Posts Tagged ‘volunteering’
-
Cuts threaten Americorps
Two years ago, the Serve America Act was passed with much fanfare. It established a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and aimed to increase education funding and establish a summer volunteer program for s
tudents, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate. The world’s voluntary organisations looked on with envy.
What a difference a couple of years can make. With pressure to slash budgets,
the Republicans are now proposing to abolish the Corporation for National and Community Service which funds the likes of Americorps and Learn and Serve America.
I think this seems like a false economy for the US, and a real blow for the young people affected. After all, the Americorps version of “national service” is voluntary, not compulsory, and participants receive living expenses and modest college expenses (not a bad option in a time of record youth unemployment rates). It supports innovative projects like Teach for America, which fills hard-to-fill teaching positions with America’s top college graduates, City Year, which has been shown to dramatically reduce teenage drop-out rates in schools, and numerous other voluntary organisations, large and small. (For more, see ICP’s collection of 52 of the most innovative Americorps programmes.)
As Shirley Sagwa writes in the Huffington Post: “Volunteers aren’t free — somebody needs to recruit them and manage them — and charities often struggle for resources, especially during down economies. AmeriCorps members, by recruiting and supervising community volunteers, make it possible for millions of people to make a real difference. As a result, the charitable sector is stronger and volunteers more effective, thereby lessening the need for greater government spending.”
Service Nation, Stand for Americorps and many others are campaigning against the cuts.
-
Do Something, technology and social activism: a Q&A with Melanie Stevenson
We recently had the pleasure of meeting Melanie Steve
nson
, responsible for business development for premier US charity Do Something, whilst on her sabbatical, visiting London. With the largest national database of volunteer opportunities for teens, Do Something have been a truly instrumental force in helping change the face of social activism in the USA, inspiring millions of young people to engage with and take an active role within their communities.We caught up with Melanie to find out more about her role at Do Something alongside global attitudes towards social activism amongst young people…
It’s clear from the popularity of Do Something that young people in America are very socially conscious and proactive when it comes to volunteering. Have you seen any particular trends emerge over recent years? If so, to what extend do you feel trends have been influenced by wider political and social changes?
You’re right, teens in America are passionate about giving back. 1.2 Million of them will take action through DoSomething.org’s programs this year. Next year, we anticipate 2 Million Do’ers to activate through our programs.Some trends we’ve noticed are:
- Customisation – This is the ‘Starbucks generation’ (think grande java chip frappucino with whip no drizzle). Young people today expect volunteer opportunities to fit their personalities and lifestyles. Whether they have a minute or a year, whether they care about global human rights or the environment, they should have opportunities to give back. It’s our job to make it easy to find them.
- Self-Starting – Young people are more likely than ever to see a problem, plan a project, and take action. They’re opting for direct activation over traditional “volunteerism” which is a more scheduled and structured experience. A few tips and resources help them get started, but they’re truly becoming “social entrepreneurs”.
- Social Shopping – Not only does a brand have to be cool and functional to win a young person’s heart – it has to have heart itself. 89% of young people today will switch brand loyalty based on cause association. Where they spend their money is part of how they live responsibly.
Young people today grew up online, where they can find exactly what they’re looking for whenever they want. In an instant they can create a customized pair of sneakers, find any “how to” guide you can imagine, and dig up dirt about a store at their local mall. These trends are direct responses to the power of online.
You mention ‘the power of online’ – to what extent do you feel developments in technology and social media have aided awareness of volunteering and social causes? Are there any particular technological developments or innovative social media campaigns that have inspired you?
Developments in technology have absolutely magnified the power of volunteering and social good. The single best way for a young person to find out about something is from a friend. And social media has turned that peer-to-peer conversation into a public forum!One of our most exciting social media programs was a recent campaign called Make Art. Save Art.
Art is being cut from US schools every day. We asked young people to create and share works of art as advocacy messages for arts education. The designs were shared over 350,000 times on Facebook and Twitter, and posted over 1,000 times on senators’ Facebook fan pages!The technology we’re most focused on here at DoSomething.org is mobile. The average teen sends over 100 text messages per day with a 100% open rate! It’s their preferred method of communication and their phones are by their side at all times. We’re working actively to deliver our programs more and more via mobile, and reward young people for their participation.
You’ve had the opportunity to travel and meet other youth volunteering agencies around the world. Have opinions towards volunteering and social activism differed? Have any particular organisations or individual stories inspired you?
My recent travel to Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and England were such an inspiration! Each country has a unique perspective on the world of social activism. History, culture, politics, economy and even geography all play into how passionate the population is about social change, and how willing or able they are to take action. Everyone I met inspired me and challenged my perspective in some way. I was particularly inspired by the way the v20 are at the core of everything v does. We have an incredible Youth Advisory Council at DoSomething.org, but it challenged me to think of even moreways to collaborate with them and celebrate their accomplishments.
-
Big shame for big society – behind the scenes of the vschools website
This weekend, reports in the national press mentioned the vschools website being shelved in a “big blow to big society”, so I thought it would be useful to give an insight into what the vschools site is.
The vschools site already exists, has been tested with pupils and schools, and hundreds of schools are ready to sign up. It’s just been sitting on a development server, waiting for a decision for the Department for Education – and sadly, they have decided to scrap the Youth Community Action programme, of which vschools was a part.
Here’s the story so far…
Back in December last year, we were asked to look at how we could build on the success of vinspired.com and the vinspired awards to create a safe, secure and engaging volunteering platform for 14-16 year olds in every maintained school in England.
Luckily we had a solid platform to (literally) build on: vinspired.com, a social platform connecting volunteers aged 16-25 with voluntary organisations who need their help. Building on top of this platform meant:
a) younger volunteers could move their accounts to vinspired at age 16, taking with them a record of their volunteering history
b) voluntary organisations could offer opportunities to the younger audience without doubling up buy generic viagra on work
c) making the most of functionality we already had, and importantly
d) we could actually deliver an awesome website in a very short timescale without cancelling Christmas. (Just.)
Creating private spaces for schools & students
Using rapid, Agile development, we extended the vinspired platform, and designed and built private “walled gardens” for schools. This would ensure that pupils could share their photos, comments and achievements with others in their school, without sharing personal details or plans with the wider internet community. Schools could publish their own opportunities, and keep a record of the achievements of pupils at their school in one, easy to use dashboard. Pupils could view opportunities within the school and others in their local communities, offered by approved providers recruited by the vschools advisers.
Schools were also given public web pages, where they could showcase their achievements (without identifying individual pupils) and share best practice.
Awards for all
Next up, we extended the age range for vinspired awards, so that pupils could get recognition for their efforts. To do this, we integrated the awards system into both vinspired and vschools user profiles, making it easy for young people to record the skills they learned and the impact they had on their communities. Both sites benefited from this one piece of work.
Image: Early designs for the vinspired awards integration
The next challenge was to work out how to create accounts for hundreds of thousands of pupils without creating loads of admin for staff. Synchronising with existing databases proved controversial in terms of data ownership. Allowing unchecked registrations provoked security concerns, and worries about how the right pupils would end up in the right walled garden. We eventually settled on a token system – school staff could generate unique codes allowing pupils to sign up within a limited time-frame. Each code linked them to the correct school.
Image: vschools service map
Buy-in from pupils, teachers and local authorities
We had, given the time-scales, planned to conduct user testing on the live site, as we had complete control over who could access each secure area,
and a team of vschools advisers with contacts in schools who were keen to get involved. However, we were then required to conduct user testing prior to launching the site, so I visited Salford and Milton Keynes to run user testing sessions with pupils and teachers. The feedback was hugely encouraging, helping us to spot bugs but also confirming that the site could work for young people, and I’m grateful to all those who helped with this process.
Since then, a team of over 90 vschools staff have been showing the test site to schools and local authorities, whilst waiting for the green light to launch the site. Figures to end of June (July’s figures come later this week) show 1278 interested schools, with over 500 ready to sign up. Anecdotal evidence from vschools advisers suggest many schools committed to the project prior to the end of term.
So, for now the vschools site remains left on the shelf, but I am hopeful that we may yet find a like minded sponsor to help us realise the potential and share the vision.
-
Is it time we started sharing our cock-ups?
When chariti
es or voluntary organisations get together at events, it’s usually the successes you get to hear about. So hurrah for Sidekick Studios’ latest (beta) innovation: Cocktails and Cock-Ups, an evening of confessional presentations from charities and social enterprises about the disasters you never got to hear about – and, most importantly, what they did to fix them.
Dan Jones from Amnesty International UK, Andrew Dick from Envision, and Darren Taylor from EcoComputer Systems were impressively candid about the mistakes they’d made and the lessons they’d learnt. What struck me was how sharing failure led to frank discussions and a sense of shared experience which is often missing from the usual “look what I achieved”-style presentations.
I was
surprised to notice how rarely – if ever – I’ve seen someone deliver a PowerPoint presentation which actually highlighted the things that went wrong. Reviewing mistakes is something we do a lot in Agile web development; at the end of each two-week section of work, the whole team comes together to talk about what went right, what went wrong, and what we could change to make the next iteration more productive. But sharing that learning with other organisations? I don’t do that much.
So what did I take from the event?
- In the third sector, we’re so used to reporting to funders, trustees and bosses on what went well, that we’re in danger of forgetting that the lessons we learn from failure are valuable – not just to us, but to others, too.
- Talking about failure, rather than pretending we can prevent failure, can help us to expect and manage it. It’s also fun, and quite cathartic, once you get past the initial fear.
- “Failing fast” – building prototypes, running pilots, get feedback early on, not trying to plan everything up front in immense detail and instead being willing to embrace negative feedback and change – can actually help to avoid more catastrophic mistakes on a bigger scale.
- Sometimes a perceived failure actually leads to something better.
- It’s easier to admit mistakes with a cocktail in your hand.
So if you’re looking for valuable lessons, I reckon you’d learn more from inviting others like you to share their cock-up tales over drinks than from any of the usual seminars or conferences. Find out more about Cock-Up Cocktails on the Sidekick Studios blog.
-
South London volunteer radio station 'Reprezent' gets a licence
/* var quicktagsL10n = {
quickLinks: "(Quick Links)",
wordLookup: "Enter a word to look up:",
dictionaryLookup: "Dictionary lookup",
lookup: "lookup",
closeAllOpenTags: "Close all open tags",
closeTags: "closetags”,
enterURL: “Enter the URL”,
enterImageURL: “Enter the URL of the image”,
enterImageDescription: “Enter a description of the image”
};
try{convertEntities(quicktagsL10n);}catch(e){};
/* ]]> */edToolbar()
Reprezent, an on-line radio station created as a platform for young volunteers to air their views, has been granted a license by Ofcom and will hit the airwaves in 2011.
‘Reprezent’ was launched in 2008 and was the first FM station to be programmed solely by young people. Created with support from Choice FM, the station provides a voice for underrepresented minorities in mainstream media. Believed to have positively encouraged the youth of South London to communicate with one another, the radio station became a popular platform for
debates on burning issues such as knife crime, teenage pregnancy and career aspirations.
Many youth volunteered their time, skills and creativity in ensuring the success of the radio station. Aaron, 17, has been presenting his own show online for a year. “This is about giving young people the chance to represent themselves and get involved in something positive. Everyone hears the bad things, but Reprezent is about our buy tadalafil online music, our culture, and what we can bring to society,” he says.
The station will reach out to over 160,000 13-25 years old, providing many young people with broadcast and media training. Schools, councils and businesses alike will rejoice at the prospect of a broadcast platform in which the youth, the general public and the officials can amicably highlight issues, discuss options, and settle on resolutions.
The radio station is a real boost at a time when youth unemployment is on the rise, and young people are looking for practical experience for their CVs. Finances have already been secured for the station to work with over 300 young people over the next year, and ‘Reprezent’ plans to continue growing in creativity, community support and cultural significance for a long time to come.
edCanvas = document.getElementById(‘content’);
-
Radio 1 Local Heroes campaign highlights short-term volunteering
/* var quicktagsL10n = {
quickLinks: "(Quick Links)",
wordLookup: "Enter a word to look up:",
dictionaryLookup: "Dictionary lookup",
lookup: "lookup",
closeAllOpenTags: "Close all open tags",
closeTags: "closetags”,
enterURL: “Enter the URL”,
enterImageURL: “Enter the URL of the image”,
enterImageDescription: “Enter a description of the image”
};
try{convertEntities(quicktagsL10n);}catch(e){};
/* ]]> */edToolbar()
A survey of 1,000 young people showed that over 50% said they didn’t have time to get involved in
the causes they cared about. Now BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra
are planning to inspire their listeners to get involved in volunteering opportunities which don’t involve a big time commitment.
Local Heroes week will run across both channels from Sunday 18 to Sunday 25 April. DJ Tim Westwood will become a “Local Hero” for the week, trying out a different taster volunteering challenge each day.
Anna Bowman, Executive Producer, Radio 1 and 1Xtra Campaigns, says: “Our research suggests that many young people are interested in volunteering but don’t have the time.
“We want to show that volunteering can be fun, rewarding and doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment.
“We hope that Tim’s volunteering antics will inspire some of our listeners to become a Local Hero in their own community.”
Some people might think Westwood is an unlikely volunteer, but I know he gives up his time for causes he cares about. I’ve seen him play for free at a Christmas party for young people affected by HIV – and they got so into it that the wall had to be replastered… Fact!
Westwood’s not the only Radio 1 DJ to volunteer… Nihal, Annie Mac, and Mary Anne Hobbs have all played for free at the vinspired Lake of Stars festival in Malawi and loved it. Plus, DJs from both stations were involved in the Bullyproof and Body Image campaigns.
If you’re inspired to get involved, find an opportunity near you on vinspired.com. You could even get into a festival for free in exchange for giving up a bit of your time!
edCanvas = document.getElementById(‘content’);
-
Olympics ceremony preview to reward volunteers
name=”src” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/yCUkPlEbokw&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0″ />
A nationwide campaign which aims to use the inspirational power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to motivate the British public to give time in their communities was unveiled today.
The 25th Hour, which is separate to the official London 2012 Volunteer programme, is based on the idea that we can all find the extra hour and more to make a difference.
A recent survey on attitudes to London 2012 for DCMS showed that a third of people in the UK say they would give up their time for an Olympic-inspired activity – with even greater enthusiasm among young people, 48 per cent of whom say they would give up their time.
The 25th Hour will also celebrate the outstanding contributions of exceptional time givers with a range
of Olympic-themed awards, including 2,012 pairs of tickets to a unique money can’t buy moment – the chance to see the
dress rehearsal of the 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.
25th Hour supporters will be able to pledge their time via the campaign’s website – www.the25thhour.org – developed by v, the National Young Volunteers’ Service. From June this year the site will link people directly to opportunities to give time in their area, including featured opportunities similar to current campaigns on vinspired.com, and those posted through YouthNet and Volunteering England‘s 2012 Games volunteering legacy project, funded by the Office of the Third Sector. People can sign up now to show their support for the 25th Hour and receive updates on campaign activity.
Loading ...
Comments