October Newsletter 2008       Welcome to the first Young TimeBank Volunteer Facilitators’ Newsletter! As a way of ensuring our Volunteer Facilitators are kept up to date with all the latest happenings within the Young TimeBank project we want to provide you with a regular newsletter – this will include the following regular sections: News - what schools volunteers have been matched with, what projects are currently underway and any changes or developments within the Young TimeBank team. Volunteer Voices - updates from some of our Volunteer Facilitators about what they have found rewarding, challenging or enjoyable about their projects. Opportunities and resources – we’ll be letting you know about resources, award schemes and other support available (from Young TimeBank and from other organisations) to support young people to make a difference in the community – for you to pass on to your group as you think appropriate. We hope this will provide useful and inspiring ideas: if you have any comments or questions then, as always, please let us know! News This month’s newsletter falls at the beginning of the term so there are plenty of volunteers being placed and projects starting. Here’s the latest… In Manchester, Mahla Axon, who volunteered at Salford City Academy last year, began a new project at All Saints High School last Friday (more from Mahla in the Volunteer Voices section below!) Likewise, Aarti Pandey, another volunteer with previous experience will be facilitating a project at Levenshulme High School after the half term break. Also after half term, Roberto Calvo and Jackie Jackson will be undertaking their first project at Lostock College, and Mohammed Abbas and Alayna Latif will be co-facilitating their first project at Meade Hill School. Two more debutants, Donald Bradshaw and Cara McMillin, have just started at Parklands High School. Tim Seed has just begun volunteering at Cedar Mount. Meanwhile, in London, Martin Gordon has started his first project at Lilian Baylis in Lambeth - a podcast on teenage pregnancy. Two more new volunteers, Amie Keenan and Latoyah Dick, have begun a project at the International Community School in Westminster - a funfair to raise money for the children's charity NSPCC. Mildred Kasajja and Shanej Begum will be continuing their project from last term at Turney School - a film tackling bullying. Pilot Project with youth education charity Envision: This term we are also running a new pilot project in 3 schools in Westminster alongside Envision. In this pilot Envision volunteers will work with groups of older children in the school whilst our Volunteer Facilitators will work with some younger pupils. These two groups will then interact, collaborate and work alongside each other. Taking part in this exciting new project are Avnish Patel and Oma Adedipe at Greycoats, Veronica Douglas and Yasmin Grant at St Augustine’s and Agnes O’ Dada and Zara Bain at Westminster Academy. We’ll be letting you know how this project develops in future newsletters. Changes in the Young TimeBank team: We recently informed you that Helen Healy was leaving Young TimeBank after a very successful twelve months as Project Manager. Dave Rinaldi recently applied for and was offered the job of Project Manager and started this role on 1st October. We have since recruited a new Project Officer to support Young TimeBank’s work with young people, schools and Volunteer Facilitators in London and Manchester. Lindsay Gowlett started at TimeBank on Monday 20th October and will be taking over Dave’s responsibilities for supporting volunteers in London and Manchester. Lindsay and Dave will be in touch with you in the coming weeks to discuss how the transition of these changes will take place to ensure that we continue to provide you with all the help and support that you require. What you can do: If you are not on this list and have not yet been placed then do not fear – Dave is still in the process of organising first meetings with schools and will be looking to match as many of you as possible in the coming weeks. However, you can also do your bit – if you know of a school in your local area that may be interested in working with Young TimeBank then get in touch. We have plenty of leaflets and postcards explaining the work that we do. If you want to have us send you some of these materials so that you can pass them on to a local school then please e-mail Jack on j.rowley@timebank.org.uk. Schools should then be urged to get in touch with us on the contact details below to discuss this further. Similarly if you can think of someone who would make a great Volunteer Facilitator just like you then we’d love to hear from them. Our application is online and easy to fill in here. Volunteer voices Each month we also want to put the spotlight on a couple of volunteers and share their experiences with you. This month returning volunteer Mahla Axon and new starter Amie Keenan are answering a few questions each.     Amie How did your first session go? How did you feel before, during and after? Amie: I had already undergone training with another volunteering organisation so the exercises used were rather similar but still had a different style. It gave me confidence so I knew what I was doing. The young people we worked with were so helpful and friendly which made it easier for my Co-facilitator and I to feel comfortable. What was it like working with another volunteer/co-Facilitator? Amie: We both want the same thing, a successful project, which has made all the tasks a lot easier to take on. The atmosphere within the group is a relaxed one to work in so hopefully having the both of us work together will lead to a really fun, enjoyable and ultimately successful project.         Mahla Do you remember your first session? What was it like? Mahla: Ahh, the first session...! Yep I remember it, and I remember it being fun, if not slightly nerve-inducing! Me and another Facilitator met up beforehand and went through the session plan that TimeBank had sent to us, there was quite a lot of laughter and in all honesty we weren't entirely sure we were going to be able to engage a class full of teenagers, but we were definitely up for getting creative and getting the kids involved. We also knew we had the support of the teachers so really we'd be ok..(hopefully). So, in we walked to the classroom.... and all of a sudden there we were at the front of it with quite a few confused faces looking back at us... that 10 seconds was probably the hardest of the whole project...But then you remember to breathe and begin, we presented who we were and did an ice-breaker (v amusing!) and after 5 or so minutes it started to become pretty ok! Once the young people fully realise that you're there for them, to support them in expressing the issues that are important to them and to enable them to achieve what they want to do you realise that you're already half way there. So in all the first session was cool, there's loads of support and it helps having a co-facilitator because you realise that they're in exactly the same position! Do you have any advice for a new Volunteer Facilitator in the run up to their first session? Mahla: It's normal to be nervous!! The most you can do before your first session is to make sure you know what the plan is and you've gone through it with your co-facilitator. So make sure you're prepared, and then once you're in the session you just have to show that you're happy to be there, and that you are passionate about what you're doing...because if you are then the kids are more likely to be as well. Having previously facilitated a YTB project, what made you come back for more? Mahla: It's brilliant to see the young people when it all suddenly clicks and they realise that this is their project (you can even hear the 'ping' sound when it happens!!). And to see the student's sense of achievement when the project comes to end is quite something. But perhaps most important is that young people's voices are heard. They need to be given the opportunity to express themselves on issues that are really affecting communities...and often they are the ones that have the best ideas of how to solve them; and that is exactly what a YTB project does.     Opportunities and resources Throughout the course of the year there are various different awards and opportunities available to help you celebrate and develop the fantastic achievements of young people in the community. We wanted to use this newsletter as an opportunity to pass these on. We will also be letting you know about any interesting or useful resources we come across that we think may be of use to you and your groups. If you feel your group are deserving of an award and some recognition then nominate them – they may also be eligible for money or other support to help develop the good work your group is already doing! This month we wanted to tell you about a new online toolkit that supports teachers to encourage pupils to play an active role in community projects, this has been developed by the Academy for Sustainable Communities and CSV (Community Service Volunteers). The Play your Part website aims to inspire young people to play a part in improving their communities and develop the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to devise and run successful citizenship projects. Although this website is more specifically designed for teachers there are lots of tools and resources that you may find useful for your group. Please click here to visit the website. If you come across any useful resources or other opportunities that you would like to share with other Volunteer Facilitators, then please let us know! Project pages Finally we are also ready to launch another new section to our website www.youngtimebank.org.uk that you have previously been informed about - Project Pages. Every project that we run now has the opportunity to have its very own page on our website. This page will provide a brief synopsis about the project and what it is aiming to achieve, written by you and the group - what else you put on your page is up to you. These pages will have a facility whereby you and the young people involved with your project can provide week-by-week (or day-by-day!) updates on what you've been doing, what challenges you've faced and any other information that you feel is relevant and you want other people to see. You can also upload photos quickly and easily or you can send video and audio footage to us that we can then put on your page for you – this is an ideal way to showcase and celebrate what you and your group have achieved, both during and after your project. Please click here to have a look at 2 Projects Pages that we have already loaded on to the website as examples – you may want to look at these to see what your mission statement might look like. In order to start a Project Page for the project you are volunteering on please send us a brief synopsis of around 150 words that concisely explains what the project is and what you are hoping to achieve to j.rowley@timebank.org.uk. The best time to do this is straight after your group has decided on their issue, aims and the medium (e.g. film or photography) they will use for their project. It should read like a mission statement of what the group has chosen to do and why – they can then provide further updates of any challenges and successes they have. We will then upload your synopsis or mission statement on to the website, and provide you with a link so that you and your group are free to add your own updates and blog as regularly as you want. This may be something you would like to do yourself each week or alternatively you could create a ‘Reporter’ role whereby one member of the group is responsible to do this throughout your project or simply alternate the task each week! As with all aspects of Young TimeBank projects, the more ownership and responsibility your group can take for this, the better! If you have any comments or ideas about what you would find useful to see in next month’s newsletter then please do let us know. Our thanks must also go to Mahla and Amie for answering questions in this month’s Volunteer Voices – we will be looking for more volunteers to be a part of this in the coming months! In the meantime, do get in touch if you have any other questions or queries and good luck with all that you are doing over the next month! Young TimeBank team E-mail: helpdesk@timebank.org.uk Phone: 0845 347 9363       Young TimeBank is a TimeBank initiative. TimeBank registered Charity No.1073831.