A year since #teamvgo warm up day - what a year

So, having been keeping an eye on the new Team v Leaders on Twitter, I realised that with their warm-up day, it is today that is a year since ours. So much has happened in that time. I have learnt so much about volunteering and keeping it balanced with college but also the campaigning skills that helped me with all three campaigns. It is fair to say that I probably deserve the hashtag #themadvolunteer , as I made up when I had so much on that I was panicking about how to balance it all out. On the other hand, although I have set myself challenges to get to so many hours or whatever, I have learnt, through Team v, how to manage that with college work.

It is, however, fair to say that I am glad I did it last year. Going onto a course worth 3 A-Levels this year is something that I have worked for over a few years but doing Team v on top of that would have just been bonkers. Thinking back to being in that room in London, us all not knowing each other and having just started a 9 month journey, we became like a Team v family. When I was struggling, they were support to get me through and I thank them for that. On the other hand, I never expected to reach the numbers of people we did and getting the opportunity to run campaigns that challenged even my viewpoint.

I can now say that I've done it and have progressed to working with the Cabinet Office on the Young Social Action Ambassadors Network. I have to say that being on a level 3, I am finding it harder to balance that but at the same time, I'm getting there. I'm now doing Level 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production (Journalism and Public Relations). Having got a Distinction Merit last year, I got on the course fairly easily.

On the other hand, this is where the hard work starts. I have a mad to do list that includes some volunteering stuff and some college stuff. To be fair, it's a bit chaotic but hopefully this year should be as successful as last year and look, I've still got the tube ticket from warm up day.

So, for now, it's onwards and hopefully upwards. The latest volunteering news is that I have been asked to volunteer to write for Parade.com and still haven't done anything but will start when I have the time. To update you, my current volunteer hour count is 535 hours. On may way to six-hundred. Oh and Finally, a big shout out to my successor as Team v Leader for Darlington, Grace (graceeeeyx ) please follow

Team v Graduation, volunteering challenge and MYM

So, Graduation for Team v is tomorrow. Looking back on my Team v journey, it has certainly been an adventure and tomorrow, despite the 7:02am train, I will enjoy celebrating it with fellow leaders. all I can expect at the moment is lots of speeches and performances but also a very grand venue. The rest is a mystery. Nevertheless, it should be a great day. I did invite dad but only to realize that parents weren't invited. A bit of a shame but at least he gets a day out in London.

Going onto new things, I have started my role in Points of Light and start studying a new course in Journalism in September. 4 weeks left. Well, Three and a bit, to be fair but who's counting (I am). I actually can't wait to go back but first I have to complete my 500 hours volunteering before the end of the holidays. I currently have another 16 and a half hours to do to get there but that's fairly easy. I usually get about 7 hours out of volunteering at Oxfam so if I do that for a few weeks, I should be there.

Look, I still have my tube ticket from when I went to the Team v Warm up day. It makes it kind of a whole circle.

Apart from Team v and my volunteering challenge, I would also like to mention about the Youth Media Summit, held yesterday in London. It was trying to not only show that youth can produce positive media but also to show that the stereotypes are wrong. This is something that I have long believed in and as I do, they are challenging the perceptions of various topics. In Partnership with Million Youth Media and a new project called "Fully Focused", they have started to create videos to challenge this. Here's one and it's not what you would think from the title:

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It's also worth checking out Million Youth Media as a whole as it has a lot to offer in terms of promoting youth in a positive way.

Overall, everything is going well and I can't wait for tomorrow. To be able to celebrate our achievements as a whole will allow us to look back but it should also be great fun. Hope to post after graduation. For the final time, Team v Out!

Pressing Issues update

As you may remember, I have been running a small campaign for a bit called Pressing Issues. It's aim: to make people more aware of the stereotyping of youth in the media and try to do something about it. As well as this, shouting about the positive work of young people ourselves. Unfortunately, my pledge which I initially set up rather failed after a while. It's still open so please sign. I'll put the link at the end of this blog. 

Aside from the pledge, it seems that we may have to take matters into our own hands. I am setting up a new blog in which I will hopefully have other young people and myself writing about issues they care about and the positive work of youth. If you would like to write for this blog, I'll create a form to sign up and put the link at the end of the page. Hopefully, although I accept that it is a big challenge, it should work. There will be a range of topics which I will have to think of but this also shows off the positive writing talents of those involved. 

I have done blogging like this on my own in the past but it's much more effective collectively, rather than just one person. Nevertheless, it will also have reviews of things like books and films to make it interesting for all. I am also interested in sensible suggestions for names. I am going to call it something but I can always change the name as we go on. As I said, I would put a link to the pledge and the form. Here's the pledge link: http://www.pledgebank.com/pressingissues

The form will be up soon and I'll update the post when I can. More blogs coming soon.

Points of Light - 9 days to go

Following the amazing year I have had with Team v, I am now involved with a project run by the Cabinet Office called Points of Light. Having been brought over from the US to be tried for the first time this year, the project will promote outstanding volunteering in our communities and hopefully, in turn, get more people volunteering. I will be in the role as Points of Light Ambassador for Yorkshire and Humber, researching, nominating and rewarding outstanding volunteers and hope to give something back.

Lets face it, I wasn't ready to leave Team v behind and as much as it was stressful at times, I wanted to carry on a similar type of work in a different role. On 28th July, I'm heading down to 10 Downing Street for the first training day and will hopefully meet my North East counterpart. As much as it is tempting to have a go at Cameron if we meet him, probably best not.

The principles of Points of Light originally came from President Bush Sr in his inaugural address in 1989 in which he describes volunteers and community organisations as "a thousand points of light". Often, this is very accurate, given that even in this country, without the voluntary sector, the country would not survive and many essential services would close.



Applying for the position was something that took a lot of thinking about because even now, I am slightly unsure about where I will find volunteers to nominate, however, I will hopefully get some training on this. It will be a challenge in a year when I start my level 3 in media and journalism in specific. On the other hand, I like a challenge. Given it's something that's run by the Cabinet Office, they don't appear to be very organised. Somehow, they managed to book my tickets with my dad's railcard and his tickets with my railcard but oh well. We'll just have to pretend.

Talking of Cabinet, after 25 years as MP for Richmond and 4 years as Foreign Secretary, my MP, William Hague, is stepping down at the next election. Being the exception to the rule, Mr Hague, has been one of the few MPs that still has integrity these days. Being supportive of young people was one of the reasons for that and I thank him for not only listening to the views of young people but also taking action on them. He, in that, has actually been very supportive of volunteers in his constituency and whoever succeeds him, it will be a hard act to follow.

I hope to post something soon after my visit to London and will also be posting ten days after for my Team v Graduation. I hope you like this post and please comment if you have anything to say, as long as it's sensible. Please, no SPAM. Also check out my brothers travel blog as he spends a month or so travelling round Vietnam at http://dennisrm.wordpress.com/  . it goes onto a page not found thing but if you just click on the text that says "Too long to Tweet" it takes you to the blog. 

Team v Recruitment day 2014 - Seeing the change makers of the future

Having said I would not be posting on this blog as much, I thought I would just post something on the recruitment day in Leeds that happened yesterday. Being a Leader for the last year has been a rollercoaster and this is what I told the candidates. This isn't to say that the experience is something that you shouldn't do. Nevertheless, it was good to see a candidate from my neck of the woods, Darlington. In the middle of interviews, I found myself agreeing with a lot of what she said about the area, especially in relation to campaigning. Unfortunately, given I was interviewing, I couldn't actually express this agreement but it will be good to see what she does next year.

The day was a great opportunity to meet some already inspirational people but also to catch up with some of the current leaders and staff. It will be a shame to not have the buzz that Team v gives in the coming year but I am looking forward to Graduation in just over a months time. It's a chance to celebrate and it should be good. Keeping on the subject of Team v, however, more on "Routes to Roots", the results video is out and I have put it in below. Despite a reduced number of events, we still made a significant change and you can see that in the video.


On another subject, I think it is only right that I should pay tribute to those who have volunteered for Le Tour Yorkshire this weekend. I did apply myself but it was going to be a bit hard to do that and Team v Recruitment. Nevertheless, I am still on track to meet my challenge of getting to 500 hours by the end of the summer holidays. I am currently on 455 and therefore, have 45 to go. Doing hours at Oxfam and my writing, I should get those in no time at all (sort of).

Backbench Cabinet

I have been writing as part of the Backbench Cabinet the last 6 months but my time is up. I will continue writing on the subject of education but not in that role I was in. If you have not seen my articles, then please take a look here I also did a piece on Routes to Roots earlier in the campaign here. I hope you like it and any comments on any of my articles or posts on here are appreciated.

I should be doing a few articles on the benefits and links between employment and education and the transition between those two things. It's a subject I would like to investigate and should keep me occupied over the holidays. I have 8 weeks left. It should be a challenge to keep myself occupied. I will keep you posted and i will have to total up my hours at the end of the 8 weeks and let you know. Wish me luck!

What a roller coaster of a journey... and I'm about to jump back on

For the last nine months, it has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Nevertheless, a good one. I've had the opportunity to campaign on issues that young people care about, write about education as part of the Backbench Cabinet, contribute to government consultations and so much more through college. Having had all this over the last months, it seems a shame to get off, however, I'm just about to start a role as a Points of Light Ambassador for Yorkshire and Humber (more coming on that soon) and have some big decisions to make about college.

I know I may have done a similar post recently, however, looking ahead to the future, I'm excited to get stuck into my next course and carry on my voluntary work. While this is the case, one of the most important people who has kept me reasonably sane over the last 7 months has been my girlfriend. A volunteer herself, I'm sure she will understand but next year, I may face the decision of choosing my college and my volunteering or her. That's not an easy decision and one I hope not to have to make but it has and still is playing on my mind. Not sure what to do about it but putting it on here perhaps makes me feel more comfortable about it.

Don't get me wrong. I don't just love her for her volunteering but to relate it to the blog, this is how I'm doing it. It will be an interesting summer; both as a test for me but also a chance to get over 100 volunteering hours in 10 weeks. Just still a bit weird thinking about next year though. I may be worrying for nothing but I don't know.

I hope to be volunteering a lot for Oxfam, Points of Light and whatever comes up over the summer and will keep you up to date. I have applied to be involved with Oxjam but won't know much until next week. My first volunteering experience at a major music festival. That should be interesting. Of course, I've done Castle Calling through the youth council but nothing like this before.

Lets face it. coming to the end of the year at college and the end of a few of my volunteering things does feel more than a bit weird but somehow, I don't think I can do much about it. I'm just going to have to put up with it for the near future and see what happens. Afterall, I do call myself #themadvolunteer sometimes. Signing off as Team V Leader for the last time,

Robert Mooney

12 months - what a rollercoaster

Last night, being in the last few weeks of my college course and having just done my last Team v event, I was thinking back. In the last year I have:

. Completed hundreds of hours of volunteering
. Reached thousands of young people through Team V and got to volunteer with some of the greatest people I know
.Almost finished a college course up to merit standard
.Reached many other volunteering achievements

I know I perhaps keep doing this. Going over what I have done but to be fair, looking back, it is kind of hard to believe. There may have been hard moments but I've learnt a lot from it and I'm proud of the whole of Team v for the change that we have made. The saying "You learn something new everyday" perhaps is sometimes pushing it but with college and volunteering, I probably have and I've enjoyed it.

Yes, fair enough, I did come back from Team v Residential 2 and almost fall asleep in my tea but for the fulfillment I have got out of working with some inspirational leaders and gaining skills that are really valuable is what makes it worth it. Additionally, contributing to many consultations as part of my volunteering is something I will never forget. It might sound boring but to get the chance to do this is an honor.

Apart from the volunteering and college, it's been fun to meet new people and in a way, become more independent. The great thing about college and volunteering is that there is that element of it but perhaps equally important is that through Team v, I get to tell the stories and hear about stories of the most inspirational young people. To take the example of Stephen Sutton, who was taken to the hearts of the nation after his recent bucket list challenge for Teenage Cancer Trust in his last days. Although this is an example of something national, it is still great to say that there are young people who want to make a change for the better.

The great thing about the last twelve months is that I've been able to see the good work of young people from various sides. This is firstly, quite fun but also something that you gain from yourself and you learn from. I have five weeks left of college to get a merit grade and then, over the 12 weeks I have off, I am going to see how many hours I can do of volunteering. sounds good to me. What do you think?

Finally, if Team v sounds good and you would like to be our successors, please take a look at http://goo.gl/tGHD5t to see if it takes your fancy. I hope you enjoyed my post and please leave comments if you want. Team V Out!