V News and Events
Play day event 2010
In August, 2009 the Derby Play Partnership held it's first ever Citywide Playday event. This was a very successful day with approximately 2,500 children, young people and families joining us to have some fun.
In 2010 the Derby Play Partnership will be holding another city wide event, this time on Osmaston Park on Wednesday 4 August, between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm - though you will need to be available before 11:00 am to set up your activity. This event is free to attend and is to encourage children, young people and families to participate in play opportunities of their choice.
If you would like your organisation to participate by offering an activity on the day please complete the registration form located in the downloads section and send it to:
Maggie Bates, Senior Play Development Officer, Derby City Council, Sport and Leisure, Room 506, Celtic House, Friary Street, Derby. DE1 1QX. maggie.bates@derby.gov.uk
The play day event is also looking for a volunteer who is interested in helping to organise the event and would assist with the administration. You'll be working with the Senior Play Development Officer, 2 to 4 hours per week to help co-ordinate this event. You may be filing one minute and talking about medieval sponge fights and clog dancing the next! If you have administration skills, can communicate well with people, can be focused - working to tight and changing deadlines, please come and join us. Admin tasks will take place at Celtic House in the city centre. For more information contact Maggie Bates on 01332 641257 or email Maggie.bates@derby.gov.uk
UKYP Free For All Campaign
The UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) enables young people to use their energy and passion to change the world for the better. Run by young people for young people, UKYP gives the young people of the UK, between the age of 11 and 18 a voice, which is heard and listened to by local and national government, providers of services for young people and other agencies that have an interest in the views and needs of young people.
The UK Youth Parliament believes that all young people across the UK should have access to university education, regardless of their wealth or socio-economic class. Higher Education should be a right of every citizen in the UK, the Government should realise this right by removing financial barriers which are currently stopping young people from meeting their aspirations.
Here in Derby a group called Voices In Action group have taken on the job of getting as many young people to sign up to the campaign by petitioning all over Derby to make sure young peoples views and voices are heard!! The group has been visiting schools, college, youth groups and clubs and basically anyone who will listen to get them signed up.
For more information about the UK Youth Parliament campaign please go to the UKYP website at http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/freeforall
vschools
vschools is part of the Youth Community Action Programme, launched by the government in March 2010, which aims to inspire all 14 to 16 year olds to give their time and get involved in projects and activities that will benefit the community.
Many young people already enjoy giving time to their school or community - learning new skills, gaining experience and having fun. The vschools programme builds on this enthusiasm by enhancing existing community action opportunities in schools (such as school councils, peer mentoring initiatives and fundraising activities), and by creating new projects to inspire students to lead positive change.
The vschools programme will be rolled out from April 2010. It includes a new team of vschools Advisers who will provide expert advice and support, as well as web-based resources for schools, a recognition scheme, and advice on safeguarding young people.
To find out more visit www.vschools.org.uk
Volunteers Week
It was National Volunteers Week 1st-7th June 2010 this year and the vinvolved team and YAT supported the Volunteer Centre Derby's Speed Volunteering and Volunteers Fair at The Spot Conference Centre in the city centre. The event also included talking books from current Volunteer Centre volunteers about how they got involved with volunteering and what the benefits have been for them and an outreach brokerage service. There were 30 organisations at the Volunteer Fair and 22 organisations took part in the Speed Volunteering Event. The event was open to the public to wander round the stalls and also have a go at the Speed Volunteering. The YAT supported the event by helping run the Speed Volunteering Event and supporting the organisations in the Volunteers Fair.
Speed Volunteering during National Student Volunteering week 2010!
vinvolved Derby city partnered up with Derby university and the Students Union to put on a Speed Volunteering event as part of National Student Volunteering Week. It was run on Thursday 25 February 2010 in the main atrium at the Kedleston Road site. The event was attended by 14 organisations who were there to promote their opportunities directly to the potential volunteers. The Youth Action Team were also on hand to sign people up, support people round the different organisations and to collect the score sheets at the end of the sessions.
The event was run in two separate sessions of 45 minutes. The students got 3 minutes to speak to each organisation and then score them to say if they wanted a second date or not!! Thom and Simon from the team then brought all the information back to the Volunteer Centre and made 174 referrals to the various organisations. We would like to say a big thank you to Enthusiasm, Derbyshire Association for the Blind, Playing for Success, Derbyshire Autism Services Group, Derby Kids' Camp, Umbrella, Lattitude Global Volunteering, Derby Live at Home, SOVA, Sporting Futures, Derbyshire Link, British Heart Foundation, Derby City Council Excellence Partnership, Schools Out and the University. We would also like to thank Inderjeet, Amanda and Jaz of the Youth Action Team.
The feedback from the organisations and the volunteers has been positive so we now hope that as many volunteers as possible set up a second date and start volunteering with the organisations they chose.
Thom has plenty of ENERGY at the vinspired national awards.
vinvolved Derby city's Thom Kellogg made his way to London for the vinspired national awards on Thursday 26th November 2009. After a smooth trip down and check in to the hotel it was off to the 02 arena for the awards. Simon Hancox the programme manager, Tom Corrigan and Inderjeet Chera members of the Youth Action Team also came along to experience a fantastic night. It started with a drinks reception followed by a 10 course meal before the awards presentations kicked off. The awards ceremony can only described as a mix of the BAFTAS and an MTV awards night. It was glitz and glam from start to finish with famous names presenting all the national winners with their prizes. James Caan, Max and OB from Hollyoaks and Joe Thomas and Emily Head from the Inbetweeners to name just a few!! The after show party followed with performances from Tinchy Stryder, Bashy, Lady Sovereign, Gabriella Climi and this had everyone (including Simon) on the dance floor!! It was a great night had by all!!
Thom said "It was an amazing night and experience that I won't forget for a long time even though I didn't win the national award. I have since received my certificate for winning the East Midlands award in the Energy category and that will be sitting proud on my wall in the office!!"
vinvolved Derby city mid term report
This report highlights the key pieces of work done by the team for the period April 08 - September 09 (the halfway stage of the 3 year project). The report gives an assessment of the project and includes feedback about the team's work from partner organisations, volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations.
To view the mini report click here
To view the full report click here
REACH success
Community Action Derby is very pleased and proud to announce that we have achieved REACH status. For those of you who don't know, REACH is the only quality standard in the UK focusing on Youth Volunteering.
We worked on completing a range of practices and indicators including safety, induction, support, networking and partnership working. We built REACH into our team work plan, assessed our current policies and procedures, made necessary changes and successfully submitted evidence to the REACH team at Youth Action Network on a regular basis.
We feel that this achievement shows our commitment to involving volunteers in a well planned and structured way here at Community Action Derby. We have policies and procedures in place to plan, recruit, place and support volunteers in and outside of the organisation in an appropriate way.
For more details about REACH contact Simon Hancox, Youth Volunteer Development Manager at Community Action Derby on 01332 227718 or email simon.hancox@communityactionderby.org.uk
VC impact report
A piece of research work about what we do well and how we can improve
July 2008 - The team designed a survey to assess the impact of its work as a Volunteer Centre. The following report tells us what we found and it also gives clarity on the six core areas of a Volunteer Centre.
Main report with qualitative feedback click here
Appendix with quantitive feedback click here
Community newsletter (to view click here)
We always have a wide range of voluntary opportunities available for people in Derby to get involved in. Whether it be working with animals, the environment, business management or sport we are confident that we have something suitable for you.
The following newsletter is a snapshot of some of the local volunteering opportunities active in Derby. It will give you an idea of what's currently available and it will also give you a chance to focus on different work areas and tasks. If you see anything you like, then give us a call, nip in to see us or drop us an email.
You can come and see us on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 10.00 am and 5.00 pm at our office at 31 Charnwood Street in Derby or you can call us on 01332 342272.
You can search for all of our local volunteering opportunities that suit you at www.do-it.org.uk
