Leicester vinvolved team
vinvolved is the new youth volunteering programme funded by v the national youth volunteering charity. v’s mission is to inspire a new generation of volunteers in England aged 16 – 25. FOCUS hosts the Leicester city vinvolved team, which is one of 107 teams across the country.
As the Leicester City vinvolved team, we raise awareness amongst diverse groups of young people of the benefits of volunteering and the wide range of activities available to them. We also signpost these young people to a wide range of opportunities across the city and issue the vawards at annual celebration events to recognise their positive contribution.
l We can accredit your young people with the vawards and support the organisation to offer other types of accreditation for its volunteers
l Sign post young people to your organisation through our brokerage service
l Help your young people to set up a youth led project and apply for funding
l If you need volunteers for a project or specific event we can advertise the volunteer opportunities on vinspired (the national portal for volunteers aged between 16-25) and help recruit using our database of volunteers
l Give training, support, advice and guidance on how to involve young people as volunteers in your organisation
l Run 'Outside the Box' sessions with your young people about the benefits of volunteering and inspire them to set up there own youth led projects
l Run regular drop-in sessions so that young people can search for volunteer opportunities on our database with the guidance of our specially trained brokerage team
l Provide a youth volunteering network keeping partner organisations updated by
e-bulletins and newsletters on training, events, funding volunteer opportunities, and other volunteering related issues
Brokerage involves supporting young people to access volunteering opportunities that reflect their passions, skills and interests this includes:
l Signposting young people to new or existing opportunities
l Supporting young people to create their own youth-led projects.
Our vinvolved team runs regular brokerage drop-in sessions in local colleges, youth clubs, hostels, etc.
Our highly trained brokerage team can create a volunteer opportunity specifically to meet the young person’s needs and interests.
We can create a tailor-made session to run with your young people or staff about the benefits of volunteering and inspire them to set up there own youth led projects.
Outside of the box sessions can be used to:
l Promote youth volunteering and dispel some of the preconceived barriers
l Inspire young people to set up their own youth led projects
l Introduce new and innovative volunteering opportunity available in Leicester
The session can include all of the above or concentrate on a particular element such as youth led projects. This session can also include information on fundraising, marketing, budgeting how to create role descriptions and much more.
These sessions are often run by a member of the Leicester City vinvolved team and some of our Youth Action Team members.
To support the recognition and celebration of youth volunteering, and to build on the legacy of the Millennium Volunteers programme, our vinvolved team is offering all partner organisations the national vawards:
If you would like to offer the vawards to your young people then please contact us to arrange a meeting. We can provide you with logbooks and guidance.
We have a skilled team of young people and staff that can help you write interesting volunteer advertisements and role descriptions.
We can promote volunteering opportunities to young people by:
l Uploading your volunteering opportunities on to do-it.org and vinspired.com – the volunteering site for 16-25 year olds in England.
l Adding them to our database of volunteering opportunities, which is taken to Brokerage drop-in sessions in colleges, youth clubs, universities, hostels and many other organisations that work with 16 -25 year olds.
l Including them in our regular e-bulletins we send to all our volunteers.
As a vinvolved team we offer training support and advice and guidance on how to involve young people as volunteers in your organisation
We are currently offering training for volunteer involving organisations on how to support their volunteers. The training covers subjects such as:
l Youth participation
l Creating new and innovative volunteering opportunities
l Inducting volunteers
l Policies and procedures
l Volunteers and the law
l Youth led projects
l Fundraising and Marketing
If you are an organisation that does not already involve young volunteers we can help you create all the necessary documents and procedures including giving you examples from our good practice library.
For further details of the Leicester vinvolved, please contact :
Emily Godwin
emily.godwin@focus-charity.co.uk
Download Leicester vinvolved team leaflet
Leicester_vinvolved_team.pdf
www.vinspired.com
