News
e-youthaction no. 66, October 2010
04 October 2010
Participation
Participation Works has published Honesty, Commitment and Trust – Delivering Training in Partnership with Young People it explores how organisations support and develop young people to work as partners to design and deliver training. The resource focuses on involving young people aged between 16 and 25 years old as co-trainers.
The latest quarterly Exchange magazine from NCVYS focuses on youth participation. Exchange compiles articles, case studies, news items and pictures by expert contributors from the sector. This issue features a range of organisations and projects that are involving young people in a meaningful and active way – from a fashion show in Cambridge to a youth advisory board in the North east.
Research
The Charity Commission has published A Breath of Fresh Air, which explores why it is that those aged between 18 and 24 are so markedly under-represented on charity boards - only 0.5 per cent of charity trustees are aged 18 to 24. It claims one of the biggest barriers to young trusteeship is a lack of awareness of the role among young people and argues that charities are not doing enough to think creatively about how to attract them to the role.
Volunteer Now has published Youth Volunteering: Making a Difference to Community Relations which shows that 54 per cent of 16 year olds in Northern Ireland took part in some form of volunteering activity in the last year. Of the 857 young people who were questioned 37 per cent had volunteered formally through an organisation, far exceeding that of the general population at 21 per cent. The survey also found that volunteering led to an increase in cross-community and inter-ethnic contact. Young people who volunteered were more likely to socialise with people from different backgrounds.
Resources
The National Youth Agency has launched a series of new materials to help youth workers showcase the difference they make to young people’s lives for use during Youth Work Week from 1 – 7 November 2010. The Youth Work Week materials include a guide on to how to evidence good youth work, information on what youth work is, details on how to run a media campaign and poster, press release and case study templates.
Clinks, the volunteering and mentoring network has published that latest in its volunteering guides designed to support organisations in their day-to-day work with offenders. Service User Involvement is written by service users and provides a structured and accessible introduction to involving offenders and ex-offenders in an organisation’s work, including examples of good practice, checklists and signposting to further information and support.
Participation Works has published Children and Young People's Involvement in Formal Meetings: A practical guide, which explores ways in which children and young people can make a real and lasting contribution to a wide range of formal decision-making meetings.
Awards/funding
There is still time to nominate someone for a Diana Award. The Diana Award recognises amazing work carried out by young people, whether they are volunteers, fundraisers, campaigners, carers or anyone working for the benefit of others. Nominate for one of three schemes:
The Diana Award
Designed for individuals aged 12-18 who have made a continued, selfless contribution to their community.
The Diana Anti-Bullying Award
An award open to individuals or groups aged 5-18 who have tackled bullying in their schools and communities.
The Diana Certificate of Excellence
For groups aged 12-18 working together to make communities a better place to be.
The deadline for nominations is 12 November 2010.
National Youth Agency young intern Belinda Fumai has been honoured with a prestigious Diana Award for being an inspirational role model. Belinda, who is 19 years old, has been chosen for the Award because of her passionate commitment to advocating on behalf of young people and ensuring that their voice is heard and recognised in society. Read Belinda’s blog>>
The BBC Children in Need general grants programme exists to fund projects that improve the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the UK. There are main grants of more than £10,000 per year and small grants of £10,000 or less per year. The deadline for the final round of 2010 funding is 15 October.
The Guardian and Observer Christmas 2010 charity appeal is looking for 10 projects that are making a big impact on the lives of disadvantaged teenagers and young adults. The application process will be open until 8 October.
The Big Lottery Fund Youth in Focus grant is now open for applications. The £30m England-wide funding programme is a targeted programme aimed at young carers, young people leaving youth offending institutions and young people leaving care. The application deadline is 30 November.
Events/campaigns
CSV Make a Difference Day this year takes place on Saturday 30 October. This year the campaign is encouraging more families to volunteer together. Community groups and organisations can register an activity as well as download free resources to help plan an activity.
The social action network i-volunteer has launched the campaign, ‘Try Something New in the Bedroom’. The campaign aims to highlight how easy it is to volunteer by undertaking bite-sized actions known as ‘micro-volunteering’, either from a computer or a mobile phone. It is hoped that many such volunteers will get hooked and move on to more sustained commitments.