Two Decades of Volunteering: Five Lessons for Youth Impact and Community Change

A young female entrepreneur in Accra had been selling handmade skincare products, but she struggled with pricing, digital marketing and keeping track of her costs. During a financial literacy and mentoring session for entrepreneurs, Standard Chartered volunteers sat with her and showed her how to break down expenses, calculate profit and use social media to reach customers. As the session ended, she acknowledged what she had learned and said, “I can finally see what I need to do next.”

Her moment of clarity reflects the spirit of International Youth Day 2026, marked under the theme “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations.” Young people may face different realities, but their hopes for opportunity, dignity and a better future are often the same.

Across Ghana, we see this in many forms. For some young people, the barrier is access to digital and financial skills that can help a small business grow. For others, it is the additional support needed to enter the world of work with confidence while living with a disability. For many adolescent girls, it begins even earlier, when limited access to menstrual health education and supplies affects school attendance, confidence and participation. The contexts may differ, but the aspiration is the same: the chance to learn, to thrive and to shape a better future.

This year also marks 20 years of Standard Chartered Bank’s global employee volunteering programme. Employees across the Bank receive three paid volunteering days each year to support their communities by using their time and skills. In 2025, employees in Ghana contributed more than 5,000 volunteering hours, with 57 per cent delivered through skills-based activities and 74 per cent of employees participating in initiatives that expand opportunity, build skills and help young people, particularly girls and young women, participate meaningfully in Ghana’s economy.

Behind those numbers are individuals and communities whose journeys have been strengthened by a conversation, a new skill, sustained mentorship or simply someone willing to show up.

Volunteering is sometimes viewed as charity or as something organisations do on the side. My experience has been different. Some of the most valuable things communities need are not always financial. They are knowledge, encouragement, attention and people willing to invest a little of their time in someone else’s future. Looking back on two decades of volunteering, five lessons stand out.

LESSON 1: Start small, but be intentional

You do not need a large budget or a complex programme to begin. Some of the most effective initiatives start with one school, one clinic, one youth group or one community organisation, and a commitment to show up regularly.

Teams can choose a cause that fits their strengths and agree on a realistic rhythm, even if it is only once a month. Leaders can encourage staff to propose ideas, recognise small efforts and set aside time for team-led volunteering. A reading circle, a career conversation, a health talk or a clean-up exercise can all begin with one email and one willing champion. What matters is consistency.

LESSON 2: What you know can be someone else’s breakthrough

Volunteering is most powerful when people share the skills they already use every day. A teacher can support literacy. A nurse can explain basic health practices. A creative professional can help a youth group tell its story. A lawyer can demystify rights. An HR manager can help young people prepare for interviews. Whatever your profession, someone needs what you know.

This idea has shaped Standard Chartered Bank’s 20-year volunteering journey. We believe the most sustainable way to create meaningful impact is by sharing what employees know best: their skills. Our continued emphasis on skills-based volunteering has enabled colleagues to support underserved youth through mentoring programmes, financial literacy initiatives, environmental education and professional guidance. This approach not only improves outcomes for communities, but also deepens colleague engagement, fosters leadership and strengthens purpose.

In Ghana, this is visible in programmes such as Women in Tech Accelerator Programme, where volunteers provide masterclasses to help female micro-entrepreneurs in topics as corporate governance, digital payments, supply chain management etc.

Another example is Disability Inclusion, where volunteers support young people with disabilities to build digital confidence, prepare CVs, practise interviews and navigate tools that open new job opportunities as part of the Ready for Inclusive Sustainable Employment and Entrepreneurship (RISEE) programme. These are practical exchanges where guidance and patience create real momentum.

LESSON 3: Make volunteering part of your culture, not a CSR checkbox

Budgets matter, but money alone does not build a culture of service. The most durable impact comes when organisations mobilise their people.

Leaders can weave volunteering into performance discussions, team retreats and learning agendas. Departments can be encouraged to run their own initiatives rather than wait for head office. Processes can be simplified so staff do not have to fight bureaucracy to do good.

LESSON 4: Lead with empathy
One of the most important things volunteering has taught me is that expertise alone is not enough. People rarely remember every piece of advice you gave them. But they remember how you made them feel. They remember whether you listened. They remember whether you treated them with dignity.

Skills matter, but how we show up matters just as much. Effective volunteering starts with paying attention and asking simple questions: What does this person need right now? What pace works for them? What might they be hesitant to say?

Empathy in practice can look like slowing down for someone who is struggling to read, making space for shy adolescent girls to speak, ensuring that persons with disabilities can participate fully, or listening before offering advice. These small choices often make the biggest difference. Programmes do not change lives on their own. People do.

LESSON 5: Small acts multiply
One mentoring hour can boost one person’s confidence. Ten hours across a team can strengthen a group of students. A hundred hours across an organisation can shape a talent pipeline. A thousand hours across companies can become a quiet national asset.

Ghana’s literacy gaps, youth unemployment, environmental pressures and health awareness challenges will not be solved by a single initiative. But they are eased when enough professionals offer steady support. Through the Goal programme, more than 15,000 adolescent girls in underserved communities have been reached, with data showing that 84 per cent of participants are likely to complete secondary education. Green Clubs in schools are also helping students act as stewards of the environment through tree planting and recycling.

Volunteering does not replace policy or investment. It makes both more effective by helping people use the opportunities those systems create.

A CALL TO CORPORATE GHANA
Imagine if every accountant taught basic numeracy to a small group, every designer helped a youth club tell its story, every engineer mentored a STEM group, every HR leader coached jobseekers, every medical professional supported community health, and every public-sector manager guided a young leader. The cumulative effect would be profound.

This has been clear in our recent efforts, including Standard Chartered’s 130 Days of Kindness community impact campaign, which delivered a series of initiatives focused on youth and women’s empowerment, financial education, environmental stewardship and social inclusion. While these initiatives differed in focus, they were united by one belief: meaningful youth impact begins when we understand people’s realities and apply our time, knowledge and empathy in ways that help them move forward.

As we mark International Youth Day and 20 years of employee volunteering at Standard Chartered, my invitation is simple: make volunteering a leadership habit. Build it into how your organisation thinks about talent, culture and purpose. Encourage people not only to give, but to share what they know. Twenty years of experience have reinforced a simple truth: the most valuable contribution we often make is not financial. It is our willingness to invest in another person’s growth.

BY Asiedua Addae, Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing at Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Plc.