Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
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Foodworks’ volunteer-led franchise is simple, but inspired
FoodWorks combines young volunteers, surplus food and a free kitchen space to create nutritious meals for people affected by food poverty.
The premise is simple. Food retailers throw out millions of tons of edible food every year due to supply overstock. Foodworks redirects this food so it can be used to cook nutritious meals for people in the local community that do not have access to healthy foods for a variety of reasons, such as lack of income or knowledge of healthy nutrition. They do this by blagging free kitchen space and recruiting young volunteers to run the project.
The beauty of the Foodworks project is that makes value of under-utilised resources: food that was going to binned, kitchens that were left idle, and volunteers that who wanted something meaningful to do. It’s also easily replicable. Those who want to set up their own Foodworks project are invited to get a group (preferably 3-4) of young people together from the local community, and, with support from Foodworks, conduct a feasibility study of the local area, and then start connecting idle resources in the community.
The organisation offers one-to-one support, marketing materials, contacts, help with the leagal side, and the initial seed funding to ensure that the project is off to the running start. It’s a voluntary franchise!
Foodworks proudly states that the voices of our volunteers are at the heart of our organisation: “We provide the tools, and let them take the lead.”
So simple, so economical and so effective.
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All you need is glove
Last year’s Fashion Favours project demonstrated a real demand from young volunteers for more fashion-inspired volunteering opportunities, and its clear that the recession has sparked a new interest in Make Do and Mend ideas. So we love this new initiative from Do The Green Thing.
Glove Love rescues lost single gloves that have become separated from their original partners, calms them down and gives them a hot bath, then pairs them up with brand new glove lovers. Their website allows the new owners of the gloves to upload photos of themselves wearing their new Glove Love pair, so that the people who sent in their single gloves know that they’ve found happiness and a whole new lease of life. It’s like an older, more fashionable Blue Peter appeal, with a bit of added Kiva-style know-who-you’re-helping magic thrown in for good measure.
Don’t tell anyone, but this year, some of my nearest and dearest will be getting jewellery and books made from PAMET paper recycling project in Malawi, which started life as a volunteer project. With Christmas on the horizon and lots of people keen to save cash, we’re really looking forward to seeing more innovative volunteering opportunities which cost nothing but have real value - let us know what you’re planning…
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Online volunteering, UN style
onlinevolunteering.org was launched in 2000 by the United Nations Volunteers programme. The premise is simple. Volunteers contribute their skills to help organizations address development challenges. From website building, translation, research, design work to building relationships with donors, the website connects volunteers with organizations working for sustainable human development (thats development with people and the planet in mind).
In 2007, this innovative approach to volunteering provided 3,800 online volunteering assignments offered by development organisations covering a wide range of projects.
As a volunteer you can search an easy-to-use database by task, topic or region. How about voluneering to be a moderator for an online consultation on youth migration or designing a logo and graphics for a website? Volunteers also help maintain the UN site.
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Lost generation? Recession and the young
We’ve been talking recently in vLabs blog about how unemployment is affecting young people in the UK; looking at the role of volunteering as a lifeline during hard times, how employers could help and some of the creative ways young people have been responding to adversity.
Of course, the recession is not just impacting on young people in the UK.
Here, I thought I would share some of the best journalism I’ve come across which highlights how young people are being affected by the recession in other countries.
The New York Times leads the way with an interesting look at the development of Rural Labour Squads in Japan. In Europe, TIME’s cover page story, ‘Generation Disappointment’, looks in-depth at the impact of the recession on young people in Spain. Foreign Policy magazine looks wider, at how young Europeans face a declining jobs market, ‘Europe’s New Lost Generation’.
In the US, PBS and the veteran broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff have recorded a great series of interviews in, Generation Next: Tough Choices, looking at how 18-to-25-year-olds or trying to start their lives in one of the most challenging economic times in recent memory. For the figures and trends of youth unemployment in the US, check out Bob Herbert’s Op-Ed.
by Report Digital
In the UK, the Economist’s, ‘No Way to Start in Life’ and the Guardian’s, ‘Young People and Unemployment’ coverage is informative.
In this context, v has been working hard to get volunteering seen as an important part of the response to youth unemployment.
We’re thrilled to be hosting with the RSA a lecture by Professor David Blanchflower, the leading labour economist and recent member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee from June 2006-May 2009, who will deliver a keynote address on the recession and the young.
We’ve then got an impressive panel lined-up - David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, Terry Ryall, CEO, v, Wes Streeting, President, National Union of Students and Miles Templeman, Director-General, Institute of Directors - to debate what can be done to prevent a generation losing hope and opportunity.
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Young people: Living online?
Recent stories regarding young people’s use of the internet and social media have raised an interesting question mark on an assumed trend; that young people live online.
First came the research note into young people’s media habits wrote by a 15 year-old intern at Morgan Stanley. The note, which describes his friends’ declining social media habits ended up on the front page of the Financial Times and caused a stir with City investors and media analysts alike.
And although it received a bashing on the blogs for being the views of one young guy, the launch of Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2009 seemed to back up part of the note by reporting that in the 15-24 age group, use of social networking sites declined from 55 per cent in the first quarter of 2008 to 50 per cent in 2009. This contrasts with Ofcom’s findings in 2006 which highlighted social media as the next big thing for 15-24 year-olds.
Gerry Greaney/Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
So what are young people doing online?
There is of course lots of research to quote in answering that question, but most of it is contradictory.
One interesting answer comes from Bill Wasik, a senior editor at Harper’s and the author of “And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture.” Wasik believes that as ‘old-model’ opportunities disappear in the real world; jobs, internships and grants, young creatives are turning to the Bright Lights, Big Internet to get their big break. Suggesting the growth of much more entrepreneurial and creative uses for the web when the real world is letting them down.
On life online and keeping creativity alive in the recession, check out ‘A little rant about ‘the lost generation’.
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‘United We Serve’: Michelle Obama opens US volunteering conference
In what is becoming a signature domestic issue for the First Lady and the President, Michelle Obama kicked off the ‘United We Serve’ summer initiative, which runs from June 22nd to the National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11th 2009.
In a video message released on May 16, Michelle Obama called on all Americans to help in the nation’s recovery by volunteering in their communities this summer and beyond to help lay a new foundation for growth by engaging in sustained, meaningful community service.
The ‘United We Serve’ campaign launch formed part of the First Lady’s keynote opening speech at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. The conference, co-hosted by the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Points of Light Institute, brings together more than 4,000 volunteer and service leaders from across the nation and globe at a time of strong momentum for service and civic engagement.
In the US, momentum is building following President Barack Obama’s signing on April 21, 2009, of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The Serve America Act reauthorizes and expands national service programs administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency created in 1993.
Check out the conference programme and speeches.
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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.
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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.
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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”?
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V’s involvement is good news for youth volunteering in the UK
An independent evaluation of v’s efforts to improve the state of youth volunteering in the UK has yielded good news - v’s involvement has led to an increase in the provision of youth volunteering opportunities in the country, and the take-up as well. There isn’t really much I can say that can add value, so I’ll just point you in the direction of the results of the report: here.
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Nice piece, yourself.
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