YouthNet blog
An insight into youth issues, volunteering trends, charity life and more from the UK charity YouthNet
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Friday Oct 31, 2008
What YouthNet staff get to after work (part 2)...
Regular readers of the YouthNet blog (if such people exist) will have seen my post last week about me and 25 other colleagues spending an evening after work packing condoms to send out to TheSite.org users.
But that's not all we do outside office hours. As an organisation that champions volunteering, it was heartening to see from a recent staff survey just how many of us volunteer, and what diversity there is.
Here's an incomplete list :
- Al Arabiyyah Al Islamiyyah
- Alzheimers Society
- Amnesty International
- British Humanist Association
- Cancer Research UK
- CTT
- Citizenship Foundation
- Epilepsy Action
- Fairtrade Foundation
- The Food Chain
- Friends of the Earth
- Greater London Volunteering
- GUCH
- Guatemala Solidarity Network
- Leukemia Research
- Manor Gardens Befriending Scheme
- Masjid-e-Umer Trust
- Oxfam
- Terrence Higgins Trust
- RSPB
- RSPCA
- UNICEF
- Waltham Forest Faith Communities Forum
- Ummah Welfare Trust
- World Vision
- WaterAid
- WWF
- York Lesbian Arts Festival (YLAF)
- Young Achievers Trust.
I can claim two of those. Posted by Olly Benson ( 3:07 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Wednesday Oct 29, 2008
A fundraising success story for the internet age
I'm sure you've all picked up on the British Humanist Association's campaign to raise £5,500 in order to run some ads on bendy buses in London.
To give you a brief summary - they reached their fundraising target by 10.06am on the first day of their campaign. As I write, they have now raised over £112,000.
This is obviously a hugely successful campaign, but one of the things I love the most about it is how it began, and the completely pivtoal role the web has played in it's success. The idea for the campaign came from Guardian journalist Ariane Sherine back in June this year. Pledgebank was then used to generate more support for the campaign, their justgiving page was set up (check out the Justgiving blog for some great stats on the number of donations) - and the result is a smashed fundraising target, acres of press coverage and a spate of similar pledges on Pledgebank.
Whatever anyone thinks about the campaign, it couldn't have happened in a pre-internet age.
Imagine the resource that would be needed to get this up and running using the phone, a pen and some paper. I also think that many fundraisers will be surprised that so many people have donated towards an advert on a bus - as opposed to wells, mosquito nets or vaccines.
So, whilst the end product (an ad on a bus) isn't particularly emotive, it is very tangible, it clearly resonates with many people and, most importantly for me, the campaign has created a sense of togetherness and being "in it together" to create something new.
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 10:01 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Friday Oct 24, 2008
What YouthNet staff get up to after work...
Yesterday it involved condoms and beer (from TheSite.org blog).
Posted by Olly Benson ( 9:26 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Monday Oct 20, 2008
Sex and the Scouts
Was I the only person who saw the news that Scout leaders are going to start giving sexual health advice to the young people in their charge and wondered, not why are they doing that, but what have they been doing up to now?Sex education in this country is rubbish. There are pockets of brilliance, but too often sex education is taught by people who don't particularly want to, in the wrong setting (school) and in the wrong way ("I tell you this. You listen.").
Youth workers aren't just babysitters: they help young people develop as individuals through informal education. When I saw the headlines this morning, I couldn't help wondering whether tomorrow the papers would be leading with "Firemen to fight fires". Engaging with young people and educating them about their sexual health is *exactly* what youth leaders should be doing.
Much that I think PSE and Citizenship should be part of the national curriculum, it's not enough to simply fit it between Maths and Geography with some fact sheets and the odd video thrown in to make it interactive. Young people need to be given the space, time and right environment to explore their identity, and youth groups are excellent places to be doing this.
So, congratulations to the Scouts for teaching sex education; but stop being so apologetic for it.
Olly Posted by Olly Benson ( 3:48 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Friday Oct 10, 2008
Only two more sleeps to go...
...until the big run. I haven't had a minute to myself this week to be able to create an interesting and newsworthy blog about what I've been up to in these last couple of weeks before the Royal Parks Half Marathon.
Instead as the dreaded day looms I’d just like to wish my fellow runners a huge good luck and a massive you should be very proud of yourselves, now run for your lives.
Finally a very special good luck to Dan and Sarah and if you are reading this and haven’t sponsored us yet please do so at www.justgiving.com/royalrun THANK YOU!
Posted by Felicity Jones ( 11:46 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
