The paper analyses the problem of youth volunteer participation in the early period of the pandemic. Based on the data of a sociological survey of young people in a large Russian region, the Sverdlovsk region, a descriptive characteristic is given to the volunteer youth community that took part in the #WeTogether campaign organised at the national level of the Russian Federation. The purpose of this paper is to assess the economic contribution and highlight the social characteristics of young volunteers who worked in a large Russian region during the early period of the pandemic. To achieve this goal, this paper describes the #WeTogether volunteer movement in the Sverdlovsk region, young volunteers and their key social characteristics. In accordance with the ILO methodology, the economic contribution to overcoming the pandemic difficulties of student youth who have joined the volunteer movement in conditions of social constraints and uncertainty is calculated.