We're about to tell you stories of young people who chose to volunteer—not because they had to, but because they enjoyed it and found it fulfilling. But do all young people today think that way? What are they doing for themselves and others? What would they like to do? To find out, I took to the streets of Rome chasing down teenagers and young adults between fourteen and thirty, asking each of them three simple questions: What do you do? What would you like to do? Have you ever volunteered? To cast a wider net, I also reached out by email to friends in other cities—Milan, Salerno, Chieti. Among those I interviewed, fewer than a third had done or were doing volunteer work. More girls than boys, mostly with minimal experience tied to their parish. I found very few genuine volunteers. Two girls working with Greenpeace, another active in Malawi (Africa), and a young man involved with the Italian Red Cross (who shares his story on page 11). On the other hand, some of those who said no added that they'd like to volunteer but never encountered an opportunity—and if one came along, they wouldn't turn it down. The rest had no particular views, and worse, one person didn't even know what volunteering was.
Most young people are students rather than workers. A few push themselves to study and work at the same time to avoid burdening their families, but they're a small minority. More troubling are the figures I gathered about their desires and aspirations: half don't know what they want to do in life, nor are they confident their current job is right for them. Young men especially feel adrift and unsure—or worse, they have no aspiration, no ambition (except maybe winning the lottery). That's rather sad, if we're being honest. Why this confusion among young people? How come they don't know what would fulfill them? There's no easy answer in a few lines. What's clear is that it's a serious problem, but in Italy at least, we seem too busy with other things to tackle it.
Matteo Cinti, 2011