75% of the young Russians are ready to participate in socially useful activity for free or for a nominal fee. 48% of Russians have voluntary experience.

MOSCOW, June 24, 2011. Anticipating Youth Day, Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data about what types of voluntary activities young Russians would participate in, as well as whether they are ready to participate or not.

Every second Russian participated in voluntary activities at least once over the recent three years (53%). Top five voluntary activities are environmentally-oriented and involve planting of greenery (18%), area cleaning (16%), helping homeless animals (10%). Charity (18%) and assistance to socially unprotected categories of citizens (12%) are popular voluntary activities as well.

The leading motive for that is the desire to be useful and to help those in need (58%). Rarer people do that to solve a specific problem (14%), or to share the way how to solve a problem, to repay good for good (12% for each).  Some respondents report they do that for their own pleasure (17%), interesting time-spending  (12%), to get useful skills (5%), to get new acquaintances (4%).

The most favorite voluntary activities are planting of greenery, landscaping - 27% of respondents, followed by charity (donate clothes, funds) on the second place - 24%. This is followed by help to the victims of disasters and catastrophes, assistance to socially unprotected categories of citizens (21% for each).  Russians also favor ecological actions (19%) and helping homeless animals, zoo and nature reserves (18%). The shares of those who are ready to participate in educational lectures aimed at preventing drug abuse, AIDS et cet. (9%), organization of socially important events (8%), legal consultations and psychological help, public order activities (6% for each) have considerably decreased.

The young Russians, along with the retired persons, are those who are least involved in volunteering (more than one-half of such respodnents have never done that). Unlike representatives of other age groups, young Russians often opt for participating in ecological actions (22 versus 11-17%) and socially-oriented activities (8 versus 1-6%). On the contrary, young respodnents rarer participate in a targeted assistance to those in need (8 versus 12-14%), victims of catastrophes (4 versus 6-7%), charity (14 versus 19-21%), greenery and landscaping (15 versus 17-21%). Volunteering led by noble motives is popular among the young respondents: desire to be helpful (48% versus 58-63% in other groups), to repay good for good (7% versus 16% among elderly respondents). Other people often become volunteers to get useful skills (8 versus 1% among respodnents), new contacts (5 versus 1% respectively).

In this group the potential of participation in most of the activities mentioned above is higher than among elder people. Twenty-three percent of those aged 18-24 and 15% of elderly persons would make assistance to the victims of catastrophes and disasters; 22 % and 14% (respectively) would help socially unprotected categories of citizens; 22% and 14% (respectively) would take part in ecological actions. The young respondents also would help homeless animals, zoos, nature reserves М (25% versus 14-19% in other groups), support the organization of socially-oriented events (17% versus 3-10% respectively), and participate in preventive talks (14% versus 4-11% respectively). Eighteen percent of the young respondents and 32% of the elderly respondents (twice more) would participate in none mentioned above.

The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on June 18-19, 2011. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!