Archive for the ‘Volunteering resources’ Category
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Reimagining volunteering in a connected world: a process for developing creative new volunteering ‘products’
In 2008 and Timebank v co-commissioned a piece of research to gain better understanding about the barriers to youth volunteering.With this new understanding, a toolkit was created for the volunteering sector to use and develop opportunities that were more relevant and enticing to young people.
The toolkit draws inspiration from “a new breed of social action brands”, emerging as a result of self-organising via The Internet. Homemade, authentic and innovative these organizations, initiatives and websites are creating new ways for people to give their time, take action and make a social difference.
Reimagining volunteering in a connected world: a process for developing creative new volunteering ‘products’ outlines how lessons from these new social action plans can help inspire innovation in the voluntary sector.
You can also view slides from a workshop based on this work on Slideshare:
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Strong foundations for homeless young volunteers
This week Crisis released a report on engaging young homeless people in volunteering. The report captures good practice from Crisis experience of running a one year v funded programme providing volunteering opportunities for homeless young people. The report is an excellent example of the type of information we need to be widely available to enable us to get better at involving disadvantaged young people in volunteering.
As Angela Ellis Paine, Director for the Institute of Volunteering Research, spells out in her introduction to the report ‘rather than providing (more) ‘good’ practice advice and guidance in the traditional sense … the report tells it as it was or at least how it was for one organisation … in an honest and engaging way’.
As part of v’s 2009/10 research programme we will be looking at engaging disadvantage young people in volunteering with the aim of providing practical information to support organisations. A literature review will be a key part of this work, if you have relevant reports or documents please get in touch.
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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. -
Resources For All: SocialBrite
Looks like there are a number of people and organisations realising the value that social media can bring to the work of charities and non-profits. The latest is Social Brite, a ‘non-commercial learning and sharing hub that brings together top experts in social media, social causes and online philanthropy’. Their aim is share and learn from mutual experiences and improve the causes that each individual organisation is working for.
Their Sharing Center is literally like a treasure chest of information for non-profits - tips range from sources for free photos and videos, a directory of social media reports, a social media toolset (much like the one provided by We Are Media), and a list of cause organizations (a more general version of the list of UK-focussed youth volunteering organisations we have on our blog - and it seems to updated regularly because it includes Google’s All for Good that we blogged about recently).
Here at vLabs blog we’re really glad to see initiatives like these, and look forward to seeing the resources available to non-profits and charities grow quickly. It was just a few years ago when finding data of value would be like looking for a needle in a haystack for those in this industry. Those days are over by the looks of it!
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The Digital Generation Project
Photo credit: Chris Walsh
The Digital Generation project is a useful new site for everyone who works with young people or is interested in seeing how they use technology. Supported by the John D. and Catherine. T MacArthur Foundation and started by Edutopia, the Digital Generation Project aims to document the stories of people from Generation Now, for whom YouTube, Facebook and MySpace are as familiar as letter-writing and long-distance trunk calls once were to the older generation. It will be useful for parents to learn about and track the kind of digital tools their kids are using, for teachers to understand and utilise these tools to change the classroom and to support students in their learning, and for researchers and other institutions working with young people to get an insight into their world.
The project is US-based, but of course the insights will be valuable no matter where you are. They are also on Twitter (@EdutopiaDG). I suggest you check out some of the resources on the site to begin with, especially those here on the ‘building digital media and learning’ site, and this digital youth research from the University of California at Berkeley.
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Resource Document: Innovations in International Volunteering
I was interested to find out about Innovations for Civic Participation, an organisation that promotes the creation of opportunities for young people to engage with their communities. Based in the US, it encourages the creation of a network of organisations that are active and committed to the case of youth participation in civic activities. The ICP is involved in a range of programmes, details of which may be an interesting read for people involved in youth volunteering.
In 2008, V commissioned the ICP to conduct a study of 22 innovative youth volunteering programmes from around the world - the resulting document is a good read for anyone working in the sector.
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Volunteer Trends: May 2009
Just a quick update: I wrote about the Volunteer Trends presentation created by Mickey Gomez of the Howard County Volunteer Centre a while ago. He’s now updated it with some more information. Here’s his May 2009 presentation. It has a lot of useful stats regarding the increasing use of social media around the world, and how volunteering organisations are, and can, tap into them to increase their reach.
Volunteer Trends & Online EngagementView more presentations from M. Gomez. -
Non-profits on Twitter
For those not in the know, Twitter is a micro-blogging service that seems to have taken the world, and especially the UK, by storm. In the year from February 2008-2009, it grew by 1382% and has been covered extensively by the British press, such as the Telegraph, the Guardian, the Independent and the Times.
Mashable, a leading blog that covers the latest in technology around the world, recently published a list of non-profits on Twitter. Lon. S. Cohen, Director of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Society of New York and the author of that particular post, started off with a list of 26 charities who are on Twitter, but that attracted over 70 comments and is well on its way to expansion! Many of these offer volunteering opportunities for young people and if you’re on Twitter and interested in the work of non-profits, it will be well worth your time to follow them.
Check the list out here.
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A resource for mentors of young people : Energize
Volunteering isn’t always easy, especially when the reality is that young people who volunteer often come from very different backgrounds and may need a lot of support, which is often best given in the form of a mentor. Young people, especially, can turn out quite differently if they have a mentor who cares about them and gives them the right advice. Similar qualities are required for people who lead a group of young volunteers.
If you are a mentor for a young person or lead a group of volunteers, then Energize Inc lists a number of useful resources for you, ranging from books and articles to websites. Take a look.
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Volunteer Trends - March 2009
This presentation was originally created for the 2009 Public Health Preparedness conference in Missouri, USA, by Mickey Gomez of the Howard County Volunteer Centre, but most of the information is relevant to anyone working in the volunteering field across the world. It’s very up-to-date as well.
Volunteer Trends March 2009View more presentations from M. Gomez.
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