New Year, new start is the theme for this campaign. The New Year is traditionally a time for people to make a fresh start, change of career, new years resolutions... The vinvolved team are keen to use this time of year as an opportunity to promote volunteering as an opportunity and provide an exciting quarter of activity for young people. The campaign follows on from the Autumn campaign which was successful in putting the vinvolved team in the press on a regular basis. The Autumn campaign also allowed 303 young people to register with the project of which 138 young people have actively volunteered so far.
Following on from this, the vinvolved team will use a similar format to engage, inspire, support and place volunteers and work with organisations to engage more young volunteers.

January to March will see the vinvolved team delivering a variety of activities:

Monthly Taster sessions

Consultation was conducted with young volunteers in Coventry around their vocational interests. Children, Education, Health and Youth were their top choices. The vinvolved team will be working with local organisations to develop some taster opportunities to give young people a feel for a particular area of interest with a view to inspiring them to volunteer further with that organisation or similar.

School/College Roadshows

The vinvolved team will be working closely with Henley, City and Hereward Colleges to ensure their students have access to the vinvolved service. Roadshows on campus will provide young people with information on volunteering and access to opportunities available to them in their area.

Awareness Days

Aimed at raising the profile of youth volunteering and vinvolved locally, awareness raising days are being scheduled to take place in the City centre and community locations around the city. Staff and a team of young volunteers will be on hand at the events to provide, information, advice and support to all young people interested in volunteering.

Student Volunteering Week Project

Student Volunteering Week will take place between 22-28 February 2010. The week was established in 2001 and is now an annual fixture in the calendar for the student volunteering sector. The week raises the national profile of Further and Higher Education volunteering. The theme for 2010 is ‘Inspiring futures; connecting communities'.

Mystery Shopping/Health Check/Mentoring

The vinvolved team will be working with the Quality & Governance project to deliver a number of initiatives to encourage young people to become decision makers in the third sector in Coventry. Capacity building will also be offered to organisations that are interested in engaging young people into decision making roles. Young people will be heavily involved in the development of this work.

If you would like more information on vinvolved or would like to get involved in any of the above activities, contact the team on:

Tel: 024 7622 0381

Email: vinvolved@vacoventry.org.uk