What A Difference A Day Makes!

This time last week, I was going over and over everything in my mind, worrying rather a lot, and settling in for a night of no sleep. Why? Because last Sunday was our BIG TRANSFORMATION and I may as well have been walking around with a blindfold on for all I new about gardening.

The day started bright and early (on a Sunday, too, now that is committment!). The sun was shining, in fact, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. After a 3 quick breakfasts, 2 conversations through bathroom doors and 1 lost necker found… my brother (Scout), my Dad (Scout leader) and myself, headed off to St. Mary’s Primary School, Boston Spa, trailor full of wood chippings (HOW many?! We can’t POSSIBLY need that many, you have got to be joking, Dad) in tow.

Once we arrived, we began to set up the BBQ (because food is more important than anything else, obviously), and then attempted to make 25l of juice. Ten minutes later, we realised that one bottle of squash was not going to be enough for the 25l bottle. Maybe if we had read the dilution ration before filling the container up with water, we might have realised this! So, Dad went off to get some more squash (and tools and all of those important things) and the Scouts began to arrive!

There was more enthusiasm then I’d anticipated which was wonderful! The Scouts were pegging out a path in no time at all. After half an hour, or so, the Team v Leeds volunteers arrived and the work properly got going! There was a wonderful team spirit in the air. With sun shining, birds singing, and people laughing and joking, it was the perfect spring morning.

Mid-morning, Alec Shelbrooke, our local MP, arrived. He was greeted by the smiling faces of lots of hardworkers, as he walked around looking at what we were doing, chatting to lots of the volunteers. We then had a photoshoot for the Wetherby news. Alec stayed around chatting for a while. Some of the Scouts were rather more confident then others, one in particular asked Mr Shelbrooke (or should I say, Me MP Geezer Dude?!) a number of questions and had a nice little chat! Ten minutes later, Eric Ovenden from Tempo FM arrived which caused a lot of excitement! He recorded a radio program, which was brilliant. Once that had finished, Alec had to go, Eric left, too, and the work continued.

We carried on  a little longer before our grumbling tummys got the best of us and the BBQ started calling out our names. Then it was a case of pit stop! Lunch time! Burgers/Veggi Burgers and melted morrisons mini bites for all!

After lunch, everyone got straight back to what they were doing. By mid-afternoon, we were really beginning to see progress. Reinforcements arrived in the form of more Scouts and parents and everything began to come together. Areas were cleared, paths were lined and filled and trees were trimmed. Someone made a lot of headway with the kitkats(!) and it began to look like a real conservation area.

By the end of the day, the space was looking brilliant. We didn’t quite have enough wood chippings (you told me we’d have too many! but Dad I can’t believe we got through so many! I didn’t think we’d need nearly as much as that! I told you we’d need two trailors full! Dad: 1 Brother: 0), but we managed to cover most of the paths and line most of them, too. Bird feeders were installed on trees and various minibeast houses were left around and about.

The space looked fabulous.

I’d just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who made the day possible. To Alec (and Ryan!) for coming along and supporting us, Eric for making a brilliant radio show, Dad (AKA David/Scout leader), for being a  calming influences, a dab hand with a chain saw and a driver, all of 1st Clifford Scouts for creating a wonderful, positive workforce, Laura, for always being at the end of a phone/email, Touchwoods in Wetherby for giving us a 10% discount on supplies, the school for allowing us to work there… and most importantly, to my fantastic volunteers, Uwais, Jade and June, for putting 110% into everything they’ve done with this (and other!) campaigns, for supporting me and helping me make this all come together, and for getting up on a Sunday morning and coming to lend a hand. I couldn’t have done it without any of you!

Go, Go, GO!!!!!

Following on from the previous post, our campaign ran into a serious road block. The original plan was to transform the unkempt field next to St. Edward’s Church in Clifford, though upon further consultation, the Parish Council highlighted their concern that they no longer believed we could work on the field given the timescale.

That was all then and after millennia of darkness, the sun began to shine once again for Team V.

Through the perseverance of our dear (Team v) leader, Naomi, we now have a space to work with at St. Mary’s Primary School in Boston Spa. We have come so far that tomorrow, Sunday 4^th May, with the help of 1^st Clifford Scouts we will transform the conservation area into a space where children can play and even access the area from the playground. The plan is to keep the area habitable for the wildlife and our mission is to spruce the space up, à la Changing Rooms.

So let me tell you how after all the hiccups, how we have gotten here.

Once the space was confirmed, we had to think about what we could potentially do with the space. Because the primary users of this conservation area would be the children at St. Mary’s Primary School, we discovered the best way to brainstorm ideas and draw up a plan was to consult the children themselves.

We created a handout for the children with a large space for them to draw their ideas and get creative with what they would like. We turned this into a competition with the best ideas getting a prize.

Furthermore, we visited the gardening club at St. Mary’s Primary School and with the assistance of Mrs. Smith (in charge of the gardening club) and the 20 children, we visited the conservation area and whilst taking photos, we gathered ideas from the kids and drew up plans.

I must say, the kids’ input was vital and Mrs. Smith’s enthusiasm topped off a brilliant day.

Here is what we came up with:

–          Make the area accessible from the playground for the kids

–          Some areas around the edge have no hedges, making the place the unsafe as the area opens up into the car park. So this will involve some sort of hedging /fencing

–          Clear the paths. The area was once useable and the paths have remained, though require clearing

–          Somewhere to sit, along the lines of stumps. Though a table like the ones found at picnic areas already exists.

–          Spruce up the branches hanging over the path

–          Bird boxes, Bird feeders, hedgehog houses, minibeast mansions, worm houses

–          Flowers and plants to attract butterflies and make the place look pretty

–          A willow den, though this is doubtful due to its fragility and the limited budget

So tomorrow’s the big day with a 10am start and we are all really looking forward to it. Alongside Team v (Naomi, Jade, June, Uwais), fifteen 1^st Clifford Scouts, the local MP Alec Shelbrooke be visiting. Also, thanks to Naomi’s father for organising a barbecue!

Campaign 3!

Campaign 3 is underway and we are steaming ahead!

The focus of the campaign is on ‘transforming unloved community spaces’. We aim to find an unused community space and transform it—with the help of the community—into something that inspires them to keep coming together.

Our plan is to involve the community in the transformation of such a place as to help build connections among members of the community.

Carrying out this campaign is, first and foremost our team leader Naomi, and the volunteers assisting her: Tasha, Jade and I, Uwais.

So far, we have already found an unused community space in the town of Clifford — a huge field next to St. Edward’s Church. Currently our ideas involve something along the lines of a flower garden/vegetable patch/picnic area with tables or something for young people, but we have made questionnaire surveys which we plan to post out to the residents of Clifford to ascertain feedback and their ideas for the space.

The campaign has started off extremely well, despite this there is still a lot that needs to be done. Our immediate tasks are as follows:

–          A written confirmation is still required to use this space and so we have organised a meeting with the Parish Council to do just that

–          Posting the questionnaires to the residents of Clifford

–          A church school room requires booking to hold a consultation meeting with the community and receive feedback from the questionnaires as well as other queries

–          Distribute a leaflet summarising the outcomes of the consultation meeting

–          The creation of posters to advertise the campaign and to persuade the residents of Clifford to come and help us transform the space

–           To invite the local MP

Look forward to an update in the coming weeks and read about all the progress we will have made.

Making Time for your Mind

Hira, Uwais, Lucy, Bryony, Kamal and Naomi

As campaign two comes to a close, it’s surprisingly difficult to remember everything that we’ve done!

This campaign stated at the speed of light and I feel like I’ve barely caught my breath since we found out what it was about! It’s on a topic which personally, I am very passionate about and I already do a lot of work around it, however, what was interesting about this campaign was that it was a bit different. This campaign focused on mental health rather than mental illness. This is a subtle but very important difference. 25% of people will experience some form of mental illness at some point in their life, but 100% of people have mental health.

At the start of the campaign, we asked people to fill in mind apples. This involved writing down 5 things that they already did to look after their minds and one thing that they planned to do in future. We took them to people of all ages and backgrounds, which brought some interesting results! My own personal answer was ‘snack on a pot noodle’! This demonstrated the diversity of the answers we got. Some people struggled to think of 5 things, but with a bit of prompting, everyone got there. Big thanks to Hira for setting up our trip into schools.

We had big media success this campaign, which is all down to one of my wonderful volunteers, Jade. We managed to get an article in the Evening Post and appear on TempoFM for two hours!

We then ran a skill swap shop in Boston Spa Village Hall. We had a great response from the people who attended and had a wide variety of skills to share from upcycling to French speaking to music playing! We also had an area for children which involved a lot of icing and general stickiness! We were delighted to welcome Gill and Geoff who provided us with a laughter yoga session which was absolutely brilliant! Much laughter was had I don’t think there was a single person in the room who didn’t manage a chuckle! The 2 year olds were rather bewildered by this strange phenomenon but even they soon began to enjoy spinning around in the middle of the circle and giggling away!

Here is what one of our attendees had to say about the afternoon:

Just had a lovely afternoon! My ladies ADORED being entertained by the team V people, and I loved the expression on Lucy’s face when she finished sewing her bunting and looked at what she had created! Learning and sharing skills is such fun, and doing it whilst knowing my ladies are having a fab time too makes it even better! 🙂 

Since the campaign, I’ve had a number of people coming up to me asking me when the next swap shop is so it sounds like we better start planning!

We created some tool kits for the workshop with ideas to help people think about how they can make time for their mind. We handed these out at the workshop but the left over tool kits were gratefully received by members of a local Methodist church. Huge thanks to Uwais, Lucy, Bryony, Kamal and Charlotte for helping out with these.

Shortly after the swap shop, I met with Councillor Yeadon who’s in charge of Leeds City Centre’s Adult Social Care. She was absolutely lovely and it was a really positive meeting. We made a lot of links and hopefully we’ll be able to keep the skill swap idea running on a more long term basis. Yesterday, I met with Alec Shelbrooke, MP, he, too was interested by the skill swap idea and will help to publicise it should we run another one. He also thought he might be able to give us a link to somewhere where we might be able to secure some funding which is absolutely brilliant, so watch this space!

Before I sign off, I’d just like to say a huge thank you to all of my wonderful volunteers who helped out along the way, to Anna for providing lifts and bourbons, Laura for always being on the end of the phone, Susan for helping to spread the word, linking me up with people and providing ideas, Sabrina for helping me stay somewhat sane, Alec Shelbrooke and Lucinda Yeadon for taking the time to meet with me, and everyone who came to the workshop for sharing their skills.

So, the campaign may be over but it doesn’t stop here! We all need to keep talking about mental health and looking after our minds as well as we look after our bodies. So go and grab yourself a cup of tea, turn your phone off got ten minutes and child out! You deserve it 🙂

 Naomi

Make time for your mind: Promoting healthy lives and happier minds

Campaign 2 is revealed!

Over the next 8 weeks, we’ll be encouraging the people of Leeds to do more to look after our minds, in order to live a healthy, happier life.  We all lead increasingly busy and stressful lives, and this is taking its toll.  Team v Leeds believe we should all take more time to look after our minds, as well as our bodies.

We’ll also be asking the people of Leeds what they already do to keep their minds healthy, so that we can inspire others to do the same.  Some of us already do things that are good for our minds, but sometimes we forget to do these things when we need them most!

Overall, statistics show that Britain is a relatively happy country, with 75.9% of people saying they are satisfied with their lives overall.  However, we can make a lot of improvement to leading happier, healthier lives.

• 60.1% of people surveyed said they had been anxious the day before
• Only 70% of people said they would feel comfortable talking to a friend or family member about their mental health

It is estimated that improved early intervention services could save the NHS up to £38 million every year.

Five steps

There are lots of easy things we can all do to keep our minds healthy, and work towards a happier life.  We’ll be exploring five steps that everyone can try, every day.

Give – do things for others

Examples: make someone a cup of tea, babysit for your siblings, donate your old clothes to a charity shop

Relate – connect with people

Examples: get in touch with old school friend, write a letter to a family member, send a nice text

Exercise – take care of your body

Examples: take the stairs instead of the lift, walk round the park once a day, start swimming at your local pool

Appreciate – notice the world around

Examples: do the washing up for your parents, cook someone a meal, take a sketchbook on a walk

Try Out – keep learning new things

Examples: learn a new language online, bake your own cupcakes, try knitting a scarf

Get involved

We’re looking for volunteers aged 16-25 to help with our fantastic campaign.  You could be interested in or have experience of: public relations, marketing, photography, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, or engaging with your community.  You can choose whether you’re a Core volunteer (3 hours per week) or General volunteer (no core hours) and help out in any areas you choose.  Read the full job description on our blog.

If this sounds like a volunteering opportunity that’s up your street, please get in touch!  We’re holding a drop-in session for new volunteers on Sunday 27th January, 12-1pm at Outlaws Yacht Club, just opposite Leeds bus station.  Drop Naomi a line on naomi.barrow@vinspired.co.uk and she’ll fill you in on the details.  Hope to see you there!

We need volunteers!

We’re looking for volunteers aged 16-25 for our next eight week campaign to raise awareness of social issues in Britain, starting in January.  Are you interested in events, marketing, PR, photography, video, social media, or helping and interacting with vulnerable people in society? Would you like to gain experience in a specific area, or put your skills to good use?  Then your Team v leader needs you!

Team v Leeds is part of a national charity organisation called vInspired, and our first campaign in October 2012 raised awareness of youth homelessness in Leeds (read all about what we got up to on our blog.)  Campaign 2 has now been revealed and you can find out morel on our blog post Make time for your mind: Promoting healthy lives and happier minds

Why volunteer?

Volunteering with Team v Leeds is a very rewarding experience.  You’ll gain skills, experience and confidence as you work with other young people to make a difference to society.  Best of all, it’s lots of fun and you’ll have a great sense of achievement when the campaign comes to an end!  Team v Leeds will provide any support and training that you may need, but we’d like you to discover new skills and experiences yourself as well.  No previous experience of volunteering is necessary, but you’ll need to be:

• Dedicated and enthusiastic during the campaign
• A positive role model for young volunteers
• Prepared to learn new skills and face challenges
• Work well with others in a team, and occasionally on independent projects within the team
• Able to maintain good communication with the team and Team v leader

Responsibilities

In Team v Leeds, you can choose your level of responsibility by taking a role either as Core volunteer or General volunteer.  Core volunteers will spend 3 hours volunteering per week, which includes time spent working away or at home.  You will work closely with the Team v leader, Naomi, to plan, deliver and review the campaign.  You will have responsibility for a specific role within the team:

• Events
• Marketing and PR
• Photography and Video
• Social Media
• Community Engagement

General volunteers have no set hours and can choose which projects or areas you are involved with.  This includes the above list or any other way in which you wish to contribute, for example, helping out at events or advertising the campaign.

All volunteers have the following responsibilities within Team v Leeds:

• Stay in regular contact with Team v leader and Core volunteers
• Check and reply to emails preferably once a day/once every two days
• Attend fortnightly Team v Leeds meetings in Leeds City Centre (transport expenses can be refunded)
• Contribute your ideas regarding the campaign to group discussions
• Complete any tasks that you take on to the best of your ability and ask for help when needed
• Register on vInspired and log your hours each week
• Provide feedback to the Team v leader before, during and after the campaign

Get in touch

If you’re interested in volunteering with Team v Leeds, please get in touch with the Team v leader Naomi at naomi.barrow@vinspired.com.  We will be holding a drop-in session in Leeds City Centre on Sunday 27th January, 12pm-1pm at Outlaws Yacht Club (opposite Leeds bus station), so that you can meet Naomi and others who are interested in volunteering.  You’ll also be able to fill out the necessary paperwork, which includes:

• emergency contact details
• photo consent form (including signature from parent/guardian for under 18s)
• signature for volunteer agreement

For more information on Team v Leeds, please don’t hesitate to get in touch – it doesn’t matter how you’d like to help, there will be a role for you at Team v Leeds!  In the mean time, you can visit our blog, Facebook page and Twitter. We’re really looking forward to hearing from you!

Homeless Not Hopeless: the campaign comes to an end

65 sofa surfing photos, 189 signatures on the Centrepoint petition* and one brilliant event later, Team V Leeds have completed their campaign to raise awareness of youth homelessness.  We’d like to think we’ve been successful in our mission to bring awareness of hidden homeless young people, and we’re agreed that it is unacceptable for young people in this day and age to live without a place to call home.

The Homeless Not Hopeless event on Monday 26th November was both a celebration of the talents of young homeless people, and also a debate on what society can do to prevent youth homelessness.  Yorkshire’s only homeless theatre group, Urban Sprawl, kicked off proceedings with the Urban Sprawl Choir and Band.

Urban Sprawl, theatre company

In the intimate venue of the Blue Lounge, Faversham, you could almost see the infectious energy and passion flowing out of Urban Sprawl, as their French-inspired music filled the room.  If you have the chance to see Urban Sprawl perform, don’t hesitate to take it!  You can find all their upcoming shows on their website.

We then turned our attention to Speech Debelle, the rap artist who won the 2009 Mercury Music Prize for her album inspired by experiences of sofa surfing and living in hostels as a 19 year old girl, entitled Speech Therapy.  Unfortunately, Speech could not attend Homeless Not Hopeless due to other commitments for her new album.  However, at the event we watched a clip from her BBC Three documentary Britain’s Hidden Homeless, and shared the following blog post:

“Britain’s Hidden Homeless aren’t represented in any government statistics. These are people with no fixed abode, who are sofa surfing, squatting, who the council can’t afford to help because they’re not a priority, people who are long term ‘visitors’ at different friends’ houses or go back and forth on night buses all night long. These are people who may be working alongside you.

Young people without family support and no way of scraping together a deposit are stuck because without somewhere to live, they are in constant deficit. The stress of finding somewhere to stay every night can cause depression and instability, and being a young single homeless person means you are not treated as a priority for council housing, so you’re left with few options…

The situation has got much worse since the time I spent sofa surfing and in hostels. There’s far less space in social housing. This year, housing benefit will not support 25 – 35 year old people claiming for a flat – they will have to get rooms in shared houses. Also, because people are now unable to buy their own homes there is now less space in the rental market. Unemployment is rising. People are downsizing. All of this creates a housing squeeze that is felt most by vulnerable young people.”

After a short break for cake and the chance to buy raffle tickets, Michael Parkinson from UNISON spoke about how the privatization of the NHS could affect vulnerable people such as those who are young and homeless.  It is feared that under privatization,  some aspects of care may be reduced or even ended because they are not profitable.  Michael’s talk sparked a lively debate as there were many questions from the audience, including members of the NHS who had attended.

Michael Parkinson, UNISON

Michael kindly invited Team V Leeds to a debate in Leeds Civic Hall entitled ‘Band together for the NHS’ on Thursday 29th November .  Speakers included Craig Wilde from Manchester Stop Ambulance Privatisation, Rob Demaine from UNISON and Lisa Mulherin, Leeds City Councillor.  It’s clear to Team V Leeds that many people want to speak out about the cuts and planned transformation of the NHS in April 2013.  If you would like to band together for the NHS with UNISON, we can  introduce you to Michael so get in touch.

Seb Carole, our VIP

The final speaker at Homeless Not Hopeless was our very own VIP, Seb Carole, the French professional footballer currently playing with Bury.  Seb gave us an insight into youth homelessness in France, and made the poignant comment that youth homelessness is absolutely, 100% unacceptable in today’s world.  It was then time to draw our two raffles!  Our two sofa surfing photo winners for £10 and £25 high street gift vouchers were Caroline from Cornwall and Dave from Leeds.  We then drew the raffle for our three fabulous prizes:

1st Prize: £30 groceries donated by Unilever – Coral, Leeds

2nd Prize: Inflatable sofa plus pump for sofa surfing – Anne, Barnardo’s

3rd Prize: £10 Create voucher – Kaz, Leeds

We raised £28.70 for Barnardo’s Futures Nightstop from donations for raffle tickets.  Amy from Barnardo’s Futures Nightstop sent the following letter:

“I would just like to say a big thank you on behalf of myself and the rest of the Future’s team for the money you raised from the raffle at the showcase event for Barnardo’s Futures Nightstop, this is greatly appreciated! I would also like to say thank you for raising awareness of young people and homelessness, it is clear you were all passionate about your project and I wish you luck and success with your campaign.”

Homeless Not Hopeless featured in North Leeds Life magazine – read the article here.

So all in all, Homeless Not Hopeless was a big success!  Thank you so much if you attended – we hope you had a great evening and learnt something about youth homelessness.  We’d like to say BIG thank you’s to the following people, without whom the event would not have been possible:

• Damien, Jack, Lucy and the whole of Urban Sprawl
• Michael Parkinson, UNISON
• Seb Carole
• Anne and Amy from Barnardo’s Futures Nightstop
• Matt and Dharm, the Faversham

And of course, thanks to Team V Leeds for delivering the campaign to raise awareness of youth homelessness!

Team V Leeds: Charlotte, Naomi, June, Hira, Hayley

If you’re aged 16-25 and thinking about volunteering for our next campaign, please get in touch and we’ll answer all your questions.  Team V Leeds is flexible volunteering at it’s best: you choose how many hours you want to volunteer, and whether you’d like a specific role or to help out now and then.  We need volunteers who are interested or have experience in PR, photography, event planning, media, community engagement, blogging and social media.  But we also need volunteers who can give a few hours to turn up and make a difference!

Our next campaign starts in January.  It will be regarding a completely different social issue, but we don’t know what it is yet!  That’s part of the fun and the challenge.

*Along with the 4,000 signatures for the Centrepoint petition ‘Cutting benefits for under 25s will not work’, our 189 signatures may have helped to make a difference as George Osbourne failed to mention this plan in the autumn statement of 5th December 2012.  However, Centrepoint are remaining vigilant and will continue to campaign against cuts – read more.

Q: How’s your sofa surfing? A: Brilliant!

The last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of organisation, planning meetings and even meeting new volunteers!  You may have heard that our first sofa surfing event was rained off, which was really disappointing.  However, we were determined to get the event up and running again and we KNEW it would be a success!

With a few days of speedy planning and the help of staff at St Johns Centre, Leeds, we organised our sofa surfing re-run for Sunday – yes, it was planned in 3.5 days flat!  We arrived at 10.30am, armed with an inflatable sofa, surfing fancy dress and flyers coming out of our ears.

The response to our sofa was amazing – everyone wanted to surf and we had a whopping 27 photos!  We found that little surfers were especially keen to dress up, which made for some very funny photos.  Thank you so much to everyone who got on and gave us their best surfer pose!  Here’s a small selection of sofa surfers but make sure you visit our Sofa Surfing album on Facebook to see all the photos!

At our sofa surfing event, we asked the people of Leeds to sign the Centrepoint petition ‘Cutting housing benefit for under 25s will not work” (you can also sign this online).  This required some signs, clipboards, smiles and lots of sweets.  Like Team V Leeds, many people cared very strongly about the issue and we had an amazing 127 signatures on the day.

Team V Leeds believes that a blanket cut of housing benefit for all under 25’s will exacerbate youth homelessness, rather than encourage people to find a job.  With youth unemployment being at a record high, many rely on housing benefit for the skills and experience that are vital to finding work.  For too many young people, such as those leaving the care system or escaping domestic violence, there simply is no going home.  We were incredibly happy to drum up so much support for the Centrepoint petition.

Well done to Naomi, Charlotte, Hayley and June for being brilliant volunteers with a smile on their face!  This photo was taken shortly before June arrived:We’re all really excited about our event Homeless Not Hopeless tonight!!!  If you haven’t heard about it yet, visit the event on Facebook (and whilst you’re there, ‘like’ Team V Leeds to stay up to date with all our activities!)

Team V Leeds: Sofa surfing in Leeds City Centre!

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3. By uploading a photo, you are giving permission for Team V Leeds to use it on their blog until the end of the campaign.

4. Winner will be chosen at random.  Prize draw is on Monday 26th November.