The Big Silly Sleepwalk: As Seen in the Local Paper!

We're famous!

The lovely people at the Ilford Recorder have included an article about our Youth Action Team in the issue dated Thursday 15th April 2010.

Go out and buy it now! Alternatively you can read it online here: http://bit.ly/cGVNAO (we're on page 4).

As a team, we're extremely proud of the event, and the increasing amount of recognition that we're receiving is very exciting. This very blog even gets a mention!

Everything is go!

Well, after a late start we successfully carried out our briefing at the Downshall Centre yesterday. Thanks to all those who turned up!


Hopefully you're all now clear on where you have to be and when. Just to remind you: 13:45 on Sunday 11th April outside Valentine's Mansion, Valentine's Park.


If you couldn't make it to the briefing yesterday (Wednesday 7th April) and you still intend to take part, then please arrive at the Mansion at 13:30 so that we can brief you then.


Please ensure that you have returned your registration form to nelondon.youthactionteam@googlemail.com by Friday 9th April (that's tomorrow) if you have not already done so, if possible.


Remember that we want everyone taking part to have raised a minumum of £10 in sponsorship money (obviously we'd love it if you raised a lot more than that!) and we need you to make every effort to bring the money you've raised with you on the day.


We're hoping that the sun will be shining and that the event will be successful in raising the profile of the Dream Factory as well as raising them the money, so remember to look as outlandish as possible in your pyjamas/fancy dress!


See you on Sunday!

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

"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:

Welcome to the Youth Action Team Blog!

The YAT blog, we feel, is a perfect way to communicate with the wider public as that is one of our main principles. Hopefully we'll be able to keep you informed and entertained with our plans and ideas!

Our mission statement:

Youth Action North East London is a youth-led voluntary group, that aims to facilitate intergenerational dialogue by creating conversation with a goal to inspire change. We aspire to contribute to ‘vinspired's’ vision to engage and mobilise a million volunteers through innovative, contemporary and exciting projects. By utilising local expertise and resources our target is to gel the local community and we see businesses as an integral part of a community. Through using all aspects of what makes a community, we are who you are.

We host events throughout the year, raising awareness of volunteering to young people, and hopefully getting you involved, even after the party has finished!

The North East Youth Action Team is supported by vinvolved East London, a National Youth Volunteering intiative which works in partnership with Changemakers and BTCV.