The need for references definitely sucks.. I spend much of my efforts/thoughts/concerns on how to make someone like me and see that I am a good worker/person so that they can become a reliable referee. What I did (and I'm screwing up already, but it was accidental anyway) was I ended up getting music lessons, and was so reliable with them that I ended up putting my music teacher as a referee for a volunteering position. Subsequently I now am putting my effort into maintaining rapport and consistency with the volunteer manager so they can be a referee for something else down the track. Unfortunately I am uncomfortable with the boss/manager at my casual job so I refuse to use them if I can help it.

If it's not possible to do that sort of thing, it may be necessary to distort the truth a bit and maybe get a few friends/family to vouch for you initially. I'm not sure if you have a moral objection to this, but it would be a start.