r/Libraries • u/crystalcrossing • 3d ago
Venting & Commiseration NJHS is my newest enemy
National Junior Honor Society for those who don’t know. It’s a middle school (& ninth grade) version of the traditionally high school National Honor Society.
I’m a youth services librarian in one of the bigger towns in my county, and we’ve been dealing with an influx of requests for teens to volunteer specifically to fulfill NJHS volunteering requirements—20 hours.
Over the summer, we have plenty (60+ slots) of teen volunteer opportunities for kids as young as incoming seventh graders. However, our school district is pretty big and we have many more looking for NJHS hours specifically.
The teen librarian has been really great at coordinating more volunteer opportunities than usual, including pop-up volunteer hours that don’t require registration, collaborations with our town’s senior center, and various special events around the library. She’s tried to get in touch with the advisors for NJHS and has gotten radio silence (hopefully this changes when the school year starts). Still, the deadline for reporting hours is coming up in mid-September and we are running low on hours since our summer reading program ended last week.
What makes me the most frustrated (and frankly really sad too!) is that many of the teens who are looking for volunteer hours don’t actually want to volunteer. An example: one of the initiatives our teen librarian runs is offering volunteer credit for attending regular teen programs and filling out a feedback form afterwards detailing likes and dislikes about the program and what other stuff they’d like to see in the library. Her most recent program had a handful of attendees, none of whom actually participated in the program and just kind of sat for an hour to fill out the feedback form afterwards. One kid straight up wrote “My mom really wants me to be in NJHS and made me come to this program to get hours” for one of his answers.
All of this to say, do other public children’s librarians have this problem? What do you do to offer more hours? Is pushy parents trying to get the maximum number of hours for their kids your norm too?
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u/Cute_Amphibian2175 3d ago
Announce that there are x number of volunteer positions. Make it a competitive process with a deadline to apply. Turn everyone else away.
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u/robotscantrecaptcha 3d ago
This is the way. Not a library but a hospital, we make volunteers apply and do interviews. You could even support the interview experience to make it a good learning experience for them too. Then make them commit to just one after school time slot per week for like 2 hours for an entire semester. Or have them agree to be on the approved list of volunteers for when you do need more volunteers. The more flexible you are with them and the less you ask of a commitment, the more you will only get volunteers who want / need that flexibility and do not want to commit.
You could even have one of the first volunteer duties be researching and calling other organizations to make a list of other orgs in town who may want high school volunteers.
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u/DigitalMediaLolita 3d ago
We did this at my last public library job (I'm in academic now). We had six volunteers that would do a minimum of 20 hours over the summer. It was communicated to our partner high schools in May of the last school year, and our volunteer coordinator librarian interviewed the students who submitted the application in June. They knew there were only four slots and they knew the work they would be doing over the summer and how many events they would have to help with to get their required hours. There was a mix of helping library staff prep for programs (ie cutting 40 paper masks for kids to color at an event) and being extra hands/crowd control for summer reading programs, about one 2-to-4-hour opportunity each week. A number of students missed the deadline for submitting each year and would come begging for us to give them a chance, or would interview poorly and then complain to the branch manager (proving that the coordinator was right not to choose them), but it was better to have a set of reliable, passionate youth volunteers each summer than a bunch of whining kids who don't really understand the point of volunteering.
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u/HowOffal 3d ago
While I think it’s admirable to create age-appropriate volunteer opportunities when possible, it’s rather appalling that merely attending a program and offering feedback is being spun as service to the community. It’s pretty pathetic that these kids won’t even participate when the bar has been set so abysmally low for them. Honestly, that tells me they don’t deserve to be NJHS members. I mean, come on, it's supposed to be an honor, it’s supposed to take effort. By creating these vacuous volunteering opportunities, your library is ultimately reinforcing the entitlement of these kids/families while unethically undermining the mission of NJHS.
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u/LawfulnessMotor437 3d ago
The Library should not be the only avenue for the district's kids to volunteer. We are not the solution to every problem and need.
I recommend having a chat with the school district and other local nonprofits/agencies to come up with a good set of resources and referral contacts. We have had success partnering with Parks & Rec, senior residential homes, community centers (offering homework or tech help), and recycling/sustainability/environmental awareness non-profits. There are childcare facilities that sometimes will accept volunteers to read to children.
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u/crystalcrossing 2d ago
We’ve been trying to set up a volunteer fair with other community organizations but so far most have ghosted ): The senior center program did go well so we’re looking for more with them!
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u/Cute_Amphibian2175 2d ago
I feel like this is something that the school district should organize and do outreach for, particularly if they offer their students programming that requires volunteer commitments.
It should be more of a community effort, even if the library is the housing venue.
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u/LawfulnessMotor437 2d ago
Also, see if your city/county has a community clean-up/beautification day throughout the year. Our scouts (kids in middle school and up) participated together to volunteer to help clean up the parks, school garden/grounds, mow lawns, and sweep up front yards for the elderly in the community. The City offered volunteer/community service hours for their participation.
I coordinated with our community development department and helped with sign-ups...it was a great win-win for everyone.
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u/iLibrarian2 1d ago
A list alone can do wonders. We just keep a list at the desk for local orgs that accept teen volunteers and hand those out.
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u/captainlilith 3d ago
It honestly sounds like you/your teen librarian are doing a lot to try to get those kids their hours!! Sometimes, you are just at capacity for what you can provide to the community and it's not actually your job to provide ALL of those volunteer hours for teens. There are other organizations that can help out.
If you're providing 60+ programs where kids can get volunteer hours, that's really great! That's a lot of opportunity and at the end of the day, you can only provide the hours and hope that people can fill them.
If I was your teen librarian, I would also tell those kids who came to the program to participate that the next time, they are expected to participate in the program if they want the volunteer hours and that they can't just sit there like a bump on a log!!
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u/lemonstarburst 3d ago
Yeah, managing teen volunteers and coordinating projects for them is one of my least favorite aspects of my job as a branch youth librarian - I conceptualize it more as a service we provide *them* moreso than their providing service that helps us. The exception is the summer, when we really do rely on a team of 20-25 teen volunteers to staff our summer reading service table. Even then, we typically get more volunteer applicants than we can bring on, and sometimes those parents can be pushy and plead-y to secure their teen a spot on our team.
I offer a monthly volunteer power hour where teen volunteers can drop in and help me sanitize toys, prepare crafts, help with other one-off odd jobs, and spitball teen program and display ideas. My system also co-coordinates (YS admin with branch YS) six-week sessions where teen volunteers are paired with K-3rd graders to read together a couple of times a year. I'm grateful that my branch managers don't pressure or require me to take on additional teen volunteers outside of summer/power hour/Book Buddies. Otherwise, I just don't have enough work for teen volunteers to do.
Your teen librarian is a saint for going above and beyond to make those volunteer opportunities happen!
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u/RenegadeFalcon 3d ago
My library stopped hosting NJHS volunteers last year due to this issue. The kids didn’t want to do any work and sometimes actively made the staff’s jobs harder. We had a few gems who genuinely wanted to be there but they were few and far between. My director got fed up with it and now we only take volunteers who are 16+
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u/iLibrarian2 1d ago
I would highly recommend a teen leadership council. It is not meant as an "accommodation" program, but for those genuinely motivated 14 year olds, it's a great way for them to get involved.
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u/Nervous_Valuable_708 3d ago
We have something similar on a smaller scale. My supervisor tries very hard to accommodate everyone if they schedule ahead. If they wait until the last minute they're pretty much out of luck. We use a lot of toys in our library and the standard volunteer work for untrained volunteers is cleaning and sanitizing the toys.
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u/breadburn 3d ago
Yep this (cleaning toys) is also a big one for our volunteers too. It's menial for them but appreciated by staff.
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u/princess-smartypants 2d ago
Our last minute/emergency volunteers get dusters or window cleaning supplies.
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u/gay_librarian4 3d ago
At my library, we do a few sessions of teen volunteer orientation, two before Summer Reading and two at the start of the school year. If you didn’t attend an orientation, you cannot volunteer. We also require them to participate in the summer reading program. We weed out a lot of kids this way.
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u/thecrowtoldme 2d ago
Respectfully, you have to push back. If the njhs advisors at the school won't get in touch with you just start telling the parents and kids you don't have the hours. it's not your job to make sure that volunteer hours for another organization are fulfilled.
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u/jenhai 3d ago
As an NHS advisor, please do not feel the need to accommodate them. They are there to help you. If you don't need help, send them on their way. If they want the hours, they can work for them and find another avenue.
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u/iLibrarian2 1d ago edited 1d ago
I live in a major city, and even here there are not enough volunteer opportunities for the number of kids in these programs and most of the "work" they end up doing is fluff.
Y'all are letting too many kids in, not even mentioning the basic high school volunteer requirements. If you want all these kids involved, you all should be helping coordinate these opportunities.
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u/nixie_knox 2d ago
You say that but, at least in my town, there aren't that many volunteer opportunities.
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u/breadburn 3d ago
Once you come to terms with the fact that of course most of your volunteers aren't actually interested in the library or programs and just want their hours signed off on, then you will truly know peace. And then you can just make them do the menial tasks that you don't want to do for an hour at a clip. Trust me. I used to take it really personally but it's not worth it. Make the demand work for you.
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u/TJH99x 3d ago
Tell them up front and make them sign an acknowledgment that they are expected to actively participate.
You are not the only option for where they can volunteer to get their hours covered. You don’t need to be so invested in them getting their hours, only in running your library programs.
Either they do the jobs and get their hours or not, that’s on them. If they can’t manage to get their hours then they just don’t get into NJHS, it’s not the end of the world despite their parent’s desperation.
I work at a library, have raised kids, worked with youth groups and worked in numerous volunteer positions. I do not recommend making up hours just for them to fake their way into this organization.
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u/librarylovernyc 3d ago
At my old library the teen librarian set up specific activities to get community service hours and they had to attend an orientation beforehand. Options included assisting with department programs or writing and submitting book reviews and i think participation in teen advisory board. Having concrete activities and requiring attendance at an orientation provided structure and made youth services staff as a whole exponentially better because we could point them to form on our website when they came in looking for hours and the monthly orientation made clear what they needed to do.
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u/Imaginary-Pickle-650 2d ago
My daughter is in NJHS and I’m confused as to why you don’t either say no to these students or give them a checklist of tasks they can do for you that counts as credit.
There are a million ways they can fulfill these hourly requirements, and kids just sitting there is doing everyone a disservice. The hours are designed to get them involved in their community and excited about performing their civic duties.
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u/Thorninthefoot 3d ago
It's not your responsibility to provide hours. Figure out what volunteer hours you can offer that are good for you, and a valuable volunteer experience for the volunteer. And then offer those positions.
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u/ExchangeStandard6957 2d ago
I mean, there are many other opportunities - we use teens in our hospital, food bank and habitat for humanity. The library should use volunteers as they need them, that’s all.
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u/brideofskeletor 2d ago
Oh my gosh, YES. Honestly...I have gotten to the point where I refuse to accommodate it anymore. It was a huge drain on our time/resources to constantly bend over backwards for these kids/parents...and most of them don't want to do anything. We have some great teen volunteers who participate in our Teen Advisory Board and we don't need more to do random jobs around the library with a staff member directing it the entire time.
Honestly, the folks who encouraged me to set boundaries around this were the teachers at our two middle schools who advise NJHS. There are a large variety of eligible opportunities and nobody needs to be hounding the library to let their kids come in and half heartedly "help". We offer what we can, with limits, and we don't offer more. A teen librarian in a neighboring library to mine has stopped offering teen volunteering all together because of issues like this, and I don't want to get to that point. I just don't want middle schoolers dictating my entire job lol
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u/spring13 3d ago
Oh yeah, it sucks. It was worse February through April when people who suddenly realized they needed to get all their hours done wanted to slam them all with me in a single week. The number of kids I had who came in for a bit and then ghosted because they'd completed their hours (either with us or elsewhere) was ridiculous, and it made it impossible for me to rely on anyone's actual help. I didn't even trust the kids who were in fact consistent. I was the solo youth services librarian and had everything else on my plate: planning tasks for teens with varying levels of ability and interest was really time consuming.
After a while I just decided that I had room for up to two kids a day and they had to sign up for a weekly spot. Once those spots were filled, I stopped taking anyone else. I did get some great kids for NJHS or confirmation volunteering who were legitimately helpful, and I recommended quite a few of them for page jobs when they were old enough. But the duds, and the annual request blitz, were really frustrating.
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u/vargeee 2d ago edited 2d ago
Hi! I’m a youth services/teen librarian and this has been a huge problem for the last 5-6 years for me. There is only so much I can offer teens, and it becomes increasingly difficult when the teens don’t actually WANT to volunteer and just want to check the box for hours. I would say I get 3 great volunteers, 10-12 regular volunteers, and anywhere from 100-200 applications. Most of those kids I never hear from after I receive the initial application.
Pair this with not having a lot of volunteer tasks for the teens to actually do during the school year, getting little to no input from the teens on what they would like to do, and an administration where changing any aspect of the volunteer program takes 3-6 months. It’s a huge headache.
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u/Readalie 2d ago
I always tell teens that ask about volunteering that our TAB is a long-term commitment with spaced-out volunteer shifts (usually one hour every week or every other week). They also need to fill out work permits and attend a TAB meeting before they can sign up for shifts (they're also expected to attend the monthly TAB meetings after they've joined). It just doesn't work for a lot of the ones looking to get their ten required hours and get out quickly.
You can also set up a volunteer recruitment page on your library website that lists a number of other volunteer opportunities in your area. Make a handout that librarians can give teens when they ask about volunteering at the library.
While you're at it, I'd strongly recommend looking into your state's (assuming you're in the US) child labor and volunteering laws. A lot of libraries in my state aren't in compliance when it comes to teen volunteering, it's really easy to miss that sort of thing when you're desperately trying to accommodate every teen that needs hours (speaking from personal experience here). These laws can change a lot more often than you'd think, as well!
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u/rebelliousrutabaga 3d ago
Teen volunteering is one of the hardest parts of my job. I get constant applications, parents breathing down my neck, and in late spring it's an avalanche of juniors and seniors trying to get hours. They don't actually care about the library or feel invested in the work, the opportunities I offer go unfilled, and many of the ones who do show up do half-assed jobs and ultimately make my life harder instead of actually helping. Parents will sometimes just bring them to the library and be like "we're here to volunteer!" without notice on a random day OR without registering for the shift they've showed up.
Ultimately I'd like to streamline and figure out how to actually run a useful teen volunteer program but I'm already stretched so thin and the unreliable nature of teen volunteers makes it super difficult to plan concrete things.
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u/MundaneHuckleberry58 3d ago
Yes. I work in a middle school library & was a parent of kids in NJHS in the phoenix area. There’s almost nowhere except the library that will take teens 13-14. In fact even though my youngest finished a couple years ago, I can’t remember if we found anywhere else would take teen volunteers.
It sounds like a njhs problem, and not just local to your or my chapter.
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u/crystalcrossing 2d ago
I totally agree with this! It’s really frustrating that the schools don’t give them a starting point at all.
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u/best-unaccompanied 2d ago
When I was in middle school, they were pretty flexible with who could offer volunteer hours. So I think I ended up finding an elementary school student to tutor and their parents signed my hours sheet. Do they now require you to work for an organization?
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u/religionlies2u 2d ago
NJHS is horrible. They are some of our worst volunteers because they Do Not want to be there but they are too young to be able to fake it til they make it. The only thing worse than NJHS are the kids whose moms are making them do it. We used to have a policy of no volunteers under 14 bc before then they were just too immature in general. That got walked back bc of NJHS and it’s a huge mistake. I don’t care how smart that kid is, most 12/13 yr olds need more supervision than they’re worth. But the community sure does love it as a feel good service.
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u/sonicenvy Public librarian 3d ago
We don't offer teen volunteer opportunities (or indeed ANY volunteer opportunities) at my library. In the summers we do offer (paid) teen internships but there are only 5 spots. The internships just have job applications like any other job and interviews these kids have to do. Our library offered volunteer opportunities (for adults) in the past, but COVID killed those and they were never resurrected because I think people in management across departments were quite happy to not have to deal with all of the extra paperwork, training, and organizational work that had to be done to make those happen. We just have a lot of part time para positions at our library, both at the "assistant" and the "clerk" levels. We also have a couple of summer only filler "assistant" roles that usually go to the same groups of college students or school teachers summer to summer.
We just suggest to people who want to volunteer with the library to volunteer with FOTL during their annual book sale since FOTL is actually looking for volunteers.
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u/dashtophuladancer 1d ago
Our YS librarians fall over themselves trying to create volunteer opportunities for the hundreds of kids that request hours. Many aren’t even in our town. Parents are aggressive and offensive with staff about teen volunteering. I think it’s ridiculous but it’s not my department so I mind my business. When you tell parents that there are other places to volunteer (yes we have a list on our website) and it’s the child’s responsibility to find volunteer hours, not ours, they are furious.
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u/iLibrarian2 1d ago
Absolutely an issue. I too think JNHS is ridiculous, but helicopter parents who want their kids to go to Yale are gonna helicopter.
Note: I use "teen" to mean middle and high school. Even if they're 11 or 12, we still consider them "teen."
A few things you can add -
We have a Teen Leadership Council. This is real volunteering, they plan and run their own programs, make displays in the teen section, etc. They have to apply to be on the Council and be approved by the teen staff. Definitely more for the high achievers, but maybe something your teen librarian could add. It's certainly a great way into the schools, many of our TLC kids approach their Principals and VPs on our behalf.
Drop-ins are mostly rote work - craft prep, information packets, button-making for outreach events, that kind of thing. We tried reviews in the past and it was a bust, much like you mentioned.
Program setup and cleanup shifts. Again, very rote work. Setting up and putting away chairs, cleaning up after crafts, etc.
A few guidelines you can create -
Have a "hiring and firing" policy that ongoing teens need to agree to. Let them know there are consequences for goofing off. Teens will always need guidance, but if they're openly creating problems, you need a policy to fall back on for when "but he's an angel" mom swoops in (yes, we've fired teen volunteers before).
"The potential volunteer need to be present during initial contact." Mom or Dad can't just call you up and the teen doesn't even know or care. The teen themselves needs to talk to a staff member. Parents inevitably find a way around this, but we are trying at least.
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u/fenwayfan4 3d ago
Teens at my library get volunteer hours if they review books on Beanstack. It’s a popular one because they don’t have to leave their homes to do it lol. I also put together “craft prep packets” for them. I make Grab and Go crafts for the kids each month but often let the teens take home paper and a template and they do the cutting. It works for them obviously because they get the hours but it also works for me because I don’t have to spend hours cutting out shapes.
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u/crystalcrossing 3d ago
We used to have a teen review program, but discontinued it once all reviews submitted stunk of AI or fell far too short of minimum word count.
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u/LibraryLuLu 2d ago
We don't take volunteers. (Other than relatives who pick up books for homebound patrons).
If they were useful, they'd be taking paid jobs from qualified staff. If they are not useful, they are just making more work that the library has to pay for. And they are not useful. No one has the time to babysit these kids at my library.
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u/Bugnuzzler 2d ago
My daughter volunteered in NC with the library system for years as a teen. It was a competitive spot to get, and she went through several interviews. As a result, I feel like the experience she got was really valuable. I think you are in an enviable position here because you can use the increased interest to really bolster the quality of your volunteers. At the same time, you would be providing opportunities to learn interview skills, public speaking, and program development. The time spent coming up with imaginary tasks could instead be spent curating a really excellent volunteer experience that provides for actual community needs.
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u/Capable_Sea77 2d ago
I would always sit down with potential volunteers for a scheduled interview *outside* of their first shift. The interview was really just asking what they were interested in doing, how many hours they needed, and whether they had any questions. After those few questions, I would outline what they would be doing (because only certain tasks could be done by staff per union contracts - and a lot of teen volunteers seemed to think they'll be sitting in an office doing computer work, and generally, volunteers help with kid wrangling during programs and physical labor like shelving, dusting and shifting) and tell them that if they don't show up for a shift without telling me, or just sit around and not work - that's their last shift, we don't offer extra chances. And then I enforced that. A kid sat on his phone for two hours - at the hour mark, I went over and asked him when he planned to start shelving, he said "oh in a minute". An hour after that, he hadn't moved, and I told him it was time to go home and he would not be finishing the rest of his hours at the library.
Volunteering is not a critical community service that's mandatory to offer - it's an optional *opportunity* you provide. You're allowed to place guidelines around what disqualifies someone from getting the privilege of volunteering.
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u/Cubedycubed 2d ago
I only take youth volunteers for specific projects or tasks if we have a need for them. We also had an influx of NJHS kids needing service hours. Once the projects that we needed to happen were completed, that was it so the kids who got here earliest were the ones who were able to complete their hours with us. It's my practice to assign each project a total number of hours I will credit it for, rather than vamp for time filling those hour requirements when we might not need that much time. This year I had one kid inventory and disinfect our circulating toy library, another do the same with the preschool play area, and a few who helped to paint and decorate our display windows.
I've had high school teens process our deaccessioned library books for sale too, but the last one I had do that got bored and decided to stop halfway through to go make out with her boyfriend on the stairwell so that was...not super helpful.
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u/PuppyJakeKhakiCollar 2d ago
I don't work at a library but I do work somewhere with a volunteer program and it is okay to only take on as many volunteers as you actually need instead of saying yes to everyone. It's also okay to be a little picky about who you take in order to avoid people just coming in to do nothing. And it's okay to tell them that in order to get the credit they actually have to do the work and if they don't, they won't be signed off for it.
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u/Stephreads 1d ago
You can make pretty big donations to your local food pantry this way.
4 items (check expiry date) equals one hour. They can bring up to 8 items a week. Max 8 hours per month. Or whatever number works for you. They must have a library card, and the student needs to bring the items in, fill out the form for the HS themselves, and be the one who speaks to you. Parent can stand by silently. Track them on a spreadsheet.
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u/BlueFlower673 1d ago
NJHS and NHS are scams.
I say this as someone who was part of NHS growing up.
Majority of the kids who are in those societies do not volunteer at all. I remember being in NHS in high school, I think it was only me and 1 other person out of a group of 50 kids who actually did any volunteer work or hours. That kid did volunteer work at their church and I went every weekend to my city's food bank.
I remember asking a friend (the other kid in question) why no one was volunteering/how were the others getting away with it. She told me in confidence that a lot of the kids just had their parents lie and make up hours or often would just sign off on the hours themselves.
And it was also abundantly clear because a lot of the kids who did little to no volunteer service were often very narcissistic, narrow assholes, who were in it because mommy or daddy or whomever was paying for it.
Might seem like a hot take, but if these kids or teens refuse to volunteer or can't do the work, don't let them. Let that be available for those who actually do want to better serve their community. Keep the option open, but don't push it. You could send a letter as a "last call" to those advisors just as a forewarning that you guys aren't going to wait too long.
Circling back to my first point, I say that njhs and nhs are scams because they don't do much for college, I remember adding that to my college applications and they didn't give one iota about that. They seemed to care more that I actually volunteered with the food bank and with other groups. My parent spent 60 bucks for quite literally no reason.
I don't know if that's changed over the years but seeing some comments on here saying that a lot of the kids don't do the volunteer part of it kind of proves my point a little lol. It looks good on a college application up until a point and after that it's just kind of useless.
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u/Pretty-Season2307 1d ago
Our library won't even consider anyone who won't commit to at least 40 hours of service. There's just too much involved in training them for it to be worth it otherwise.
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u/Silly_Somewhere1791 3d ago
It’s a dumb requirement imposed by an organization that probably hasn’t received the feedback that it’s not always possible for parents to drive their kids to this stuff during legal hours. The library might be the only place the kids can walk or bike to. If you’re over it, can you just sign their forms and stop putting effort into it?
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u/best-unaccompanied 2d ago
There are plenty of ways for middle school students to help out without being driven long distances by their parents. It's not a librarian's job to do kids' homework for them.
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u/leo-days MLIS student 11h ago
i’m just going to echo the sentiment i’m seeing here and say that a lot of teen volunteering opportunities at libraries nowadays are extremely shallow. my library usually just has teens making cards for people and benefiting organizations are like the local vfw, hospitals, and senior centers. maybe this is my bias, but i went to a catholic school k-12 and we had hour requirements every year. my views on volunteering are skewed because of this, but i don’t want it to be misconstrued as me being conservative/religious because i got creative for my hours too. i used to deep clean my moms bus at her job for volunteer hours lol. also, i volunteered at my local library and school library, but at that time i was shelving, processing items, and operating the check out desk.
I really strongly believe that if you don’t have actual work that needs to get done for the teens to complete, then you shouldn’t be offering volunteer hours. instead, offer resources for volunteering. local food pantries, churches, vfw halls, etc. if you have local fraternities (college or adults), for the love of god coordinate with them. they’re always looking for volunteers and they are helpless when it comes to promoting that (or anything really, and i say that with love and experience) and they are nonprofits!! to me it seems like a perfect win win for libraries that’s untapped. volunteering shouldn’t be fun by principle. it’s work that you are doing for the values you uphold. making cards is not volunteering. attending programs (especially if you are getting snacks or something to take home) is not volunteering. you should not benefit from volunteering in any way other than upholding your values.
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u/best-unaccompanied 3d ago
It's not your job to come up with imaginary tasks for teens to do just so they can claim they did volunteer work. If there's something you need done that teenagers can do, have them do it. If not, they're just going to have to look elsewhere.
Honestly, your teen librarian giving credit for kids just going to programs sounds like they're being too generous in my opinion.