This master’s thesis researches the voluntary environment in Denmark. The voluntary sector constitutes an important component in society in more than one way, which is partly due to the fact that voluntary work contributes to public goods, and defends the interests of the community. To maintain a strong voluntary sector in Denmark it is important that the next generations of young people are given access to, and gaining experience from this sector. Thus the purpose of this study is to explore why young people engage themselves in a gymnastics association, and how the association retains the young people as volunteers.

The theoretical foundation of this study is mainly based on Thomas Ziehe, Frederik C. Boll as well as Jean Lave, and Étienne Wenger. Ziehe is used to get an understanding of what characterizes young people as a group, in the late modern society. As an addition hereto Boll’s theory of different types of people amongst volunteers makes it possible to explore the differences between the young people’s motives, which can disclose why the young people do voluntary work. Finally, the theory of communities of practice describes the process where the young volunteers move from being legitimate peripheral participants to become experts in the gymnastics association. The master’s thesis is a qualitative study, and the empirical data consists of two focus group interviews with seven young gymnastic instructors, and one semi-structured interview with one of the board members of the association.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to contribute knowledge about why young people engage themselves, and how they can be retained in voluntary work. According to the results of the analysis the young people engage themselves when they get the possibility to be a part of a community where they can learn and evolve. The community acts as a staple framework for the creation of identity for the young people, but it is a term that they can choose to be a part of the community when it fits into their self-world. In spite of the fact that the seven gymnastics instructors belong to the same age group they can be split up into different types of volunteers, which means that their motives are varying. The study also shows, that it is important that they can make a difference through their voluntary engagement, and that they get the possibility to spend some time with the other volunteers in the association. Furthermore, the community of practice gives the young people the opportunity to slowly learn the habits of the association, and a safe learning environment can potentially retain the young volunteers in the association.