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By vAdam 5th March 10
Lent, for some, is typically a time to give up a vice or do good with money or time.
Here we have compiled a list of little things you can do from the comfort of your chair, without even spending a penny, to help give food to people in need:
1) Just click on the button on the top of this page and sponsors of the page will pay for one cup of food to go to those in need
2) Take part in this awesome geography quiz and for every answer you get right, 9 cups of water will go to those in need.
3) Click on this big button and sponsors will donate money to Oxfam, who will in turn provide water and sanitation services to Haiti.
4) Click here and watch this lovely clickometer go up as you help the relief effort in Haiti
And if all of those weren’t enough,
5) This Facebook app shows you a lovely long list of other sites you can go to to click for food and much more.
Go on, get clicking.
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By vHannahM 4th March 10
Rui Jorge Octavio gained valuable experience after volunteering to set up a comedy night. Photograph: Graham Turner/guardian.co.uk
As part of v’s on-going evaluation the Institute of Volunteering Research has reviewed recent developments in youth volunteering, ‘ Young people, volunteering, and youth projects: A rapid review of recent evidence‘. The three staged review looks at: the evidence base for young people, including their attitudes to and participation in volunteering; specific types of volunteering initiatives in the UK and beyond; and finally it summaries the key developments in the literature since the last comprehensive review in 2004 (Gaskin, 2004a).
This latest insightful report demonstrates the continued research interest in exploring young people’s participation in and understanding of volunteering. It is re-assuring to see this report conclude there has been a strong increase in direct consultation with young people since 2004 about their attitudes to volunteering. Understanding and considering the views, wishes, and opinions of young people must be central to improving and developing youth volunteering. Research highlights that young people are far from being a homogeneous group and that demographic characteristics affect the participation rates and the nature of volunteering undertaken. Direct consultation with a diverse range of young people, through research, will enable us to better design volunteering initiatives and ensure their voices don’t get lost in the important policy debates about youth volunteering and civic service. v’s research on full time volunteering, Young People Speak Out (2009) is a good example of this.
However, as pointed out in this latest review, gaps still remain in the research, particularly the lack of evidence around the long term impacts of volunteering. Within the current economic context, and rising levels of youth unemployment, there is a need to better understand one particular key long term impact; the link between volunteering and employability. This report shows that a focus on employability as a benefit of volunteering is particularly prevalent for the young. While evidence of the impact of volunteering on employment rates is mixed, young people perceive volunteering as enhancing their employability (Hirst, 2001) and v’s research with employers (2008) shows that employers value volunteering experience for improving work related skills such as communication, leadership, team work, and self-confidence.
v is committed to understanding not just this link between volunteering and employability, but to gaining a full picture of the long term benefits of volunteering. We have recently tendered for a new research project – a scoping study to understand how to measure the impacts of volunteering on young people using longitudinal research. Through the scoping study we will be reviewing existing research and working with a range of key stakeholders to develop a best practice model for longitudinal research in this area. We aim to use the scoping study results to invite future investment in a longitudinal study to open up this much needed area of research.
We look forward to sharing these results with you in the autumn. If you are interested in this longitudinal research we’d like to hear from you.
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Derby and Derby City vTalent Year particpants with the Minister, Angela Smith MP and Tom Levitt MP
v, the Minister for the Third Sector, Angela Smith MP and MP’s from across the parties recently gathered in central London to congratulate the nearly 400 young people graduating from v’s innovative full-time programme, vTalent Year - currently being piloted in 33 local authorities and 28 Further Education colleges. See pictures of the ceremony here.
Coming from across England, each young person received the Prime Minister’s Award for National Civic Service, recognising and rewarding their full-time voluntary service to support the work of, among other things; nurseries, children and youth centres, youth crime prevention, asylum seeker and substance misuse teams. Watch the graduates talking about their work.
Entertainment on the day came from pop star Bashy and dance group Subcrew.
Dance group Sub Crew performing at the vTalent Year graduation ceremony
Nearly 60% of the volunteers were not in education, employment or training prior to starting the programme and came from all walks of life, including young offenders, young parents, care leavers and graduates. Having gained experience and an accredited qualification, many of the young volunteers are already progressing on to further study, training or employment. The vtalent year experience is set to be an important milestone in their future careers and educational endeavours; hear from the young people.
Terry Ryall, v’s Chief Executive, who co-presented at the graduation ceremony, commented: “Volunteering unleashes young peoples’ talents, gives them a fantastic array of new skills and experience, whilst empowering young people to shape the places where they live”.
Richmond vTalent Year group with Susan Kramer MP
The high quality, structured placements in areas such as nursery education, play, youth work and supporter learning last 44 weeks, lead to a minimum of a level 2 qualification and offer personal development grants of up to £1,500 for young volunteers on completion of the programme. Interim findings from the programme will be available in Autumn 2010.
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By Amanda Prosser 1st February 10
Happy New Year! We’ve been a bit quiet on the evaluation blog recently because we’ve been head down writing our first annual evaluation report. It’s proving a challenge to analyse everything we’ve learned over the past 12 months, but plenty of interesting and useful themes are emerging.
We are aiming to publish the report in the Spring. We’re conscious that a hefty 100-page report might seem a bit impenetrable for some so we’re looking at alternative formats. If you have any suggestions on a format that would work for you, please send an email to evaluatingv@natcen.ac.uk.
I should add that the evaluation continues and we always need your views. We’re out and about talking to v funded projects again, so if you’re asked to take part please consider it. We’re especially keen to hear from you if you’re a young volunteer.
And thanks to everyone who has provided feedback so far – keep it coming!
All the best
Amanda
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‘There is growing interest in the political and policy importance of a certain set of personal attributes – in particular emotional control, empathy, application to task, personal agency, an ability to defer gratification – that might be summarized as ‘character’, so begins the introduction to a new Character Inquiry launched by the thank tank Demos.
Following on the heels of David Cameron’s recent speech, ‘Building the Responsible Society: The importance of parenting and early years support‘, the inquiry will draw together the wide and rich variety of thinking and practice around character issues and apply it to contemporary public issues.v’s CEO, Terry Ryall will be a member of the inquiry, along with a range of other leading figures and organisations who are explicitly or implicitly addressing issues related to character.
The Character Inquiry will clarify and test what is meant by ‘character’ in public discourse, review existing evidence on the significance of character, test mainstream opinion on the role of character in public and social life, highlight areas of public policy to which a character perspective may add value, produce research on character development in specific settings and consider policy implications for government, organisations and businesses.
So watch this space, the Inquiry will publish;
- research briefings
- an interim report in October 2010
- podcast interviews with Inquiry members and other experts
- a final report in February 2011Find out about Anatomy of Youth, v’s research project with Demos which will publish in March 2010.
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Working with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, v has launched an exciting school community action programme. Building on the foundations created by citizenship education this new programme will reach out to all secondary schools in England to embed a culture of community action.
In April 2009, the Prime Minister set out his ambition that all young people in England should complete 50 hours of community service (activities designed to benefit individuals, communities or the environment) by the age of 19. A key part of this ambition included the expansion of community service opportunities to young people in schools, and specifically 14 – 16 year olds. This development also reflects Recommendation 4 of the Russell Commission which calls for a volunteering ethos in all schools.Some teachers and schools are already doing brilliant work with their pupils on community action. This programme will embrace the range of initiatives already being delivered in schools, such as the Duke of Edinburgh programme and the Community Sports Leaders Awards, but build on this by providing teachers with valuable additional support and resource.
The v school community action programme is designed to encourage students and schools to find new and innovative ways to undertake activities which benefit the community. v is working to appoint a team of school advisors in April 2010 who will work with schools to develop student-led and school-based community action programmes, facilitate more effective links between schools and local third sector organisations and provide recognition of the students’ service. v’s existing vinvolved teams network across England will contribute their knowledge, expertise and existing relationships with schools and local organisations to get the 14 – 16 programme off to a flying start.
v is very excited to be leading this programme. Our research shows that once a young person has taken action or volunteered they are much more likely to do it again. We have written elsewhere on the importance of developing a life-cycle approach to engaging young people in community action, volunteering and service. With the launch of this new schools programme, we come one step closer to that reality.
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By Jemima Jordan 21st December 09
It’s simple. Last year, it became popular to ask for donations to charity instead of a gift. This year, with hundreds of thousands of young people worried about their finances, v is making it easy for them to give the gift of time, rather than an expensive present this festive season.v’s nationwide ‘Gift of Time’ campaign started with the opening of the ‘Gift of Time’ pop-up store on Berwick Street, London, by Lucie Jones of the X Factor, who is supporting the campaign.
From there, the festive campaign has seen an army of volunteers, across the country, harnessing the goodwill and time of the country’s young people. Regional stores and regional “Goodie Hoodie” squads have been popping up in over 40 locations across the country including Leicester, Watford, Newcastle, Liverpool, Exeter, Portsmouth, Bristol, Gloucester, Derby and Hull.
Many young people – especially if they are unemployed – don’t think their time is worth anything. But the Office of National Statistics figures show the average hour of a 16-25 year old’s time is worth £7.07; a real gift of time.
The ‘Goodie Hoodie’ crew, have helped suggest how young people could gift their time, – by volunteering for a charity, helping at a local community group or getting valuable work experience in the career field of their choice.
Young people can also visit v’s online virtual ‘gift of time’ store which enables them to download their very own personalised Time Token or alternatively, they can log on to Facebook and get the new Time Token application.
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By Jemima Jordan 21st December 09
It’s said that volunteering gets you places, and under a new scheme introduced by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, that’s exactly what can happen.Organised by v, the ‘Earn your travel back’ scheme, enables the small minority of under-18s who lose their free bus travel privilege (known as a Zip card) because of behavioural issues, to earn it back early by volunteering in their local community.
Joining young people earning back their right to free travel at an environmental conservation project at the Wildlife Trust in Dulwich, the Mayor said: “Free travel is unquestionably one of the most valuable concessions available to young people in the capital. We do have to take Zip cards away from young people who behave badly on the bus but I don’t think we should just write those kids off. By offering them a chance to volunteer to earn back their travel we are saying roll up your sleeves, dig in, help your city and we’ll help you. I hope that as well as earning back their Zip card the youngsters taking part in the scheme will learn a little about the pleasure that can be had from volunteering for environmental work and most importantly to respect our great city.”
Young people who have their free travel withdrawn are invited to contact v who then arranges for them to take part in a day’s volunteering for either BTCV (formerly the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) or London Wildlife Trust. Rachel Oliver, Head of Programmes at v, commented “This initiative is a fantastic way for young people to get a taste of volunteering and all its benefits for them and for their community. Most of these young people are new to volunteering and our research shows that once a young person has tried volunteering they are more likely to want to do so again”.
The ‘Earn your travel back’ scheme is intended to deal with young people who have their travel withdrawn due to
consistent bad behaviour, such as bullying, the use of threatening language or defacing cards. Youngsters with cards taken away due to criminal behaviour will not be eligible. Transport for London’s Zip cards are validated up to 16 million times a month in the capital, but since the scheme was introduced in June 2008; TfL has withdrawn free travel from 3,864 youngsters for breaches of the behaviour code. Free travel is withdrawn for a minimum of six months.Since the scheme launched in the summer nearly 200 young people have decided to volunteer to earn their travel back. Alan Marchant, for BTCV London said: ” We hope that by taking part in this scheme young people will not only benefit by getting their Zip card re-instated but that they will have a great sense of achievement working on projects that will make a positive difference to their communities”. Carlo Laurenzi OBE, Chief Executive of London Wildlife Trust, said “We value the contribution young Londoners can make in improving our natural environment and strive to make conservation and environmental volunteering an enjoyable and worthwhile experience.”
Over the next year, the scheme is expected to help around 700 young people reinstate their free travel card.
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By Jemima Jordan 21st December 09
There is a lot in Demos’s latest report, Service Nation, to agree with. While calls for civic service are not new, and happen almost with regularity, the report is useful in setting out afresh the important arguments and considerations of a national scheme, something which we believe should be introduced since the time is right.The core argument of the report – that of building an ethos of service from an early age – is a welcome setting of the terms for debate; I agree with the notion of service learning in schools, ‘learning to care about social issues through actually coming into contact with them’, and I agree absolutely that volunteering should be a fact of university life. It is the manner of the doing that I’m at odds with. It would also have been good if the authors had taken the opportunity to bring clarity to the terminology around ‘service’, which is cluttered with terms that are used interchangeably and arouse emotional responses as people, parties and organisations rise to protect the philosophy underlying their particular view on the world.
The report acknowledges that an ethos of service cannot be created by a one-off, one size fits all scheme and should be part of a lifecycle strategy and a range of opportunities. This fits with the approach taken by v to build the national service for young volunteers, developing and strengthening existing provision, while innovating to create new opportunities, including a full-time national unified programme of public service. However, even a single unified, branded programme like that, delivered through partners, as called for in the report, doesn’t take account of the large and diverse set of charities and other delivery partners in the UK, all delivering against their own charitable objectives and not prepared, perhaps understandably, to give up their independence and brand to work alongside a national one. This is v’s experience to date and has proved to be a major challenge in building a sense of unity in national service. Of course voluntary sector organisations must recognise the risk from new organizations that might emerge specifically to become delivery agents of any national service scheme. This is what v has tried to date to avoid but in order for a national programme to work and have universal appeal there is a great need to brand it right throughout the delivery chain.
v was not asked by the Government to put a single service scheme in place, but over three years of work we have identified the need for an expansion of full-time opportunities, especially at this time of exceptionally high unemployment among young people. We have proposed three different models of civic service to government but the pressure on the public purse is extreme and all such schemes cost a great deal of money if they are to work consistently and well. Our most recent proposal for a national programme of youth public service can be seen at Keep Britain Working. We also proposed a service programme for unemployed graduates to ease their route to work. In this regard, v is already moving towards the wider remit suggested by Service Nation.
The report is right to point out that there is lack of a joined up lifetime strategy for service, this was one of the reasons that the Russell Commission recommended the setting up of a cross ministerial group. Regrettably, this never happened. The problem will always be in the activation…..and will be for any administration that wishes to introduce a national service scheme.
Finally, I congratulate Demos on their youth involvement in the research for Service Nation; the results of which support our own research into the attitudes to and perceptions of full time volunteering earlier in 2009. This is hugely refreshing and the debate has been enriched by it.
It is now time for the political parties to match their visions with the investments needed to bring a service strategy to life.
- Terry Ryall.
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By Amanda Prosser 24th November 09
Naomi Jones, Research Director, NatCen
Hi there
To introduce myself, I’m Naomi Jones, Research Director in the Qualitative Research Unit at the National Centre of Social Research. It is my overall responsibility to deliver the evaluation to v and to coordinate the many insights that will emerge from each of the strands.
During our monitoring and evaluation workshop at this year’s National Conference, several v-funded projects exchanged ideas on how to collect information and evaluate the impact of their work. It’s clear that there’s a lot of evaluation expertise within the v network already and we’d like to ask you to share any ideas, tools or challenges you’ve come across with everyone via this blog – not least because many of you will be experiencing the same issues. You can start the conversation by adding a comment using the link below, or, if you have any documents you’d like to post up, you can email them to evaluatingv@natcen.ac.uk and we will upload them to these pages for you.
If you are keen to swot up on monitoring and evaluation generally, the Charities Evaluation Service website http://www.ces-vol.org.uk/ is a great place to start. You’ll find lots of tools and useful guidance; it is well worth a visit.
I hope this is useful. As always, if you have any questions or requests, please get in touch.
All the best
Naomi
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