Hi Everyone I am here to share with you what I do with some of my precious time!
I am currently a member of a Youth Action Team (YAT). This is a group of young people working with staff from Change Makers and BTCV to create volunteering opportunities and expose young people in a positive light.
We are hoping this will build a cohesive community and give young people more opportunities to develop themselves. This could be through organising one of the YAT events, volunteering at the events doing things you never thought you would be doing, or simply attending the events (most often for FREE) and having a good time!
Either way I would suggest throwing yourself in the Volunteering Loop and get involved you have nothing to loose but so much to gain - Do it for Yourself!
The Million Event
Well Million is a special event to me because it was my first with YAT - and WOW it was one to remember. It was set in the Redbridge Town Hall (Ilford) with a brilliant team of people who worked very hard to make Million the success it was.
The event Million was organised to expose young people's amazing talents to the local community (and Councillors), to spread the great word of volunteering and some of the opportunities that exist for young people. The YAT wanted to get as many young people involved in organising the event.
I can confidently say all of the above reasons for organising Million were met. Million attracted youths, parents, and the older but wiser generation.
Million had 1000 people attend, a strong team of 60 volunteers on the day and the vibe in the Town Hall that day was definitely ALIVE!
The event kicked off outside with Dhol players, Dancers, Cheerleaders, Kung Fu Fighters - you name it we had it, there was an endless list of talent at the Town Hall that day.
It was great to see the volunteers, YAT and Volunteer Advisors working so hard to make this happen. But most of all the community got involved by attending and being open to people which was great to see.
I feel the great word of volunteering was spread throughout the day with the brilliant outreach team that would explain to people why this event was on in the first place.
The Million event also had organisations that provide opportunities for young people inside the Town Hall with stands - to present information about themselves. This was a great point of contact for info. for the community (youths and parents).
Overall the event was successful, the YAT are still in contact with the volunteers from Million - some of them are now YAT Members or have volunteered again with some of YAT events - so I feel the event had a positive impact on the community. The best part about all of this was everyone had a great time, met lots of people, learnt new skills or info. from the orgs. - But it was all for FREE (to attend and get involved so people involved had nothing to loose).
So as you are aware (by now) the YAT are doing amazing things so I would suggest following them - you don't want to miss the next Million.
If you miss Million you miss out!
Thank you for your lovely time and I look forward to giving you more info. about YAT's whereabouts.
Enjoy your Day with a Big Fat Smile :0)
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Monday, 22 February 2010
Hi everyone :) My names Sumeet and I have been part of the Youth Action Team since September 2009. I initially got involved with the team by being recruited as a volunteer at the first event held by them - Million in April 2009.
Million was a free event held in Ilford town hall and aimed to encourage and promote volunteering to people aged between 16 and 25; organised by the YAT team entirely, the day was an absolute success. The event engaged people on the high street around midday, with music, dhol players and street dancers to make people want to know what was going on. One of my duties was promotion. I handed out eye catching flyers and got people asking what we were doing; more people were interested when they heard it was a free event, shown with the slogan on our t-shirts “we don’t want your money”. This I believe was one of many factors that made people come to the event. Many local people volunteered and talent amongst the youth was showcased, as well as various stalls offering advice to the youth about volunteering and careers. One of the things that I think made the day a huge success - with over 1000 attendees - was the fact that the event wasn’t restricted in any way. Families with children of all ages, teenagers and the older generation all came out in force to support the team.
part of the YAT team on the day and the rest is history!! I have gained so many skills from being on the team, such as improving my organisation, and I have made loads of new friends. Also, we get so many opportunities to improve ourselves and gain life skills, for example we have recently completed leadership and empowerment training. At the moment we are in the process of organising a similar even to million but bigger! This time we are aiming for a billion! We are hoping to make an event like million an annual thing in Ilford so as to establish our name fully in the local community. I find it inspiring that a group of 16-25 year old ‘youths’ can create such an amazing event and I am proud to be changing the face of the youth! I am proud to be part of the North East London Youth Action Team! :)
Million was a free event held in Ilford town hall and aimed to encourage and promote volunteering to people aged between 16 and 25; organised by the YAT team entirely, the day was an absolute success. The event engaged people on the high street around midday, with music, dhol players and street dancers to make people want to know what was going on. One of my duties was promotion. I handed out eye catching flyers and got people asking what we were doing; more people were interested when they heard it was a free event, shown with the slogan on our t-shirts “we don’t want your money”. This I believe was one of many factors that made people come to the event. Many local people volunteered and talent amongst the youth was showcased, as well as various stalls offering advice to the youth about volunteering and careers. One of the things that I think made the day a huge success - with over 1000 attendees - was the fact that the event wasn’t restricted in any way. Families with children of all ages, teenagers and the older generation all came out in force to support the team.
part of the YAT team on the day and the rest is history!! I have gained so many skills from being on the team, such as improving my organisation, and I have made loads of new friends. Also, we get so many opportunities to improve ourselves and gain life skills, for example we have recently completed leadership and empowerment training. At the moment we are in the process of organising a similar even to million but bigger! This time we are aiming for a billion! We are hoping to make an event like million an annual thing in Ilford so as to establish our name fully in the local community. I find it inspiring that a group of 16-25 year old ‘youths’ can create such an amazing event and I am proud to be changing the face of the youth! I am proud to be part of the North East London Youth Action Team! :)
Hello,
My name is Alex and like all the others, I'm a member of the Redbridge Youth Action Team. I joined the team in September 2009 with a passion to help my fellow citizens in the community by whatever means possible. As we approach March 2010, I have to say that the last couple of months with the team have been fantastic. In such a short space of time, we have accomplished so much from the Festive Favours event in 2009, to the Youth Takeover presentation to which those who were involved did a fantastic job.
I would like to say a massive well done to them all, you did exceptionally well :)
Volunteering for me has always been something that came naturally to me and so to be within this team is just as natural as eating dinner. We are always up to something and that’s what makes volunteering here worthwhile. In due course this blog will be updated with upcoming Summer Projects that we have in store. Other team members such as Umair have the Dream Factory project and Rebecca with the Food works project. It will be very rewarding to those who will be involved and those who will benefit from the following projects.
Leader and Empowerment Training
I just want to talk a little about the Leadership and Empowerment Training which took place on the 30th - 31st January 2010 in East London. The training spread over the weekend challenged us in various skills we use in everyday life such as speaking, doing as we say and the judgement we have of others. The training as I am sure all who were there would agree challenged us to overcome our pre-conceptions of people which would re-enforce our beliefs of people. We were also led to discover that leadership is not just about a head who commands subordinates, it’s about taking a step back sometimes, realising that the best leaders are those who listen to the team, take aboard ideas and are always willing to learn more themselves.
Perhaps most importantly was to do what you say. In life we always say we are going to do something even if we sometimes don't mean it. However, what we say may affect others or our relationships with others. The training told us to not just say yes for the sake of it but to mean what you say. By keeping to your word, people are able to trust your ability to act on it which in turn builds a solid and stable personal or working relationship in whatever environment you are in.
Here are some pictures of the event for your viewing pleasure to see how the day went.
I look forward to the many exciting events we have lined up,
Alex Hinds
NX-10
My name is Alex and like all the others, I'm a member of the Redbridge Youth Action Team. I joined the team in September 2009 with a passion to help my fellow citizens in the community by whatever means possible. As we approach March 2010, I have to say that the last couple of months with the team have been fantastic. In such a short space of time, we have accomplished so much from the Festive Favours event in 2009, to the Youth Takeover presentation to which those who were involved did a fantastic job.
I would like to say a massive well done to them all, you did exceptionally well :)
Volunteering for me has always been something that came naturally to me and so to be within this team is just as natural as eating dinner. We are always up to something and that’s what makes volunteering here worthwhile. In due course this blog will be updated with upcoming Summer Projects that we have in store. Other team members such as Umair have the Dream Factory project and Rebecca with the Food works project. It will be very rewarding to those who will be involved and those who will benefit from the following projects.
Leader and Empowerment Training
I just want to talk a little about the Leadership and Empowerment Training which took place on the 30th - 31st January 2010 in East London. The training spread over the weekend challenged us in various skills we use in everyday life such as speaking, doing as we say and the judgement we have of others. The training as I am sure all who were there would agree challenged us to overcome our pre-conceptions of people which would re-enforce our beliefs of people. We were also led to discover that leadership is not just about a head who commands subordinates, it’s about taking a step back sometimes, realising that the best leaders are those who listen to the team, take aboard ideas and are always willing to learn more themselves.
Perhaps most importantly was to do what you say. In life we always say we are going to do something even if we sometimes don't mean it. However, what we say may affect others or our relationships with others. The training told us to not just say yes for the sake of it but to mean what you say. By keeping to your word, people are able to trust your ability to act on it which in turn builds a solid and stable personal or working relationship in whatever environment you are in.
Here are some pictures of the event for your viewing pleasure to see how the day went.
I look forward to the many exciting events we have lined up,
Alex Hinds
NX-10
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
The Dream Factory
Hello, my name is Umair, and I joined the Redbridge Youth Action Team in September 2009. Although the reason for this post isn't about me joining the YAT, it's about the meeting that I had with the great charity called The Dream Factory.
The Dream Factory is a charity dedicated to making dreams of 3-25 year olds with life threatening conditions, or severe disabilities, come true.
So today at 11 o'clock, how ever early that may have been for me, I went and met with Avril Mills, the founder of this charity. She told me that she created this charity after her 9 year old son was diagnosed with Leukemia. Her son was also a huge Eastenders fan so she arranged for him to meet the cast of the popular British soap. This then inspired her to continue making peoples dreams come true, and thats how her charity began.
Now as a YAT member, we enjoy helping the community, and when we heard about the fantastic job this charity does, we knew straight off the bat we wanted to do something for them.
Which leads me nicely back on to our meeting with Avril today. We discussed different ideas on what we wanted to do, but one idea that kept popping up was a sponsored walk in fancy dress/ pyjamas within the Borough of Redbridge. Now, as we are quite young and wacky, we decided this would probably be the best thing for uys to do.
So as a team we've decided to carry out this little event during the Easter holidays, so that as many young people can partake in this walk, and enjoy helping out a charity.
I'll keep you updated as to what the specifics for this event will be, so that if you do see any of us, you'll know we're not a bunch of crazy hooligans walking about in pyjamas/fancy dress just for the fun of it.
We're doing it for the kids...
The Dream Factory is a charity dedicated to making dreams of 3-25 year olds with life threatening conditions, or severe disabilities, come true.
So today at 11 o'clock, how ever early that may have been for me, I went and met with Avril Mills, the founder of this charity. She told me that she created this charity after her 9 year old son was diagnosed with Leukemia. Her son was also a huge Eastenders fan so she arranged for him to meet the cast of the popular British soap. This then inspired her to continue making peoples dreams come true, and thats how her charity began.
Now as a YAT member, we enjoy helping the community, and when we heard about the fantastic job this charity does, we knew straight off the bat we wanted to do something for them.
Which leads me nicely back on to our meeting with Avril today. We discussed different ideas on what we wanted to do, but one idea that kept popping up was a sponsored walk in fancy dress/ pyjamas within the Borough of Redbridge. Now, as we are quite young and wacky, we decided this would probably be the best thing for uys to do.
So as a team we've decided to carry out this little event during the Easter holidays, so that as many young people can partake in this walk, and enjoy helping out a charity.
I'll keep you updated as to what the specifics for this event will be, so that if you do see any of us, you'll know we're not a bunch of crazy hooligans walking about in pyjamas/fancy dress just for the fun of it.
We're doing it for the kids...
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Rebecca A :D
I have been part of the YAT for a few months now and i thoroughly enjoy being part of the team. I have made great new friends, learnt many new and valuable skills and also have been having a lot of fun! Many people think that they shouldn't volunteer because they don't get paid! But i say... why do you need to get or be paid to have fun!
So far we have attended training sessions, helped out charities and are currently planning our own events! We helped out last year at Tree 'O' Clock where we had to plant trees in Hainult Forest to beat the Guinness World Record. We also participated in Festive Favours which was in Romford Market Hall. Here we passed out flyers and gave out time tokens for free to individuals who were interested. We had a great time doing this, meeting lots of new people and spreading the work of volunteering.
I'm sure there's much more to update, in fact i know there is, but i will have to leave that to next time :D
Rebecca c
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Tree O'Clock
Back in December, our YAT teamed up with a group called "Give Love, Find Love" to take part in the BBC's Breathing Places tree-planting world record attempt with the help of the Woodland Trust at Hainault Forest.
The challenge was to set a new Guinness World Record for the most trees planted in a single location in one hour. After being briefed on how the event was organised, we were given our saplings, and a few minutes with which to get to our team's planting location and to come up with our strategy. We divided the team into two halves: one half would be responsible for placing the baby trees on the ground, for fetching and carrying extra trees and extra shovels and for shouting general encouragement, and the other half made up our group's designated planters. I was a planter, so I spent most of the day bent-over at the waist!
When the clock started, it became a frantic race to dig, plant, stamp-down and repeat. We were competing with teams in St Albans and Northern Ireland, and we were given regular updates over the tannoy system so that we had an idea of how well we were doing compared to them.
The hour went by surprisingly quickly, but it was definitely a relief to hear the final hooter sounding.
As it turned out, we'd smashed the existing record by about 200 trees, planting 20,312. Sadly, though, we came third out of the three locations taking part, with St Albans just beating us with 20,326 and Northern Ireland way out in front with 26,422! (We reckoned they must have had a very different strategy - probably cheating!) Still, it was fun and the real aim of the day was to do our bit to improve the UK's lack of green spaces.
As well as us, there were groups representing the Scouts and Cadets and other organisations, and we all left in the knowledge that we can go back in 20 years' time and visit our own little piece of Hainault Forest.
But before that, we all trudged back home through the mud for some well-deserved rest!
Read about and watch the event on BBC London News
Tree O'Clock at BBC Breathing Places
The challenge was to set a new Guinness World Record for the most trees planted in a single location in one hour. After being briefed on how the event was organised, we were given our saplings, and a few minutes with which to get to our team's planting location and to come up with our strategy. We divided the team into two halves: one half would be responsible for placing the baby trees on the ground, for fetching and carrying extra trees and extra shovels and for shouting general encouragement, and the other half made up our group's designated planters. I was a planter, so I spent most of the day bent-over at the waist!
When the clock started, it became a frantic race to dig, plant, stamp-down and repeat. We were competing with teams in St Albans and Northern Ireland, and we were given regular updates over the tannoy system so that we had an idea of how well we were doing compared to them.
The hour went by surprisingly quickly, but it was definitely a relief to hear the final hooter sounding.
As it turned out, we'd smashed the existing record by about 200 trees, planting 20,312. Sadly, though, we came third out of the three locations taking part, with St Albans just beating us with 20,326 and Northern Ireland way out in front with 26,422! (We reckoned they must have had a very different strategy - probably cheating!) Still, it was fun and the real aim of the day was to do our bit to improve the UK's lack of green spaces.
As well as us, there were groups representing the Scouts and Cadets and other organisations, and we all left in the knowledge that we can go back in 20 years' time and visit our own little piece of Hainault Forest.
But before that, we all trudged back home through the mud for some well-deserved rest!
Read about and watch the event on BBC London News
Tree O'Clock at BBC Breathing Places
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Monday, 8 February 2010
Faeezah Hussain
Volunteered for: vinvolved East London Youth Action Team (YAT) 2008- current
I started volunteering as part of the Youth Action Team in October 2008 during my first year of A Level, and quite frankly underestimated the opportunity. If I was to know that in a year’s time, this team who I knew little about (at the time) would be well into planning our third community project, I wouldn’t have believed it.
The masses of new skills I have learnt during my time with the YAT were portrayed in the execution of our first event, ‘Million’. We made known to our community just a fraction of the opportunities that our boroughs and their organisations have to offer. From the representation of CLAPA to the Jujitsu Club, pretty much every department was covered. The feedback we received showed that people were really impressed by the fact that the event was carried out by the young people of the community and gave every other young person the impression that ‘If they can do it, we can too’. Watch the video
My experience has also equipped me with the skills and qualities to deal with people and situations I never thought I could. The confidence I gained, for example, has encouraged me to teach English to children in deprived parts of East London. The creative, organisational and communication skills, along with professionalism and appreciation of different cultural values, have prepared me to survive working life and handling a degree in Law. And to add to all of that, I’ve been given the opportunity to work a professional, as well as a volunteer at the Changemakers office in London!
Volunteered for: vinvolved East London Youth Action Team (YAT) 2008- current
I started volunteering as part of the Youth Action Team in October 2008 during my first year of A Level, and quite frankly underestimated the opportunity. If I was to know that in a year’s time, this team who I knew little about (at the time) would be well into planning our third community project, I wouldn’t have believed it.
The masses of new skills I have learnt during my time with the YAT were portrayed in the execution of our first event, ‘Million’. We made known to our community just a fraction of the opportunities that our boroughs and their organisations have to offer. From the representation of CLAPA to the Jujitsu Club, pretty much every department was covered. The feedback we received showed that people were really impressed by the fact that the event was carried out by the young people of the community and gave every other young person the impression that ‘If they can do it, we can too’. Watch the video
My experience has also equipped me with the skills and qualities to deal with people and situations I never thought I could. The confidence I gained, for example, has encouraged me to teach English to children in deprived parts of East London. The creative, organisational and communication skills, along with professionalism and appreciation of different cultural values, have prepared me to survive working life and handling a degree in Law. And to add to all of that, I’ve been given the opportunity to work a professional, as well as a volunteer at the Changemakers office in London!
"Million", and Why it Was Awesome
Hello, there! I'm George, and I joined the Redbridge Youth Action Team in September 2009 after being blown away while helping out at a couple of events earlier on that year. The first of those was called “Million”.
Held at Ilford Town Hall, Million was a free entertainment and awareness-raising event that aimed to be, and succeeded in being, universal in its truest sense; organised completely by the Redbridge Youth Action Team and executed with the assistance of about 60 extra young volunteers (I was one of them). Ilford's multiculturalism was well-represented, as were people of all ages – there were parents with young children, groups of teenagers, adults and senior citizens all curious to see what was going on inside, where we had an amazing variety of local talent on display throughout the afternoon as well as various stalls promoting Redbridge's volunteering and public information groups and some local businesses.
But it wasn't just inside. The event started out in the town centre, with music, dhol players and street dancers to warm up the crowd and get people asking what was going on. Some of my fellow volunteers acted as promoters, pulling people away from their shopping to spend some time with us. I spent most of the day outside, manning the PA system, so I got to witness first-hand the brilliant crowd-gathering, crowd-stirring and crowd-pleasing acts out on the High Road, even if I did get a couple of dance tracks in the wrong order!
At the day's peak, the Town Hall was a bustling entertainment venue. Everyone there was genuinely impressed with what we and the team had pulled off, and it was humbling to see such high-quality performers giving up their time for free. The volunteers on the doors, with their clickers, reported just over 1000 visitors by the end of the day; a real achievement!
After seeing what the Youth Action Team was capable of on that day, I signed up there and then. Now, we're in the early stages of organising a similar (but hopefully even bigger and better) event to take place later this year. Continuing the big-number theme, we're thinking of calling it “Billion” or “Million Squared”, or something along those lines! I'd love for this to become an annual event in Ilford, and I'd be proud to say that I was there at the beginning. It showed that a group of committed people willing to give up some of their free time can achieve something successful and brilliant, and it was truly inspiring.
Event Gallery:
But it wasn't just inside. The event started out in the town centre, with music, dhol players and street dancers to warm up the crowd and get people asking what was going on. Some of my fellow volunteers acted as promoters, pulling people away from their shopping to spend some time with us. I spent most of the day outside, manning the PA system, so I got to witness first-hand the brilliant crowd-gathering, crowd-stirring and crowd-pleasing acts out on the High Road, even if I did get a couple of dance tracks in the wrong order!
At the day's peak, the Town Hall was a bustling entertainment venue. Everyone there was genuinely impressed with what we and the team had pulled off, and it was humbling to see such high-quality performers giving up their time for free. The volunteers on the doors, with their clickers, reported just over 1000 visitors by the end of the day; a real achievement!
After seeing what the Youth Action Team was capable of on that day, I signed up there and then. Now, we're in the early stages of organising a similar (but hopefully even bigger and better) event to take place later this year. Continuing the big-number theme, we're thinking of calling it “Billion” or “Million Squared”, or something along those lines! I'd love for this to become an annual event in Ilford, and I'd be proud to say that I was there at the beginning. It showed that a group of committed people willing to give up some of their free time can achieve something successful and brilliant, and it was truly inspiring.
Event Gallery:
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