1 Malaysia For Youth (1M4U): understanding youth volunteerism among youth in Sepanggar, Sabah / Sharrel Cassandra Labadin and Dg Rafidah Othman

Throughout history, public and private agencies of all types and sizes have relied on the use of volunteers to ensure continued success of their programs (Liao-Troth & Dunn, 1999, Silverberg, Backman, Backman & Ellis, 1999). In addition, many individuals search for opportunities with the purpose of to give service to others aimed to satisfy their own needs. According to Jensen (1995), budgets are getting tighter and higher demand in healthcare, human services, recreation and education programs which resulted to organizations to be dependent on the services provided by volunteers. However, organizations face problems of shortages of volunteers which hampered their abilities to fulfill their missions (Burns et al., 2005). It is crucial to understand the factors that drive people to contribute financial support and a source of free labor to organizations (Wilson, 2005, Campbell & Smith, 2006).
Sabah Minister for Community Development and Consumer Affairs, Datuk Jainab Ahmad Ayid (2015), stated in her speech during the Cultivating Volunteerism in Society Seminar in Kota Marudu, that everyone can become volunteers, and people may not realize that they are volunteers despite not participating in any volunteer organization. She added, there are always opportunities to start volunteering regardless of age, to serve the community, and volunteerism starts from within, as shown through selfless deeds. According to Luping (2012), the latest innovation is the call to the youths of Malaysia to give them all and contribute towards the common goal of the nation as to be a developed nation by 2020. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak called it a "Spirit of Volunteerism".