International Men's Day... it's not just for men!

This Saturday (17th November) Team v Derby City will be at the International Men's Day event at Pride Park in Derby.  

We'll be talking to people about youth homelessness and the various local organisations that provide advice and support to prevent young people from becoming homeless.  We'll also encourage people to sign Centrepoint's petition against housing benefit cuts for under 25 year olds, and share the various ways that you can help young people affected by homelessness - such as volunteering opportunities in Derby at local charities that support people who experience homelessness.  

The event is open to anyone (not just men!) and is completely free to attend.  There will be over 30 exhibitors and plenty going on to keep you entertained, including tours of the Rams dressing rooms!  More information on the event can be found here. 

We're really excited to be part of International Men's Day, it's set to be a fantastic event so please come along and say hello!  

Team v and Lord Sugar's Young Apprentice

As I watched Young Apprentice on Thursday night I followed the reaction on Twitter which was overwhelmingly critical of everything the candidates did (or didn’t do) and said.  Of course the nature and style of the programme invites the audience to laugh at mistakes made and cringe at overly bold statements and I would be lying if I said I didn’t share those responses.  But as a fan of rose-tinted spectacles I always try to look on the bright side and see the good in people – call me naive but I think there’s enough miserableness (that’s a word, right?) and grumpy people in this world without me becoming one of them.    

My brother runs an awesome site that looks at Young Adult TV - any programmes/series made for, and about, teens.  He asked if I’d like to write about the first episode of Young Apprentice and I jumped at the chance of finally doing something related to my degree (Film with Television Studies) two years after graduating.  When I told him my piece was focused more on the overall concept and I was putting a positive spin on it he joked ‘really?!’ and basically wished me luck... 

I’ve met some incredible young people, especially the bunch I was lucky enough to be accepted onto the Team v programme with.  Bursting with energy and ideas for how they want to change the world, I’ve been amazed by how they’ve already made an impact in their communities in only a few weeks.  As one of the Team v leaders bordering on vInspired’s maximum age limit, seeing those up to six years younger than me take on this project alongside their college/uni/work commitments and do so with more confidence than I could dream of having even now, never mind at that age, has been inspiring.  

Organisations such as vInspired are vital in giving young people the tools to fulfil their ambitions and contribute to society in positive ways.  Just like Lord Sugar’s twelve candidates the 105 Team v leaders have been given an amazing opportunity to show what we’re made of.  We may not get £25,000 at the end of our programme, but I have no doubt that the skills, knowledge and confidence we develop will be priceless for the rest of our lives.  

You can read my attempt at an upbeat look at Young Apprentice here and check out the other brilliant posts on Young Adult TV while you’re there. 

The Lone Nut

At the Team v residential last weekend, which marked the start of our ‘leadership journey’, we were shown a Youtube video.

Take a few minutes to witness the ‘lone nut’, an ordinary guy who stands up in a crowd and makes himself noticed.  

The moral of the story?  ‘The first follower transforms the lone nut into a leader'.  If the first person hadn’t joined in with the crazy dancing, this guy would have remained a strange man doing a weird dance in a public place.   

Just as the lone nut required followers, Team v needs volunteers. 

Team v leaders all over England are looking for 16-25 year olds with a passion for social change to get involved and make our voices heard on important issues.  The first campaign has just kicked off and it’s all about raising awareness of youth homelessness, which affects over 75,000 young people in the UK each year. 

It doesn't matter how much time you can give or what skills/experience you have, we will support you.  Together, we can make a difference.

So come on, please, don’t let me be a lone nut! Sign up here 

Team v needs you!

Following the announcement of Team v’s first campaign, tackling youth homelessness , we have started recruiting volunteers to help us complete our mission! As a youth-led project, we want other young people to join us in running campaigns in our local communities, all over England. 

                                                    *   Are you 16 – 25?

                                                    *   Got some spare time?

                                                    *   Want to change the world?

                                                    *   Learn some new skills?

                                                    *   Be part of something special?  

Each team needs 3 to 5 core volunteers who will commit three hours a week in a specific area.  These roles include Event Co-ordinator, Marketing and PR Manager, Community Engagement Officer, and Director of Photography and Video.  If you have an interest in any of these areas, get in touch today! You don’t need any experience or qualifications, just a passion to get involved and make a difference in your community.  We also need general volunteers who can give any time they possibly can, even an hour! 

If you’re aged 16-25 and live in Derby, you can apply here: 

http://vinspired.com/activities/171122-various-roles-no-experience-necessary

If you’re aged 16-25 and don’t live in Derby, don’t panic! You can find your nearest Team v here:       http://vinspired.com/teamv

 What are you waiting for? 

Join the Team v revolution and do something about youth homelessness. 

The moment we've all been waiting for...

The time has come: shout it from the rooftops and tell everyone you know – Team v’s first campaign is Youth Homelessness                                                          


Over 75,000 young people in the UK are affected so this is a really important issue for us to raise awareness about.

Look out for updates soon on the next steps and recruitment of core volunteers. 

If you have any stories or experiences relating to homelessness then please get in touch, we want to make this campaign as powerful as possible and need your help to do so! 

Email: Lucy.Dean@vinspired.com          Twitter: @TeamvDerbyCity  

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TeamvDerbyCity

Campaign Countdown Creeps Closer!

In exactly one day (precisely 24 hours) the big reveal will take place and we will finally discover the theme of Team v’s first campaign! 

Stay tuned to Twitter @TeamvDerbyCity to be first to find out what important issue we will be tackling in campaign number one.  If you'd like to get involved or find out more, get in touch! 

Lucy.Dean@vinspired.com    www.facebook.com/TeamvDerbyCity 

Back to the Bubble

This weekend I’m off to Warwick University for the first Team v residential.  Enthusiasm has been building since the warm-up day which gave us an opportunity to meet the 100-strong crew of Team v leaders, but I have particular reason to be excited about where it is being held.  I graduated from Warwick Uni just over two years ago, having spent four years of my life as an undergraduate there.  I loved my time there and haven’t been back to the university campus (or the ‘bubble’, as it is affectionately named due to the detachment from reality you feel when you’re there for more than a few days) since graduation so it will be brilliant – if a little surreal – to return as a... ahem, mature, non-student.   

In my third year of uni I was lucky enough to be on the youth advisory board for vinspired, then called v20.  Being on v20 undoubtedly changed my life.  I met some incredible young people who were unbelievably inspiring and I came to realise that my passions lay in helping others.  Having volunteered since the age of eleven on various projects both in and out of school, I suppose I always knew this, but suddenly it dawned on me that you can make a career out of it without being a teacher or a doctor.  The voluntary sector doors had finally swung open and I could see the range of opportunities out there as an employee, not just a volunteer.  Now I’ll admit I haven’t managed to get a foot on the ladder yet, but by throwing my efforts into volunteering for numerous different organisations and gaining experience in various areas, I’m acquiring the skills, experience and contacts to stand me in good stead (hopefully) for a brighter future. 

I had to work hard for my degree.  I’m not the type of person who can skip lectures, roll into an exam after a late night, leave the exam an hour early and go home with top marks (not that I’m bitter) but during my time as a student I managed to dedicate time I wasn’t in lectures/writing essays/stressing out to a few projects, inspired by my involvement with v20.  This ranged from assisting the Volunteer Co-ordinator at a Community Venture on a weekly basis to teaching English and Maths for one month in Rajasthan, India.  In 2009 I received a Warwick Advantage Award for my work with v20, recognition of the time I had committed to volunteering whilst at university.  So for a little of my time I got a lot in return. 

 

I hope my experience shows that whether you’re in college, uni, or a full-time job, if you spare a little time to help others, you’ll soon realise you’re also helping yourself.  Volunteering with Team v is a fantastic opportunity to develop your skills, meet new people, and you might even discover a career path you had never considered before.  Not bad for a few hours of your time, hey? 

Email Lucy.Dean@vinspired.com if you’d like to find out more about Team v Derby City.       

Campaign Countdown Continues!

In just over 90 hours the first Team v campaign will be revealed to young leaders from all over England ready and raring to take a stand and make a change in their communities. 

Last year the three campaigns led by Team v focused on:  

·               *  Food poverty

·               *  Isolation and loneliness in older people

·               *  Improving children’s literacy

We have absolutely no idea what the campaigns will be this year, but can’t wait to find out!

Keep an eye on @TeamvDerbyCity twitter on Friday afternoon to be the first to hear what campaign number one will tackle. 

Are you sitting comfortably?

Blimey, this has been quite a week for national celebrations.  We’ve had Older People’s Day, British Egg Week, National Poetry Day, and it’s also Children’s Book Week.  

The final campaign that Team v ran last year  was ‘improving literacy in children through the power of stories’ – surely what Children’s Book Week is all about too.  The 2011-2012 leaders achieved great things, with many organising storytelling events for primary school children, inspiring them to both read and write stories.   

Take a few minutes to watch the results video and be inspired: 

In less than one week we'll know the theme of our first campaign and the wheels on the Team v Derby City bus will be in motion! 

If you're interested in getting involved or want to know more, please get in touch: 

Lucy.Dean@vinspired.com   @TeamvDerbyCity    www.facebook.com/TeamvDerbyCity

Older People's Day

Today is Older People's Day in the UK, tying in with the UN International Day of Older Persons. 

The aim of the day is to 'tackle negative attitudes and outdated stereotypes' by celebrating the contributions that older people make to society and the economy, and the amazing things they achieve.  

The second issue tackled by last year’s Team v leaders was around loneliness and isolation in older people.  Learning that 1 in 10 older people in the UK were affected, Team v leaders across England organised events for older people in their communities, creating new friendships both with their peers and the younger generation.  I found this to be an incredibly emotional and inspiring campaign to watch come to life via the Team v Twitter and Youtube accounts, so being involved must have been wonderful.  

I only hope that as a Team v leader for 2012-13 I can achieve even a small slice of the fantastic results that you can see here - take a few minutes to watch this and be inspired: 

It's the first day of October - why not make this the first day of a new exciting journey with Team v? 

If you're aged 16 - 25 and live in Derby, get in touch.  Together we can do amazing things. 

Lucy  -  Team v Leader for Derby City 

Lucy.Dean@vinspired.com    @TeamvDerbyCity   www.facebook.com/TeamvDerbyCity

A wheely good idea - spare a minute!

With no plans yesterday I decided it would be a good opportunity to explore a part of Derbyshire I didn’t know. Having only lived in Derby for just over two years, there are plenty of areas I still haven’t visited and don’t know much about.  So with pin in hand, eyes closed, standing over a map (okay, actually just a quick search on the internet – but the old way sounds much more adventurous) the place of choice was Melbourne.  No, I wasn’t hopping on a plane to the other side of the world.  There really is a place just a few miles out of Derby called Melbourne.  After a lovely hike through the woods amidst the beautiful autumnal leaves and conkers galore, we came across this and it made me smile:

As part of Melbourne Festival, artist Sally Lemsford created ‘Can you spare a minute of your time please?’, a piece to show that volunteering happens everyday, everywhere, between people on the street.  I wholeheartedly agree that volunteering does not have to be organised and structured, and I know from working with vInspired before that the outdated image of volunteering as a formal, weekly commitment in a charity shop can still deter young people from getting involved.     

Simple acts of kindness that the people of Melbourne did for each other were recorded and added to the clock, each representing a minute spared for the benefit of others.  ‘Tom drew me a map’, ‘Sharon peeled an unripe banana’ and ‘Ann directed me to a cafe’ are almost effortless tasks that took just a minute.  But that minute spared could have made someone’s day or helped them more than you or I may realise.           

Team v Derby City needs people aged 16 – 25 to give as little or as much time as they want to help run campaigns in Derby, tackling important social issues, and changing our community for the better.  Volunteering for Team v Derby City won’t be formal or strict, and it definitely won’t be boring! Any time you can give will make a difference.  Like the people of Melbourne, we want to prove that society isn’t ‘broken’ and Derby is full of young people willing to spare a minute (or more!) to do something good.     

Can you spare a minute?  Get in touch!  

Email:  Lucy.Dean@vinspired.com 

Twitter:  @TeamvDerbyCity 

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/TeamvDerbyCity

The power of volunteering

This summer I was very lucky to get a job working on one of the most exciting events in the East Midlands as part of the London 2012 cultural olympiad.  Joining the stage management crew, I was involved in the three outdoor shows which took place in Loughborough, Northampton and Derby.  The show itself remained the same at each location but the volunteer participants were from the areas we performed in respectively, meaning there was a real sense of community amongst the cast.    

Games Time was a colourful choreographed battle with incredible costumes, performed by people of all ages (from individuals to dance schools and community groups), with giant video projections, pyrotechnics, and the best fireworks displays I have ever seen. 

The main reason I was offered the position was because of my experience volunteering.  When I was in my final year of secondary school I did a week’s work experience at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod – an annual festival of international music and dance in North Wales.  After a shaky start (running around the field in the pouring rain, wearing uncomfortable shoes and lugging a silly amount of chairs here, there and everywhere) things picked up and I enjoyed the week.  So much that I went back.  For the next seven years.  Committing one week per year to being a stage manager of a small outdoor stage gave me a fantastic understanding of working on outdoor performance, communication and people skills, organisation, problem solving and smiling in the face of adversity (mostly weather-related!).  Without this experience I would never have been considered for the role on Games Time and I would have missed out on an incredible opportunity. 

Volunteering can be whatever you want it to be.  Do something you love – I’ve always been interested in the arts so that’s what I put my time and effort into.  And eventually it paid off.  It certainly doesn’t guarantee a job, but there’s no doubt that the skills I gained, the people I met and the experiences I had combined to give me a good chance of being taken seriously as a candidate for this type of work.  

I’ll never forget the goosebumps I felt watching the final Games Time fireworks in front of over 16,000 people as I thought about the hard work everyone – the volunteer participants, the professional artistic team and crew – had put in.  Seeing people from all walks of life come together, giving their time to weeks of rehearsals to create an exciting free event for the people of their community was truly magical.  

For me, that’s the power of volunteering.  And if Team v Derby City can achieve anything like a small scale version of this sense of community cohesion then I will be a very happy volunteer. 

 (Photo credits – my Dad)

The man on the train

"It's volunteering"

"Yeah" 

"So you won't get paid for it" 

"Yep, that's right"

"And you're going to Leeds... just for the interview" 

"Absolutely" 

"Wow, that's dedication.  Not many people would do that.  Especially your age."


On the train heading to my interview for Team v, a man in his late thirties struck up conversation.  As much as I like spontaneous bouts of train talk with a stranger, that was not the time.  Feeling nervous about the interview, I was hoping to enjoy a peaceful, relaxing journey, keeping myself to myself - not face twenty questions before I had even entered the interview room.  When we got onto where I was going and why though, I couldn't resist boring him with the details because of my excitement.  His reaction (as seen in the above conversation) reminded me that not everyone gets it, which is why organisations such as vInspired and programmes like Team v are so important. 

I've been volunteering on long and short term opportunities almost non-stop since I was eleven years old, so I was let in on the secret from an early age.  You know, the secret... that volunteering is good for the mind, body and soul (and not forgetting the CV).  If you didn't already know this, you're in the right place to be enlightened.  If you are lucky enough to have already been bitten by the volunteering bug, then you should definitely stick around too! 

Team v is a network of over 100 volunteers (aged 18-25) who want to change things for the better.  It's a programme run by  vInspired, the youth-led organisation that aims to inspire a new generation of volunteers (aged 14-25).  Team v leaders across England will recruit other young volunteers to help them plan, organise and deliver three social action projects to make a difference in their communities.  


So how about we prove the man on the train wrong?  As Tom Jones wisely said, 'It's not unusual' at all - young people across the country are volunteering their time for causes they believe in and Team v are set to deliver three amazing campaigns and show the world what we can do when we put our minds to it and are given the right support and guidance. 

There are perks too, of course.  Meet new people, learn new skills, do something good for your community and have fun...all at the same time! All you have to do is commit some of your time (as little or as much as you want) to help make Team v Derby City's campaigns come to life.

If this sounds right up your street, or you'd like to know more - get in touch today! 


Email:  Lucy.Dean@vinspired.com
Twitter:  @TeamvDerbyCity
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/TeamvDerbyCity


Thank you for taking the time to read this, if you know anyone aged 16-25 living in Derby please take a minute to share it with them.

I can't wait to hear from you! 

Lucy - Team v Leader for Derby City

Team v - Changing the world...One campaign at a time

Team v Taster

The first campaign for Team v last year was tackling food poverty.  

Watch this video to see the amazing results and to find out more about Team v.

The first campaign for Team v 2012-2013 will be announced in under three weeks and I know it will be as important and inspiring as last year's... get involved with Team v Derby City now to help make a real difference in our community. 

Twitter:  @TeamvDerbyCity
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/teamvderbycity 

Team v Derby City is go!

Hello and welcome to the blog for Team v Derby City. 

My name is Lucy and I'm looking for people aged 16 to 25 living in Derby to help me make a real difference in our community.  As a Team v Leader for 2012-2013 I'm part of a network of over 100 young volunteers across England selected by vinspired to design and deliver three social action projects to tackle important issues that affect people living in Derby.  
But I can't do it alone!! 

In just 3 weeks time our first campaign theme will be announced and I need a team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to help me with every step of the process.  You can give as little or as much time as you want and in return you'll make new friends, learn new skills, and do something good for your community. (And of course there will be cake along the way!)

I'll post with more details soon, but for now please get in touch if you'd like to find out more or have any questions: 

Email:  teamvderbycity@gmail.com

Follow us on Twitter:  @TeamvDerbyCity

Find us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/TeamvDerbyCity

Together, we can change the world - one campaign at a time