant introduced in 2024 aims at increasing voluntary engagement within civil society. The purpose is to make it easier for individuals who want to have a task within non-profit organisations, but do not have a natural contact into the context. MUCF (Swedish agency for youth and civil society) is tasked with annually distributing SEK 15 million (about 1 340 000 euro). Grants can be sought by civil society organisations for developing skills, resources and tools within the organisation, either for creating new forms of engagement or for reaching new target groups or for otherwise increasing people's engagement within civil society. MUCF may prioritise projects that are deemed to have the best conditions for increasing people's involvement within civil society and that engage people who live in areas with socio-economic challenges and projects that are carried out in collaboration with a municipality.

Characteristics of youth volunteering

Voluntary work has a long tradition in Sweden, especially within leisure and sports associations. Sports associations collect by far the largest share of youth voluntary workers within the Swedish civil society, according to a study conducted by Marie Cederschiöld University.

See even 2.7 Social inclusion through volunteering and 5.6 Supporting youth organisations for more information on the characteristics of youth volunteering in Sweden.

Statistics

Official statistics on youth volunteering does not exist in Sweden, but a national representative survey is conducted by Marie Cederschiöld University (Marie Cederschiöld högskola) on a regular basis. The general picture is that the total extent of engagement in voluntary activities in Sweden is stable since 1992, and that the main part of activities take place within civil society organisations. According to the latest survey (2019) carried out by Marie Cederschiöld University, 54 per cent of young people between 16 and 24 have been involved in some form of voluntary activity.

The most common voluntary activity carried out by young people is by far leading group activities within organised leisure. That can be explained by the fact that many leaders of sports clubs are young people engaged on a voluntary basis.

When it comes to the extent of participation in voluntary activities, there are no differences between men and women. However, there are differences in terms of age; the youngest between 16 and 29 years of age are overrepresented among those who only have one voluntary commitment. The relationship between age and the extent of participation in voluntary activities is closely associated with the assumption that voluntary work is included in the cumulative citizenship. The better one is integrated in society through education, work and family, the more engaged will one be in civil society (Ersta Sköndal högskola, 2015, Folk i rörelse – medborgerligt engagemang 1992-2014).

Support to young volunteers

There are no support schemes or incentives to support young volunteers. However, as described in section 5.6 Supporting Youth Organisations, the government provides significant financial support to youth organisations. By supporting youth organisations with general grants, young volunteers are indirectly promoted.

In addition, the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society (MUCF) has an ongoing dialogue with youth organisations about the design and the effects of the government’s grants, in order to keep the system up-to-date with the developments in the civil society.    

Target groups

There are no national level youth volunteering initiatives initiated by the government by 2024, so therefore a definition of formal target groups is lacking. A general priority is though young people with fewer opportunities. This is the case with the government grant that was introduced in 2024, with the aim of increasing voluntary engagement within civil society. A priority group for the grant is people who live in areas with socio-economic challenges.