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:

#

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!

Not long now - They think it's all over, it is now

Having had a pretty hectic couple of weeks, with exams, final projects, getting grades up and volunteering, it's been a bit of a roller-coaster. I am glad to say, however, that as of Thursday, I will have done my Team V event and hopefully be able to concentrate on college work for the next few weeks. As much as I will be glad to have a break from organizing Team v stuff, I'm also going to miss it. The people I've met through it and the stories I've heard have been so inspirational and fun. When you are just thinking that it's impossible,
their inspiration gives you a boost.

Additionally, the great thing about volunteering with Team v is that you get to learn on the job, sometimes without even realizing it. Especially in the first campaign where, despite it being hard to do at times, I carried on and learnt from it for the second and third campaigns. If I will take anything from this experience, it's that there are some really inspirational and fun volunteers and you really can change the world, one campaign at a time.

Back onto the current campaign, Routes to Roots, I have my event on Thursday and hope to get lots of customers at the stall. Hopefully, two stalls on international issue in one week won't be too much for Darlington College Students. We had a stall on the EU yesterday. It got quite a good response so hopefully it will be the same for us. Plus, I would like to say a giant Team V Thank You to Darlington College for allowing me to hold events for all of my campaigns in Central Point. They have, at times, gone beyond the Call of Duty (you can tell I do Media, can't you? the awful puns on really popular video games).

Oh well. So, stories at the ready, display still to make. I think I'm almost ready. The only limitation of holding events in Darlington College is that only those who are staff or students are allowed on site, limiting who I can reach. Nevertheless, it should be a good day (it better be). On the other hand, this won't be my only achievement for volunteering (see below)

400 hours (almost)

Having been volunteering for at least 3 years now, I have reached 391 volunteering hours and despite Team v's early celebration, I am not quite to 400, however, aim to get there within the next week. I've been told that there is a qualification for those who reach 500 hours so I am hoping that I will get there soon. Nevertheless, I do it to enjoy myself and keep myself occupied. Not as a way to get recognized.

Overall, this coming week is going to be very busy, however, I'm still up for it and I will try to keep you up to date with my progress, both at college and in volunteering. I might be putting a counter on my blog to count up to the 500th hour, however, this is only so you can keep track of it. I hope you like the volunteering challenge and please shout out about the campaign. Team V \Out!

A few weeks to get everything done - do you think I can do it?

So, with only a few weeks left of college and 8 pieces of coursework to get up to Merit standard, as well as trying to organised an event for Team V for the 15th May, it's going a bit mad here. As much as I like volunteering, I am going to have to spend almost every waking hour working on it and assignments for college over the next few weeks. Okay, this is a bit of an exaggeration but you get what I mean. I, to be quite honest, cannot wait until I finish. It means two months break in which I can do whatever I like (within reason) and that will be great.

So, I guess you want to hear an update. Well, I realized that on my blog, my biggest readership is actually in America. Come on Brits, you're letting the side down. I now have an idea and most of the materials for my event, however, given that my preferred venue that said they would be happy to hold it have not got back to me, I think I might have to default to my usual venue; Darlington College. I might have to just plead with them on Monday.

If I can nail the event and get that over with, I'll be  more relaxed. Mostly because I can then focus purely on my college work. Aside from this, thank you to all the people and organisations that have been supporting me on Twitter with volunteering and although it's a tool and not a person, if Buffer, the platform that is used to keep twitter up to date, was human, I would be thanking it right now. I love how I can just set a load of tweets and leave it to get on with it while I get on with my college work (or relax).

One thing that doesn't help is the confusing messages that I get from college, one time telling me work has to be finished in two weeks and then other tutors telling me four weeks. I accept that it might not be the same in every unit, however, lets just say the scare tactics are working. Tomorrow, I think, should be a day for concentrating on improving assignments.

I know my blog post isn't putting Team v or college in a very good light, however, they are both great things to do, even if for different reasons. I am, in a way, going to miss Team v but I'm going onto a level 3 course next year and it's going to be a lot of work. I need to concentrate on that. On the other hand, as one of my fellow leaders once said, "I didn't choose the Team v Life. The Team v Life chose me".

Finally, I would just like to give a big shout out to a project that is being run by a fellow Team v Leader, Chandos Green, #IFightFor . The project is to challenge the young people of the UK to accumulate 1 million volunteering hours, however, I can't see when from or to and how it's all recorded. If anyone knows anymore, please let me know. Overall, despite this last campaign being a challenge, I don't regret doing it at all. Team v has been a a great experience and I wouldn't change it for the world. I will keep up to date with my campaign locally but for now, Team V Out!

60 hours in 2 weeks - complete (almost)

Having had two weeks to volunteer, I have now reached 59 hours of volunteering and by the time I get to the end of this post and put it on Twitter, it should be 59 and a half. I accept that sometimes it's hard to find what to volunteer for to get the hours up (especially around Easter) but I've managed to do it by writing for Backbench UK, ShoutOut UK, the 99% campaign blog, doing Team V, writing on here, volunteering for Youth Council, Barnardos and Oxfam. Someone point any that I might have missed out. I know it looks mad setting myself all these volunteering challenges but I'm now on 372 hours overall, so they are worth it. It also saves me from sitting around at home, bored.

So, you are probably wondering what challenge I will set myself next. To be honest, I'm not sure myself, however, I will definitely let you know when I do. My next challenge is to try to get a confirmed venue and organisation to work with for Routes to Roots . I have a potential venue and an organisation that I'm waiting to here back from. So, I am getting there but I start a big project when I get back to college. It, hopefully, will all balance out in the end. I think my next challenge will just be to finish this Team v Campaign with a good result. I should be able to do it. I just need to get a move on.

I've currently, since the start of my Team v journey done around 99 hours of volunteering and no, I'm not setting myself the challenge to get to one-hundred. That's easy. Oh well. I'm getting there, even if it is slowly. I think my challenge is going to have to be to get to 400 hours in the next few months. I know that's not much of a challenge but more of a target.

Please keep a track of three hash-tags on Twitter, if you use it. #RoutestoRoots , #teamvgo and #TeamVDarlington as I hope to keep you all up to date with my Team v progress. At least I'm not loads behind. That was my worry.  

In a way, I'm going to miss Team v once I've finished but I'm also not going to. By this I mean that I'll miss working on a specific issue and with some amazing people but I'll also be grateful to have the time back to concentrate on college and other volunteering work. Team v hasn't taken priority over college but I think I could have spent more time on coursework.

I'm speaking about it as if Team v is over but it's not. It's just coming to an end and I'm looking forward to Graduation and any opportunities that might come with it. On the other hand, if I'm going to have as many weeks off as I did last summer, I might have to find some additional volunteering to do. It should be good. Anyway, I'm off and hope to get to the 60 target by the end of today. I will tweet once it's done.

Routes to Roots - Campaign Update 19/04/14

In the last few days, I have been progressing with the campaign and if I am correct, should soon have someone looking at my article for The Student Journals on the subject. I have so far got two stories, however, I have just been looking to confirm a venue for the event and a date. I am still waiting to here back from a possible partner organisation, however, I should get an email back within the next week or so. Unfortunately, as I found out the hard way, Darlington is very bad for organisations that deal with migration and equality. I am now looking at Plan B which is to partner up with the local university student union, Teesside, however, the rep that deals with equality there is still to reply to me.

The Venue

Well, the venue is proving harder to book than I thought. Not because it's not available but because the manager gave me an email address that bounces back and I think could be incorrect. I plan to follow this up next week, however, I could do with getting details firmed up pretty soon. The event is meant to be held in the week of the 5th May, however, I will just have to aim for then and see what happens.

So, I'm making progress, slowly. Once I get a date confirmed I have something to work around. It means I can start spreading the word and I can start putting the bits for the event in place.As much as I enjoy the volunteering, it is annoying when you can't do much until next week and have a very limited time to do a big event in.

College priorities
As much as I would like to make my priority my volunteering, this isn't currently possible as I have a "Final Digital Media Product" project starting for college as soon as I go back, as well as having to improve other bits of work. On the other hand, I plan to do my project on volunteering so they both kind of fit in with each other. I like volunteering and I like college but which one is better? FIGHT! Just joking. Of course, i have to prioritize studies. Overall, I am getting there, however, it's just taking a while.

60 hours in two weeks

With regards to my challenge of sixty hours of volunteering in two weeks, I am getting there, however, I'm kind of running out of things to do for my volunteering, aside from bits that I can't do until Tuesday. Plus, I don't really want to bombard my editors with articles like I have done in the past. I might do a long one for ShoutOut UK so I'm sharing the editing burden out equally. I'm just looking for a subject to write about though.

Overall, the volunteering challenge and everything else is going well, however, it's just going very slowly at the moment. As much as this sounds bad, I'm hoping to get Team v stuff out of the way so I can concentrate on this college project, however, it might be kind of impossible. Anyway, wish me #vgoodluck 

Yet another volunteering Challenge - although this one is almost complete

Having done volunteering challenges in the past, over the Easter Holidays I set myself the challenge of getting 20 hours in the first week, which I subsequently exceeded. I ended up getting 30 in the end and set myself the challenge to match this in the second week. Hence, it is actually a challenge to get 60 hours over two weeks. You will be glad to hear that I am currently on 52 hours and hope to get the remaining eight over the next few days. I think that it is important to set myself targets, however, from your point of view, some of them may be a bit mad to say the least.

The point of such challenges is so that at the end of the week, I can just say that I have done plenty of hours. It also gives me a volunteering journey to look back on, rather than just a list of when I did volunteering and how many hours. It's an achievement. It's also a way of keeping myself doing something, even if I have to look for something to do. As I have probably said in previous posts, I hate being bored so why not do volunteering or work when I can.

Okay, you might be thinking that I need some relax time, however, I get that at times when I need it and I am thankful to the wonderful Team V Mentors and Staff in helping me balance everything out. Nevertheless, I still like to not spend all day watching TV or on Facebook, unless there is something wrong. There's nothing constructive to take from it. If I'm going to do something, I always like to do something that will benefit me or my friends and that's why I do volunteering.

Despite this, there is an element of living up to other peoples records though. Compared to the Team V Mentors, my record of volunteering hours is a bit pathetic, however, this isn't what it's about. On the other hand, it is a record to try to live up to. Plus, I have been told that there is a new volunteering award coming for when you get to 500 volunteering hours so I'm hoping that by the time it comes, I might have almost reached it.

I'm currently on 366 hours overall and about 53 of those are since this time two weeks ago. It's quite weird to think that's humanly possible, according to my friends and family, however, it is. So there. Doing this now does actually mean that I only have about 7 hours to do over two days. It's not as bad as I first thought and if I was at Oxfam volunteering, I have done six and a half hours when I have been there over the holidays, so it's definitely possible.

In recent months, when I have been doing these sort of challenges, I keep hash-tagging my posts with #themadvolunteer because everyone thinks I perhaps am a bit crazy to try something like this, however, when you have two weeks off and lots of time to fill that would otherwise be spent on Facebook or watching Films and iPlayer, why not. So, I guess I'm not as mad as everyone thinks, however, I wouldn't say that I haven't doubted myself that I was going to reach it at times. On the other hand, I think it's best to just get on with it and see what happens.

The great thing about volunteering is that it keeps you doing something but for some strange reason, I keep getting minor cuts and bruises when I'm doing it. I don't mind but it just means doing things minus one finger for a bit. Anyway, it's nothing compared to the suffering that some of the people that Oxfam, the shop I volunteer in, help. It's all worth it in the end.

The volunteering I have been doing has kept me sufficiently busy and I have enjoyed it all. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I enjoy college, I will kind of miss doing full days at Oxfam. Not because they pay for your lunch but because it's so much more fun when you do it for longer. It's great to work with and have a laugh with all the volunteers and is just a really friendly environment to work in. Plus, you learn at the same time and as of Friday, I'll be able to get a qualification out of it (on the other hand, this is a bonus).

The great thing is that it's a good story to tell everyone when you get back from Easter Holidays. "So Robert, what did you do over the Easter Beak?"
Me: Well, I did 60 hours of volunteering, met up with a few friends and still managed to relax
Them: HOW?!?!?

This is of course a hypothetical conversation but that's how I imagined it would go (with a bit of exaggeration in there). Overall, this has been a bit of an adventure of two weeks, however, I have come out of it without being bored and with almost 60 hours of volunteering under my belt. What an experience and one that I will never forget (much).  

A bit about my volunteering with NYYC

I know I promised a post every night for a while, however, unfortunately, I have'n been able to keep up with that. I'm still posting though. For todays post, I am writing about the recent work that my other volunteering, North Yorkshire Youth Council have been doing. I have been involved with youth council on one form or another since 2011, however, in the last year or so, have had the opportunity to represent Flying High (see my previous post for this) on county level.

The North Yorkshire Youth Council is currently working on two campaigns, one which they have adopted from the Youth Parliament and the other which is a local issue. In that order, A Curriculum for Life and Ride Around for £1 are the two that we have been focusing on.

Ride Around For £1 (RA4£1)

Ride Around for £1 has been a scheme which has won a National Bus Award (Yes, they do actually exist) and has made transport cheaper for people up to the age of 19 in the county. Additionally, it has massively increased the number of young people using public transport in the area. The campaign, aside from the environmental benefits, i.e. that there are fewer cars on the road, the scheme has proved to be financially beneficial for both sides. While making transport cheaper, it has also been a benefit to the bus companies who are, in the long-term, making more money from a generation that may not otherwise use public transport.

The campaign, despite winning awards and being beneficially to both sides, although we have no proof of this, I believe has been a boost to the businesses in the towns and villages that many of the participating services go to. Additionally, for students who live or study in Darlington, the area I represent for Team V, it works there too. On the other hand, this is only on about two services. I suppose this is perhaps just something I'm saying because it massively benefits me, however, it is useful.

A Curriculum For Life (C4L)

Moving onto "A Curriculum for Life", we have been feeding into the work that is going on nationally to get engaging and substantial Health, Financial and Political Education for secondary school students. Although these topics are already being taught in many schools, the key word here is "engaging". At the moment, much of this education is purely theory based, however, the fact is that (with the exception of one topic) practical activities are needed to make it memorable and useful for the students in question. In this, we are making progress but slowly. Perhaps Michael Gove should take the example of what they do in America, actually taking people out to practice these skills in everyday situations.

Other things we are working on 

In recent months, the youth council has learnt of cuts to the Children & Young Peoples Services budget that will effectively mean the destruction of the youth service in North Yorkshire. Although these are not yet confirmed, it is likely to mean the closure of almost every youth club in the county. This is a massive loss for the young people and I am glad to say that many people are willing to stand up for the youth clubs and staff that they value so much. In recent months, I have begun to realize that the youth clubs are the lifeblood of young people in the county and I am very proud to see the youth council at least making an attempt to save them.

A cut is inevitable, however, in my local area, Richmond, we are drawing up a plan for some of the youth work to be taken on by volunteers. The plan is that we fund training and they run the youth clubs where possible. On county level, we are still not sure what the plan is, however, we know we care about the youth service and we want to do something in an effort to lessen the impact on the young people that care about the clubs so much.

Getting back to the general work of the Youth Council, I am very proud to be a member of such an organisation and admire the attitude that other Members of the Youth Council have taken to the issues that we are currently working on. It shows that these volunteers are not just doing it for the hours and experience and truly care about what matters to young people in the county. Whether we succeed is another matter, however, we can only try.

I will try to keep you up to date on what is going on with NYYC, however, it depends how busy I am. I am very proud of the achievement so far but as I wrote on something else, earlier today, these are steps towards a final aim. We need to keep on walking

Routes to Roots Update - I'm getting there

Having been doing this for a number of weeks now, it is gradually coming together, however, it seems that every time I get progress, I subsiquently get a setback. In this case, it was rather ironic that when I had a set back yesterday, I was listening to music and what should come on but "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson. It's probably true but at times, it can feel as though you aren't getting anywhere.

I am hopefully getting a few stories for the campaign in the next few days and I hope to hear back from Teesside University SU about being my partner organisation. Additional to that, I have to phone up my proposed venue and organize the showcase event for sometime soon. I now only have one volunteer so when I get back to college on Monday, aside from the tasks I have to do for the event, I will be going round college, trying to get some volunteers. On the other hand, it's arty people I need.

As much as this campaign is supposed to make a lasting and big impact, I am not sure whether, with college and other volunteering, I will be able to keep it up. It may end up being a pretty simple event in the end. On the other hand, I'm not giving up on the final campaign. I have a volunteer that has applied so I will follow that up over the next few days and hopefully, I should get some responses for stories.

As much as this may sound bad, I'm beginning to prefer my Oxfam volunteering to Team v. It's not that I don't enjoy Team v and the challenges it brings but sometimes, it can get a bit too much. It is a great experience though. Oxfam, despite having only started recently is more relaxed. Plus, I don't have to worry about working that round college work. On the other hand, I might as well make the most of both while I can. When I do have a confirmed date for my event, I will be sure to post it on here and those who can come, please do.

I will be keeping this up to date, however, as much as I would like to say I will always post, planning the campaign has to come first and before that, college work. Off topic but still kind of relevant, one of my fellow Team v Leaders, Uzma Chaudhry, has recently started a petition which I'm sure she would love you to sign. Here is the link and the petition is calling for action to stop MPs policing their own expenses. It's something that keeps coming back to haunt the world of politics but it's nearly on 96,000 signatures and if you all share it, I'm sure that within the coming days, it will get up to the required 100,000 for it to be debated in Parliament.

Overall, I think I'm getting back on track but it might just take a few more volunteering hours than usual. On the other hand, that doesn't matter, especially since I'm trying to meet last weeks record of 30 hours in a week. Wish me luck!

Flying High to voice the views of disabled youth in North Yorks

Over the last year and a bit, I have been volunteering with a steering group run by Barnardos called Flying High and have more recently had the opportunity to represent them on the North Yorkshire Youth Council. Aside from the personal achievements, I have loved being able to represent the young disabled people of North Yorkshire and to feedback to various organisations on the views of such a group. In the last year, I have not only met lots of new friends and the group, in our last meeting, having the strongest number of people for quite a while. The group have also had the chance to consult with schools around the county, feed into research and reports being done by the Council for Disabled Children. Subsequently, perhaps as a result of that sort of exposure, we now have the opportunity to take part in a consultation with the Childrens Commission and feed into a report on the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. 

This, as I am sure you will understand, is a great opportunity for the group and it shows what we have achieved. Additionally, it is also another example of no matter how small you may think you are in terms of influence, it just goes to show the massive impact small actions can have. I guess this applies to all my volunteering in different ways, however, lets just say it's not as evident. The group has been going for a number of years now and I know that they will have achieved a lot in that time, however, this has to be a milestone in their history and I'm glad that I was there to have my part in it. 

In this case, they have definitely lived up to their namesake. We certainly have Flown High in making sure that the views and needs of young disabled people are being taken into account. In one of my next posts, I will be looking at what I have actually achieved though my volunteering. This is not a way to boast but it is important to show the significance of volunteering and the impact it can have, whoever you are and wherever you come from. 

School consultations in your mind might sound boring but this is about improving the education of these young disabled people so that they get more out of it and can learn in ways that suit them. I have had the experience of going to one such consultation myself and I can see how it does matter. This is also at an advantage to the local government who can  get direct feedback from the young people that many of their schools and colleges serve (well, almost direct. it goes through Flying High but we don't adjust it). 

In my view, Flying High is still doing exactly that and long may it continue. This month, I will be submitting a Positive Story to the British Youth Council on behalf of Flying High and as I look back, I can't help but think "Wow. What a year!". 

Keyfund in Richmond - A great Achievement

Having been volunteering for some years now, I have been involved in many projects but one of the most rewarding has to be Keyfund. Being a project that gives money to young people to do something positive for their peers and the community, it has been a great experience to see several projects through. The most recent is a sculpture project in which we went on a trip to get ideas and then subsequently took them to be shaped into our final sculpture idea. From there, we commissioned an artist to create it and it is now sitting in pride of place in The Station in Richmond which itself was a community project to make use of an old space to provide services for everyone, including cinemas and giving local businesses the chance to take advantage of the space in there.

It was great to see the finished product in place but apart from the reward of this, as part of Keyfund, our group had the honor of meeting Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge who gave some money to the charity as part of their wedding Charitable Fund. Nevertheless, to get the chance to see the end product of what has been a lengthy but worthwhile project was very fulfilling.

Keyfund, apart from the amazing experience it brings, also helps you develop skills that are invaluable and I will no doubt use in the future. I definitely learnt from it and although it may make it sound boring, it's actually quite a fun way to do things. Plus, although this isn't really the point, I do get volunteering hours from it.

I would have had a picture of the sculpture, however, I will see if I can pinch the one my youth worker took for the display that is going up at the youth club. It's a permanent showcase of what young people can achieve if they put the work in and that's why I am so proud of not just myself but my whole youth club for taking part in one way or another in the project.

I'm trying to think what the next stage is for the Keyfund group but whatever it is, I'm sure we will be able to step up to the challenge. We have several times before and we will again. To be honest, I'm not sure if there is another stage but I will just have to wait and see.

Overall, this is a great achievement and I'm sure it's one of many to come for the people involved. It will be something I will never forget and that's what makes it all worth it. To see further what Keyfund does, please visit this link and why not have a look at some of the case studies while you are there. PS: Oh and by the way, the Owl in the sculpture says hi

Anyway, please keep an eye out for more positive stories of projects I have been involved with (not necessarily because I've been involved in them) and I will be posting for the next few days. Keep a look out on my twitter feed if you are on there as well. I usually tweet about it all. That's it from me today but come back for more tomorrow.

I've done it - 24 hours of volunteering in five days

As you can see from my blog post title, I have reached my mini challenge of doing 20 hours in five days. In fact, I surpassed that and got a whole days volunteering in 5 days. This, for me, is a big achievement, given it's about 5 hours a day on average (4.8 to be exact but that's a bit hard to work out). Broken down, this is as follows:

Monday - North Yorkshire Youth Council
Tuesday - Team V
Wednesday - Oxfam Shop
Thursday - Flying High (Barnardos)
Friday - Oxfam Shop

I also got my volunteering at Oxfam sorted so that in two weeks time, I start an NVQ in Retail. It's not something I'm likely to need for the career that I'm hoping to go into, however, it's an extra qualification (one of many). It's also something to work towards, besides an unknown number of possible volunteering hours. I'm currently on 339 and I'm hoping to get to 340 soon. Shouldn't take long. Of course, there is the one hazard of working in a charity shop and that's in the last few days I managed to burn myself on the steamer a few times (don't worry, only tiny and not saw at all) and today managed to cut myself on the same finger twice within a few hours and all on a cardboard box. I am now minus one finger for doing many things but mainly typing and playing the guitar.

I'm just kind of wishing that the charity shop wasn't so big. you wouldn't expect to be able to get lost in a charity shop but this shop has so many doors and rooms and stairs that you end up standing at the stairs wondering where you need to go to get somewhere and your Deputy Manager is laughing her head off at you. Not the best thing to do.

This was originally meant to be a Team v Blog but has gradually turned into a blog about general volunteering and every now and then, positive news from other volunteering in my local area. What can I say? I like to spread a positive image of young people. I feel it's important to combat the often negative perception of young people in the media. With a similar objective, if you are interested, the British Youth Council run a monthly positive stories publication which can be found here . It's also just good to keep people updated on my volunteering in general. If you want to hear about things along the lines of what has been mentioned in this section of the post, please stay tuned over the next few days.

The work of young people is vital in raising issues that matter to them, as is their voice and what is done to show that anywhere possible. One of my fellow Team V Leaders who represents Leeds Metropolitan University posted a petition to stop funding for dyslexic and disabled students. Here is the NUS response to it. Give it a read. it's bound to be interesting.

Overall, it's been a great week of volunteering for me and hopefully you find this an interesting read. I went a bit off topic but only to shout out about things that I care about. Plus, they are still kind of related. Oh well. Stay tuned for more shout outs and good news about volunteering (both my own and local projects).

Routes to Roots - Progress (but not much)

Having had a long break from my blog to sort my volunteering and college work out, I'm Back. I'm now several weeks into the campaign and although I have an idea for an event and a possible place to put it on, I am still without a partner organisation locally. We're working on it though. I had my first volunteer meeting the other day and it was great to have finally done one. I managed to delegate a few tasks to take the pressure off a bit and let me get on with college work but it's still a work in progress.

I have an idea that I'm going to do an arty display on the subject of the campaign, however, for that I need volunteers from the Art department at college. A job for when we go back, I think. Luckily, they are right next to the media department. If I have any luck, we may be on our way. I have certainly got the awareness of the campaign locally sussed out though. Massive thanks to PA-Support-Services, an organisation in Darlington that supports the third sector. Also, a huge thanks to #DarloBiz and DarloBizHour for all the support with promoting the cause locally.

I seem to do well in organizing a team and the media bits, my specialty, however, getting an organisation is proving harder than I first thought. I'm about a week behind but I'll catch up. Unfortunately, my list of things to do for volunteering is very long and that's not just Team V jobs. Currently, I have stuff for a North Yorkshire Youth Council campaign to sort, bits for my local youth council and my Oxfam Volunteering. At least I'm not board.

After doing my previous challenges for volunteering, I am now setting myself mini targets each week. This week, I have aimed to get about 20 hours of volunteering done. I'm currently on about 17 and should get about another 5 tomorrow. That makes it 22. Getting back to the topic of the progress of the campaign, with the help of Mum, we've found an organisation called Equality North East who seem to run the Darlington Racial Equality Council, so I'm hoping to get in contact with them. It's worth a try.

If I can get an organisation working with Team V Darlington, I then only have the venue and event to plan. I have a sort of plan for the event but it needs the costing for it doing. It will get done, don't worry. I think that's as far as I have got for now. I need to contact a few people but apart from that, I'm on my way to having a half-decent campaign. Who knows? It might all work out in the end. Fingers crossed and wish me luck. PS: All the links are to the organisations Twitter (or in the case of Team V Darlington, my Twitter) but you can access their main websites from there

12 sort of funny reasons to apply for Team V 2015

So, having almost completed my 9 month journey as a Team V Leader, it is time to pass the baton on. The time is coming, yet again, for recruitment of Team V Class of 2015 (hence, we are Class of 2014). To encourage you on your way to pressing apply and possibly becoming a Team V Leader, here are 12 comedy reasons why you should apply to be in my position next year:

1. If, like me, you have crazy friends (in a good way), having one of them singing "Follow the Leader, Leader, Leader. Follow the Leader" can be quite funny. You can turn round and say "I am the leader".

2. Additional to that, you can always get people to make the joke about aliens and the classic saying "Take Me to Your Leader".

3. You get three free trips away with free food (if it's as good as this year, you're in for a treat)

4. If the venues are as big as this year, you will have a chance to get experience of getting lost and having to consult a map to find your way round a hotel (This might be a bad thing but it seemed pretty funny to me at the time).

5. You get to hang out with some awesome people, including Mentors and staff and your fellow leaders. This isn't necessarily funny but it is really inspiring and fun to see so many people working together to "Change the world, one campaign at a time".

6. You get to make the joke about the Hunger Games, i.e. the line about "I volunteer" (apparently quite a few charities are playing on the fact that it is a Hunger Games Reference)

7. In relation to my earlier reason, you can yourself go round singing  "Follow the Leader, Leader, Leader. Follow the Leader" and no one will think you are weird (well, at least not for that reason). Despite this, it does help to be a bit crazy when you take up the job of Team V Leader.

8. To be honest, Not all of these are funny. My other reason is, although it may sound boring at the moment, you get lots of really useful and practical training that will not only help you in Team V but in life as well.

9. Not that you would do it for this reason but you get money at the end (unfortunately, it has to be spent of something for your "educational benefit". What a shame).

10. These reasons are getting less funny but you certainly learn a lot of skills that are really useful, such as time and money management, working with a team and delegating tasks to people to share out the workload.

11. If you are anything like me, you will be watching the campaign videos just to listen to the tune in the background. So catchy. I'd just like to take this moment to congratulate whoever comes up with both the videos and the music for making it so fun and catchy. How do you do it?

12. I NEED A SUCCESSOR. Please don't let me down, both in my local area, Darlington and anywhere else in the country.

So there are my top 12 sort of comedic reasons for applying for Team V Class of 2015. If you would like anymore insight into what we do, please don't hesitate to check out the vIspired YouTube Channel for past campaign videos and also see the results of the campaigns. I will have more posts coming up soon, given I have quite a few ideas but I will be keeping you up to date on the Routes to Roots campaign in Darlington and there will be other stuff too. If you are on Twitter and have read this post, please Retweet or post it yourself. The further we get the message, the better. Untill the next time, Team V Out!

Routes to Roots - Week 1

So, In the first week of the final Team V 2013-14 campaign, I have had ups and downs in various ways. Unfortunately, the biggest campaign yet has come at exactly the same time as the biggest bits or coursework yet, which, at least for the moment, means that I have great big long lists of things to do in my notepad and I'm only slowly getting through them. On the other hand, thanks to me passing my Functional Skills Maths Exam, I now have an extra hour and a half at least to use to catch up on both college work and volunteering.

In the first week, despite the topic of #RoutestoRoots being a big one, I'm already thinking of ideas that are getting things going for organising a few mini events and one big one. I have already been to see the Deputy Principal of a nearby college to see if I could do a talk or workshop there and I will be going to the other college when I have the chance. Given this campaign is partially about leaving a legacy, I am taking the steps to hopefully give the young people of Darlington something to remember.

I will shortly be getting on with my project plan, however, that's only if I manage to work my way through my ever lengthening list of jobs to do. Just as I do one thing, it creates another thing for me to do. I am getting there though. I had a meeting with one of my volunteers today, which was really just to tell them a bit about what they could do and get contact details and so on. I'm attempting to get a few more volunteers and arrange a volunteer meeting for the next few weeks. Luckily, in this case, I seem to have technology to help me. There is a neat tool called Doodle and it lets you organize meetings. It's quite cool. Plus, Buffer is proving useful, especially for when I'm busy and can't tweet. These seem to be useful tools so I'm giving them a shout out for any other volunteers/leaders who want to use them.

Over the weekend, it was very good but we were constantly trying to get up to 2,000 followers on twitter. After a shout out to my volunteering, they had the honor of being the 2,00th follower. On the other hand, they wanted a prize for doing so. I did offer to write them an article on the campaign which seemed to be a good prize. The trouble is, I still haven't written it. I will have to get a move on tomorrow. On the other hand, if I need to, I will come in early or stay late to get bits of work, volunteering or college, done next week. It saves being behind and I would just like it to be calm again.

Oh well. It's going to keep me busy but it's better than being bored or walking around town wasting time. I will keep you up to date with the progress and hopefully get through it over the weekend. Please check out the campaign video below. Team V Out!

Countdowns and records

If you are wondering what I am on about when I'm saying countdowns and records, I have just about reached 300 volunteering hours (a new record for myself) and I am counting down to several significant and exciting events over the next week, mainly to do with my volunteering. On the other hand, it looks like it could be a busy week anyway.

It is now roughly 2 days until the Vibe Awards, where I will see my girlfriend and volunteer collect her award, as well as some very deserving other candidates and local organisations. I may not be nominated myself but to be honest, I'm so proud of Faye that I don't particularly mind. Plus, I do it for the fun and to keep myself occupied. It also looks great as experience on my CV, award or not. It should be a good event and as a young journalist, despite being there to support my volunteer and girlfriend, I would have liked to report on such a great event, however, I wouldn't know where to publish it. I will be sure to publish a post awards ceremony blog though.

I am also looking forward to the final Team V Residential in Loughborough, next Saturday. It is not only the last time, apart from Graduation, that I'll get to see everyone but given the length of the last campaign, it will be interesting to find out the issue that we will be campaigning on. I'm also looking forward to exploring further opportunities that I could do once the programme is finished. Although I will provisionally be doing a Level 3 course next year, I would like to see what I can carry on doing to keep something going. It seems a shame to just leave what has been such a great experience. Fair enough, there have been stressful moments, however, I have learnt from them and that's what's important.

Aside from the events that I am looking forward to being at, although it's not volunteering, I'm looking forward to being up to date with work and hopefully doing really well in the exam that I sat last week. I should find out on Tuesday. As much as looking forward to work sounds weird, I like working towards something and seeing the end product. Plus, it means I can concentrate on the next bit of work. It's the BIG one.

The other day, without much to do and wondering what to do for the final few hours of my voluntary challenge, although it may now be almost a year old, I watched the speech at vInspired Live by Terry Ryall, the CEO. I may have seen it many a time now, however, it's still as vInspiring as it was when I first saw it. In fact, at the first Team V residential, we had the privilege of meeting Terry and she is as nice as she seems on the video. 

To be honest, without vInspired, I doubt that I would be sitting here with 300 hours of volunteering under my belt. This is an amazing achievement for me and I would like to Thank vInspired for giving me that opportunity to not only get recognition for my volunteering but also keeping encouraging me on the days when I didn't really feel like doing voluntary work. Okay, I may not have reached my target in getting to 300 hours by the end of February 2014, however, it didn't take me too long to reach it.

Hence, from Monday 10th March, I will be raising money for vInspired by running, cycling and walking 300 miles in 150 days. This, in reality, is only two miles a day but it's still a challenge in a way. If you would like to sponsor me (please do), please visit my sponsor page here. I will put the page to track my progress up soon but I need the sponsors as well. My target is £300. I want to give something back to a charity that has given me so many great opportunities.

Overall, it should be good but busy next week, however, as I always say, it's better being busy than bored. I needed to get to 300 hours and this should cover my last hour of the challenge. I did it (9 days late but oh well). That's why they call it a challenge. Once revealed, I will also be doing a post on the third and final Team V campaign so keep a look out for that next Sunday. As always, everyone is wanting it to be a certain subject but the likelihood is that it won't be any of those. It's always a good challenge though. If it wasn't, we wouldn't learn anything, would we? What would be the point? 

To mark my 300th volunteering hour... read on and find out what I will be doing

As you know, over the last month or so I have been aiming to reach 300 hours of volunteering. I am currently on 296 and will hopefully reach the target by Monday 10th March. To mark the occasion, in a week that I am really looking forward to, I will start a challenge to reach 300 miles walking, running or cycling over the next 150 days (starting on the 10th). If you have been reading my other blogs, I think you will know what I meant about the week I am looking forward to but for those who haven't, it is the week where there is not only the final Team V Residential but also the Vibe Awards, in which my girlfriend and volunteer has won an award. I will cover that more next week.

Back to the subject of my challenge, given it is to mark my 300th volunteering hour, I will be doing this challenge in aid of vInspired and yes, you guessed it, will be aiming to raise a pound for every hour I have done to that date. vInspired, both through Team V, other volunteering and their various programs, give young people in the UK such valuable opportunities to make a change and gain experience that many employers are looking for these days. This is why I think that it is a great charity to raise money for and when I get the sponsor page up and running, I'm hoping some of you might sponsor me. My target is to raise £300 and you can kind of work out why. 

In 2012, I set myself the challenge of doing 2012 miles in 2012 which was a challenge that many were doing, however, I didn't reach it. I may have raised money but I didn't reach it. The fact is, it was unrealistic but I think that doing 300 miles in 150 days is a much more realistic target. Who knows? I might reach it before the 150 days ends (on August 6th 2014). That would be a great achievement and I would be happy to have raised some money for a charity that I care about and has given me so much over the last few years. It's the least I could do to give something back. 

I bet, at the moment, you are thinking that this challenge will be easy, however, the likelihood is that I won't meet targets every day and this will make it harder but also enough of a challenge to raise some decent money. Plus, hopefully I should have plenty of support. Unfortunately, I cannot take offline donations but I will post the link to my page on Monday and you can sponsor me that way. 

Overall, I think that it will be good to give something back but also it will be interesting to see how I do in my challenge. If you would like to track my progress, I will also post that page up when I have it running (on the other hand, should that be running, cycling and walking). I hope you will support me and please keep checking back for an update on how I am doing. 

Volunteering challenge update and other volunteering bits

Having been doing Team V for some months now, it is sad to think that we are nearly on the last campaign, however, I am excited to find out what it is and do my best to carry it out. Through Team V, I have met some great people, had amazing experiences and gained plenty of volunteering hours. I will be happy to not have to juggle so much with my college work, however, it will be sad to finally see the end of an exciting 9 month journey. The best thing about Team V has to be the people I've met. They are friends that I will never forget.

Aside from the end of Team V nearing, I am also nearing the end of a challenge I set myself to get to 300 hours by the end of February, however, I may not quite make it. I am currently on 292.5, however, that means having to do 3 hours and 15 minutes for the next two days. I know that this, under usual circumstances, would be fine, however, I do have college and I need to improve on work. I may get to 295 or something but I don't know. It was a great target though and I will continue to set realistic targets over the next few months so keep an eye out. I have a feeling that I may have to go in tens or twenties but oh well.

Thirdly and finally, I am really looking forward to seeing my only volunteer (my girlfriend) collect her Vibe Award on the 11th of March. I am so proud of the volunteering she has done with Team V and her local youth group and I admire her for that. I was also glad to hear that staff from my own volunteering that I did 50 hours for over the summer will be there. C:The Box is such a great media hub and youth club and I thank them for the opportunity and what they do with young people is really inspiring (or should I say, Vinspiring). On the other hand, so is the project with which my volunteer volunteers with, Rainbows, which, if I am correct in my research, is run by Girlguiding.

Overall, there is a lot coming up over the next month or so and I will be busy, however, as I'm always saying, it's better than being bored. Plus, it means that I will hopefully do well in my college work and I'll also get more volunteering hours. A bonus - in a way! Anyway, I hope to post again soon and I will be sure to let you know if I get my volunteering challenge completed. Team V Out!

Volunteering Challege Update & Tme to Talk Day 2014

It's about a week since my last post and I have actually surprised myself with the amount of hours I have gained towards my volunteering challenge. I haven't taken any focus from my college work but still managed to get my overall total of hours up to 271 and a half, leaving me with 28.5 hours to go. The challenge is proving to be slightly easier thatn I thought it would be, however, perhaps that's down to the range of volunteering I do. The other day, I managed to log 5 hours within one day. I must have been really bored that day. On the other hand, a big chunk of that came from a project I am still doing for Youth Journalism International. At this rate, I nshould be finsihed way before the 28th, especially if you count Youth Council and Flying High hours.

The other thing that I would like to do this post on is Time to Talk Day 2014, a chance for many to promise to erase the stigma around mental health. The fact is that an increasing number of young people are suffering from such conditions, either down to trouble at home or stress with college or university work, amoung other things. We cannot treat young people, many of which have great potential, as outsiders just because they suffer from a mental health condition. If anything, we should be helping them get on with their lives, going to college, getting a job. They have just the same rights as all of us so why should that make them different.

Having seen much conversation about the topic on Twitter and Facebook, I came across this vlog from a fellow Team V Leader, in which he shares his take on Take to Talk 2014.  

I feel that we should do more to support everyone with mental health problems, however, being a young person, I get that it is important to tackle this problem first, in order to allow young people to have everyday lives without having to deal with a Stigma. If you would like to find out more about time to talk 2014, head to http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/talkday for more info. If you want to keep track of my volunteering challenge, there is a count down at the side of this blog or keep up to date with my posts which will include regular countdowns. Hope you like this post and see you back here soon.

My volunteering challenge - #300by280214

In January, as a New Year's resolution, given my continued volunteering with Shout Out UK, Backbench UK and Team V, I decided to set myself a challenge. That challenge was to get to 300 volunteering hours by the end of January, however, by late January, I realised that this was a bit unrealistic. The fact is, I am only at 259 now. Despite this, I have not given up and set myself another challenge to do the same by the end of February, hence the #300by280214 hashtag.

Despite this being something that I have set for myself, rather than being set it by Vinspired or anyone else, I think it will no doubt keep me busy over the next few weeks. With volunteering for Backbench, ShoutOut and Team V continueing and Youth Council and Barnardos hours, I think I shoule esily be up to 264 by the end of the week and who knows after that.

If you would like to follow my challenge, please keep checking back on my blog. I will either put a counter at the side of my blog or will keep updating you in posts like this one. As much as it still might be a bit mad, I hate being bored. Volunteering gives me the satisfaction that I can have a voice and voice young peoples views on issues that matter to them. It also keeps me reasonably busy but in a constructive way.

Having held my event yesterday and given that I have an exam next Tuesday. I will be slightly holding back on doing the challenge until then, however, you never know, I may end up with more than 300 by the end of February. It's certainally going to be interesting, however, I'm up for the challenge and I hope that you will keep track of my progress.

The importance of volunteering is being a key issue in the world of jobs, meaning that anyone with substantial volunteering hours is at an advantage. As much as they will be useful in this area when I eventually get a job, it's not the main reason I do volunteering. The main reasons I do voluntering are to have fun and to give back to causes that I think are worthy, even if that does mean that it benefits me as well. An example of this would be with my writing for Backbench and ShoutOut UK, building up a portfolio in something that I want to eventually go into. Despite that, I find it fun and i'm sure it benefits the other side as well.

Despite my challenge, I still have to give priority to college work, which I am grateful that everyone i volunteer for understands. In December 2013, I got that balance wrong and went into overload in terms of the work and time I had. I burnt myself out and I don't want to do that again. Luckily, using what I learnt from that, I should manage to do my challenge without this happening.

Overall, it will be a challenge but I think that I can rise to it and I will be sure to let you know how it goes. I currently have to get another 40.5 hours to reach my target. That's about an hour and a bit each day. Unfortunately, I can't work out what it is down to the minute without spending ages calculating it myself. Search enginges only seem to give it in a long number. Oh well. Wish me luck and keep checking back for my progress. Team V Out!

Love is - Pop-up stall day

So, today was the day. Having spent a few weeks planning, I finally took the opportunity to do my pop-up event for "Love is...", the second Team V campaign, in Darlington College Health Week. Being alongside many great organisations in the same place was a great thing, however, to top it all off, I got quite a lot of interest. As much as we didn't quite meet the targets for engaging 30 young people, there was plenty of interest and we had quite a lot of fun. Plus, Danielle, one of the Team V mentors who came to help me at my event, said that the targets that are based on the effort, I would have passed.

The actual event, despite being in competition with some other organisations, went well. If we didn't get people taking part in the activity on the stall, I saw many of the people who I handed leaflets to doing the activity within the leaflet. It was, however, disappointing that some people saw the issue of healthy relationships as something to laugh about. It seems that many seem to think that it is all about the sexual health aspect, not the emotional part that is really important.

Overall, it was fun and we got a lot of interesting answers. The great thing is that many people said that it had a lasting impact. Whether that be that they would think about the issue more or talking to friends about it, it's all good. It was also good to do with with my volunteer, given it may have been a bit boring with her. 

You are probably wondering what I am going to do for the remainder of the campaign, however, I will be promoting the issue in social media and writing about it wherever possible.Keep a look out for them and I will try to post the links on here. Hope you enjoyed my log of my Team V Journey and check back for further posts soon. Team V Out!

13 hours and counting - Team V Residential 2

So, it's that time again. I'm all packed (almost) and I am looking forward to finding out what Campaign 2 is (the suspense is killing me!). Not quite. After a fairly successful campaign 1, I am looking forward to getting stuck into campaign 2 (almost volunteerless). The challenge with this campaign will be balancing college, exams and other volunteering with Team V. I know that it is possible but I'm still working out how. I need to get rid of a big fat fail in my college work (and no, for a change, I'm not talking about a student or tutor). The thing is, it's in games production and I'm creating a Team V themed game.

The main concern with this campaign is the news that is it only 5 weeks long. I know it's to test our organisational skills but it's more likely to drive me mad. I'm sure it will be a challenge though. It will; also help with my own volunteering challenge, i.e. to get to 300 hours by the end of February. I'm mad to attempt it, I know, but it's something I am doing.

After going on about losing control of work and volunteering, I have weirdly found an app that allows me to manage it really well. I never thought I would be thanking an app but I find myself doing so now. If anything, I hope I don't come back and find myself falling asleep half way through my tea like last time. I was literally too tired to even feel hungry.

Oh well. I'm still working out how to get my volunteers but I already have an organisation in my area that are willing to help. I used to volunteer for them or another branch of their organisation and they have offered to lend me a hand. So, if you are reading, here's a shout out to C:The One Stop Shop and C:The Box.

For the second campaign, despite being in the middle of the area I did my first campaign in and the one I am changing to, I am changing my area to Darlington for the second campaign. Given it's only five weeks and I go to college and have more contacts there, it will be better to base myself in Darlo.

Finally, please wish me luck in my volunteering challenge. I am only sixty-four hours away from success. That's the equivalent of 2 days, 16 hours of volunteering. Anyway, I'm off for an early night before an early start tomorrow. See you all tomorrow, Team V. I'm looking forward to it.