Author archive
-
Everyone working together
Here at v, we’ve been asking ourselves how we can do more to harness the power of social media and give young volunteers the tools they need to do our marketing and organising for us. (After all, we know they’ll do a better job than us.)
At our recent Generation Digital Conference, William Owen, strategy director at our digital agency Made by Many, shared the things we’ve learned, from letting go of centralised control (easier said than done: “the social web is disruptive, but some members of the SMT are still resisting”) to using existing APIs and building our own.
The presentation also includes case studies from Amnesty UK’s Protect the Human site, and generated lots of interest at the conference, so I thought I’d share it here.
Vinspired: Everyone Working TogetherView more presentations from William Owen. -
The fight against climate change: this time it’s personal
The tide is turning in the battle against climate change. Young volunteers around the world are taking a huge, global issue and making it personal.
The Otesha Project was dreamed up by two young Canadians, Jess and Jocelyn, on a trip to Kenya. Overwhelmed by the inequalities they saw, they felt powerless to change such huge problems, until they brought it down to a personal level. Soon the Otesha Project’s education programs and bicycle tours had reached more than 85,000 people with a message of personal action for sustainability. The project spread to the UK, where the Otesha UK Wild West ’09 tour has just kicked off, taking their two-wheeled revolution out onto the roads of Wales.
Meanwhile, v, Global Action Plan and Bank of America have teamed up to launch Climate Squad, a new programme training young volunteers to lead their own local projects to tackle climate change. Their research report, Climate Squad: young people’s views on climate change, shows that three quarters think it’s important for them as individuals to take action.
-
Podcast available from v/Demos roundtable on volunteering – compelling or compulsory?
On 2nd June Demos hosted a roundtable, with v, looking at new MORI research into young people’s attitudes to volunteering. Is it a good idea to compel young people to perform a kind of national civic service? Or should volunteering be something young people choose to do? Peter Bradwell speaks with Terry Ryall, Chief Executive of V, Noreesh Farooq and Marie Keplay from V20, Paul Oginsky, Youth Policy Advisor to David Cameron, and Alex Mitchell from the Institute of Directors.
-
Is volunteering a lifeline for young people hit by the recession?
Last week, The Prince’s Trust warned that young people will be among the hardest hit by the recession due to rising unemployment. Today, v publishes new research showing that many young people believe volunteering could offer a lifeline.
‘Young People Speak Out – Attitudes to and Perceptions of Full-Time Volunteering’ shows that over 2 million young people– around 3 in 10 – might consider volunteering on a full-time basis, with more than half agreeing that young people will be more likely to volunteer if rates of unemployment continue to go up.
41% of young people said they would be encouraged to consider volunteering full time if they could gain skills and experience related to work or their future career, and 31% would be encouraged to consider volunteering full time if it was related to their job or study.
The research is backed by statistics for v‘s website, vinspired.com, which show an increase in demand for volunteering opportunities. Online applications to get involved in volunteering have increased by 183% and unique visits to vinspired.com are up by 77%.
Today, v is hosting round table discussions with young people, policy makers, politicians and charities to discuss how best to deal with this growing appetite for volunteering. But what do you think? Is full-time volunteering the way into employment for the recession’s “lost generation”?
Loading ...
Comments