Posts Tagged ‘volunteers’
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v’s robot warmly welcomed into Parliament
Well, we did it. We put a robot in Parliament. Not just any robot I have to say, a robot that writes out, word for word, what young people care most about - delivering those messages directly to the politicians. At a time when only 3% of young people have ever contacted their MP, the robot - nicknamed Voicebot - is a very modern twist on writing a letter to your MP.
Voicebot in Parliament
The Voicebot is part of v’s proactive research campaign called Voicebox.
At a reception hosted by Tim Loughton MP, shadow minister for children and young people, to launch the robot’s week-long stay in parliament, lots of MP’s got to hear about the project and meet with the robot itself.
Tim Loughton MP, shadow minister for children and young people talking with v volunteers
Speaking at the launch Tim Loughton MP said, ‘Voicebox puts young people right at the heart of democracy. This is a great initiative bringing politicians and young people together’.
Other MP’s visiting the robot, reading young peoples’ cares and talking to the v volunteers included Angela Smith MP, Minister for the Third Sector, who commented, ‘Young people are our future and it is vital that we listen and understand their needs and concerns. Voicebox is an excellent two-way communication tool. It has the potential to give us real insight, helping us to take action that is truly effective where it most counts’.
Angela Smith MP, Minister for the Third Sector reading young peoples cares
Terry Ryall, chief executive of v reminded those at the launch that ’hundreds of thousands of young people want to make the world a better place. The challenge for politicians everywhere is to take risks with new ways to engage young people ‘.
The full results of the research underpinning the robot is being fed into v’s project with the think tank Demos, A New Anatomy of Youth.
More pics of the launch available here.
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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. -
EFIL Volunteer Summer Summit on Innovation and Creativity in Youth Exchange
The European Federation for Intercultural Learning (earlier called the American Field Service or AFS) is organising a Volunteer Summit on Innovation and Creativity in Youth Exchange in Istanbul, Turkey, from the 30th July to the 4th of August 2009, in keeping with the declaration of 2009 as the European Year of Innovation and Creativity by the European Union. From the Summit’s website:
The general objectives of the Summit concept have been defined as:
- to provide an opportunity for all volunteers to participate in an international event, at low cost, and to encourage them to reach out across their national borders;
- to increase motivation and feeling of belonging to an international community of a large number of volunteers;
- to focus on one leading theme to facilitate the sharing between volunteers from different countries;
- to explore methods and themes new to the AFS network;
- to create a new tradition of an annual volunteer meeting in an informal setting.
Sounds like something that would definitely benefit people working in youth volunteering across the world. If you attend, don’t forget to let us know how it was. In the meantime, we’ll keep an eye on the website to notify you of any useful resources that pop up.
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