Volunteering
Summer Reading Champions Elle Cross and Chloe Price at Woodrow Library in Worcestershire volunteered for 148 hours.
Summer Reading Challenge volunteering programme 2011
"This experience has been fantastic. I felt incredibly welcome and would encourage anyone to volunteer with the library or the Summer Reading Challenge - it may be fun for one summer or it may be the start of enjoying volunteering for a long time to come." Beth Stacey, 17, Worcester
The first results are in for the Summer Reading Challenge volunteering programme that was supported by the John Laing Charitable Trust in 50 pilot authorities. 1361 young volunteers aged 12 to 24 years took part against a target of 1000. This was a significant increase on our first pilot volunteering scheme last year and we plan to roll it out to all library authorities next year. 96.4% of volunteers said they learnt new things and gained skills and experience through volunteering. 81.0% of volunteers said they would like to keep volunteering in a library after the Summer Reading Challenge finished while 81.6% of library authorities have offered volunteers opportunities to continue volunteering, with offers made to at least 755 volunteers.
Summer Reading Challenge volunteering programme 2010
This summer we ran a major new partnership between the reading agency and v, (the national youth volunteering charity) and John Laing Integrated Services to enable young volunteers to support the Summer Reading Challenge. v and John Laing both agreed to fund a pilot Summer Reading Challenge volunteering programme for 16 to 25 year olds during 2010 with 20 partner library authorities, v ran an online recruitment campaign on their v-Inspired website and we offered training and guidance to libraries.
Our vision is to encourage all library services to offer youth volunteering through the Challenge by 2012.
We were delighted by the results that had 634 young volunteers working as role models on the Summer Reading Challenge, against our target of 250. You can read the full report on the Summer Reading Challenge volunteering project here.
"Volunteering has not only been a truly rewarding experience but it has taught me a lot about myself. I didn't know I had these skills and it has ignited my passion for working with children." Shani Grandison-Mills, 21, Grove Park Library, Lewisham
Volunteering for under 16s
Several authorities already involve under 16s in Challenge volunteering. You can use the guidance pack that we'll be sending out with this age group. However, for child protection reasons, the main v-Inspired website is open to 16 to 25s only. From April, v will be launching a new safer schools-based volunteer recruitment site for 14 to 15 year-olds. We are in discussions with v about how libraries can be involved with this, probably through SLSs. We will provide further guidance in the spring.
Background
Evidence from our young people's programmes shows that youth volunteering leads to increased skills, confidence and employment. Volunteers and 'buddies' already provide invaluable support to the Challenge in many authorities, enriching the offer to children and creating capacity for additional events and activities. Involving young volunteers has a positive impact on younger children's attitudes to reading. In 2009, 55 library services engaged volunteers to support the Challenge, over 500 of which were aged 16 to 25. Local authority requirements to provide volunteer experiences give you the opportunity to demonstrate your contribution to National Indicator 6. Volunteering is also a key element of the national Library Offer for young people.
MLA will be running generic volunteer seminars about community volunteering for the 2012 Olympics over the summer, which will complement the training and development of Challenge volunteering. Training for the Challenge project will take place in February/March.