The Ivy Project

BASIC INFORMATION

Case study date: September 2005

Local authority in which project based: Devon

Date started: 1999 (as Inter-Community Volunteer Youth)

Type of organisation: Voluntary youth organisation

Brief description

The Ivy Project is a dedicated youth volunteering project with trained specialist workers. It provides opportunities for young people aged 12 to 25 to access a range of volunteering opportunities in their community, encourages their personal development and enables them to celebrate their achievements. It has four main objectives:

Making volunteering flexible, fun and accessible;
Ensuring that young people are encouraged and recognised as valuable members of their communities;
Working with and supporting young people from a range of backgrounds, especially those who are at risk of social exclusion; and
Giving young people a say in the running of the project.

It uses a three-model approach including taskforce - one-off volunteering opportunities; matching - traditional volunteer placements; and youth action - young people designing and managing their own projects.

Funding

Main funders are the Community Fund, Henry Smith Foundation and Exeter Youth Development Partnership,

Staffing

Two project managers, four dedicated project workers to deliver the three-model approach, plus a business administrator.

NATURE OF PROVISION

Which groups of young people does the project work with?

Between 2000-04, the project recruited 663 young people aged 12 to 25 as volunteers.

How was the need for the project identified?

Exeter Volunteer Bureau originally employed a youth volunteering facilitator in 1997-99 (as part of the Young Volunteer Development Programme) to work strategically with local organisations to increase young people's involvement in volunteering. A mapping exercise revealed that there were only limited opportunities for young people to volunteer and young people were often unaware of them. Young people expressed the need for volunteering opportunities which were flexible, varied and exciting. A steering group was established to create a project which could reach a wide range of young people and offer them the fullest range of possibilities. This started up in 1999 (as Inter-Community Volunteer Youth).

How do young people become involved? What, if any, commitment do you ask for?

Young people can approach the project directly, but are also referred from a wide range of agencies, including schools, volunteer centres, Connexions, supported housing, social services and adolescent mental health services. Young people may dip in and out of projects because of the problems they face, but the project ensures that they can come back without any feeling of failure. Young people are also encouraged to become involved in the running of the project.

What are the main approaches used and activities offered?

Ivy provides a broad range of opportunities tailored to young people's needs. It uses a three-model approach:

Taskforce: one-off volunteering opportunities helping the community but requiring low commitment. Activities include a marine commando challenge, taking part in Relay for Life (raising funds for cancer research), a mosaic project for CSV Make a Difference Day, and helping out at local events and festivals.
Matching: traditional volunteering placements, such as volunteering at the RSPCA and in charity shops, conservation work, helping out in day centres. and youth work placements.
Youth action: young people design and manage their own community projects with support from trained facilitators. They include activities such as campaigning for skateparks, graffiti art projects, and raising awareness of child abuse. Many of these projects have a focus on community safety - one recent example is the TEAR Project, a forum theatre project aimed at raising awareness in young people of the issues related to alcohol abuse. There is also an emphasis on the use of media - young volunteers in the Media-Pac group are responsible for producing a bi-monthly project newsletter, 'Ivy Uncovered' and developing IVY's website.

This model has proved very successful. Young people receive whatever support and training they need to be able to do whatever they want. Theproject seeks to ensure that young people are recognised as valuable members of their community by celebrating the achievements of young people, challenging any negative perceptions experienced in the wider community about young people and vice versa, providing positive images of young people and actively promoting their achievements through Ivy Uncovered.

How are young people involved in shaping the project/programme?

Induction for new members includes information on the ways in which they can become involved in the management and development of the project. Staff provide young people with support and training to develop the skills they need to help manage the project. Ivy also aims to involve young people as representatives on the executive committee, and to employ young people as project staff.

How does the project respond to the needs of different young people, particularly the most marginalised?

Ivy operates a a policy of no refusal, and provides one-to-one support to those who need it through employing a specialist support worker. It seeks to make it as easy as possible to get involved, and targets specific areas of the county where there is most need and those young people at risk of social exclusion. Many of the young people have specific support needs or are dealing with issues which may not become apparent until they have been involved for a while. During 2000-04, the project worked with 11 volunteers with having emotional and behavioural problems, 17 with learning difficulties, 45 with mental health problems, 20 with serious drugs and alcohol issues, 13 disabled young people and 131 described as 'vulnerable', including young people in and leaving care, young carers and homeless young people. Its approach stresses working with the young person rather than the problem.

OUTCOMES OF WORK

How do young people benefit from their involvement in the project?

Young people benefit from developing much needed work skills, social skills, having a safe place to go and to be listened to, and from being with positive people. A large proportion go onto to further education, having worked out what it is they want to do through their volunteering. Some go on to full time volunteering, others to training, employment and university.

How do others (young people, organisations or the wider community) benefit from the project?

When a young person is involved in the project and doing positive things this has a knock on effect in all areas of their lives and all the people they come into contact with. There is a reduction in anti-social behaviour and a general feeling of wellbeing about the young person. The project the young person is involved with benefits from their time and energy.

Does the project contribute to community cohesion?

Volunteering contributes to community cohesion. Bringing together all people in the community to work on projects contributes to a good community spirit. The placements also encourage this, since quite often young people are placed in organisations where they are the only young person. Young people involved in taskforce activities are also often the only young people taking part in the event. These inter-generational contacts help dispel stereotypes about young people.

How are young people's progress and achievements measured and recorded?

Ivy runs events to celebrate young people's achievements. Accreditation is offered through Millennium Volunteers. Ongoing monthly reviews are offered to each young person volunteering on a regular basis.

MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS

How is the project evaluated and by whom?

The project evaluates its work on a daily basis. It has subscribed to a number of different quality assurance tools, such as PQASSO (a practical quality assurance scheme for small voluntary sector organisations) and the Youth Action Network's REACH quality standards model. It is currently developing its own evaluation system to record outcomes. Ivy records the hard statistics through its volunteer recruitment processes. Young people involved in Ivy tell staff what they want and what they feel about the service, which is then shaped to fit the needs of the young people who use it.

What are the findings of any evaluations to date?

Ivy is trying to cope with the demand from young people, who would like more time and more opportunities to get involved.

What changes/developments have occurred - or are planned - as a result of evaluation?

To source more funding.

What factors help the work?

Ivy's location within a forward-thinking and dynamic volunteer centre integrated into Exeter CVS. The volunteer centre has experts on hand to advise about mental health, disability and cultural issues, while Ivy can advise the centre on young people's issues. Ivy has access to up-to-date volunteering activities, and is able to share resources, plan joint events and share their costs with the volunteer centre.
Its partnership approach ensures that all young people are able to access some type of activity with correct level of support from Ivy or from the relevant volunteer centre project worker. Many staff are part-time, and the volunteer centre has a policy that all staff members should treat volunteers with specific support needs as their own volunteer. This means that volunteers have access to support at any time during the week, and simple queries can be dealt with immediately rather than them having to wait until their named worker is in the building.

What factors hinder the work?

Lack of funding

PARTNERSHIP/MULTI-DISCIPLINARY WORKING

What other agencies do you work with?

The project works in close partnership with Exeter Volunteer Centre. It has strong links with other agencies in Exeter including Devon Youth Service (in Exeter), Connexions, Exeter CVS, Drive (Devon Racial Inclusion Volunteering in Exeter), Westexe Technology College, adolescent mental health services, young persons' substance misuse workers, Involve and Student Community Action. It is beginning to forge links with youth offending team, social services, the youth service in Exmouth and Exminster, Devon Drug Action Team and Connexions in South Hams. The project is also supporting INVOLVE, a mid-Devon organisation which has set up a gardening taskforce project inspired by Ivy.

When working in partnership, what is the distinctive contribution of your organisation/project?

Giving young people a voice and making sure that young people get a say in the decisions that adults and services are making about their services.

STRATEGIC IMPACT

Do you consider this project to be innovative?

Yes, as a specialist youth volunteering agency with focus on reaching socially excluded young people.

What plans do you have to sustain/develop this work?

Project has developed three-year plan to expand its work across Devon, building on the successful model of working in close partnership with Exeter Volunteer Centre.

CONTACT

Stephanie Chivers
The Ivy Project
Wat Tyler House
King William Street
Exeter EX4 6PD

Tel: 01392 686688
E-mail: mailto:steph@theivyproject.org.uk
Website: http://www.theivyproject.org.uk/