About V

V is the National Volunteering Charity set up to administer and monitor funding and support to vinvolved teams and projects across the country, and to act as a central marketing resource and voice for youth volunteering in England.

Apart from devising a delivering a number of national youth volunteering initiatives and campaigns such as “a big hand goes a long way”, “do someone a favour”, “Gift of Time” and “Good for Nothing” (currently being advertised on the London Underground), V also produces branding and promotional material for VTeams and Projects, administers the national VAwards Scheme, lobbys in Government circles to promote youth volunteering, and designs and maintains the national youth volunteering web-site www.vinspired.com

Regional Co-ordination

Surrey Vinvolved has been nominated at the Regional Lead Co-ordinator for all V the funded teams and projects in the South East of England. In this capacity we arrange and chair quarterly regional network meetings, meet together with V staff and other regional leads to discuss common issues affecting the delivery of V Funded initiatives across the country, and co-ordinate communication between V and its funded projects in the South East of England. Importantly, we are also able to feed back comments and ideas from teams and projects in the region and take an active part in helping to shape the future delivery of the V project.

National V Conference

In June 2009, V hosted a two day national conference at the ICC in Birmingham to bring together all its funded teams and projects and deliver key messages about the progress of the V Funded national youth volunteering initiative.

Day one, labeled “V:TV” and hosted by V20, the national Youth Action Team, was a mixture of presentations and workshops about youth volunteering issues whilst day two, labeled “Generaltion Digital” showcased some of the new media technology and methods V is using to engage young people on a national level. The picture shows Liz Nimmo from Surrey vinvolved at the conference in front of the “BigVBus” which is available to support youth volunteering events around the country

Future of V

Funding for the current national V youth volunteering initiative exists until the end of March 2011. In view of the squeeze on government spending and the likelihood of a change of government before then, the future of V funded teams and projects is uncertain beyond 2011. In this context V is currently in the process of coordinating a ‘sustainability campaign’ to try to ensure that, in the event of funding being reduced or completely drying up, national youth volunteering initiatives will be able to find other means of continuing their work. If nothing else, it is important that the energy and money put into youth volunteering over the past few years has a lasting legacy and that young people continue to be able to find accessible and rewarding experiences through volunteering in the future.