Volunteering in different spheres of society

LSH 2903 – Community Service Learning

Week 4

Looking at volunteering in different spheres of society.

During the summer of 2012 the Olympic Games were held in London. David Moorcroft is a former athlete. At one point he held the world record for the 5,000 metres. David can be heard discussing the importance of volunteering the Olympic Games.

Zoe Hall is a lady who was one of the volunteers at the Games. She talks about the event and how important it was at the time as well as how much it has inspired her to continue working as a volunteer.

This link is about half way down the page.

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/

Listen again and see if you can work out the answers to these questions about the interview:

1.                  How old were the Games volunteers? _____________of all ages__________

2.                  During the Games, the volunteers had a special title. What was this special title? ____________Games Makers_______________

3.                  Complete this quote from David… “… for a moment in time volunteering had a _________________profile_________ and an _______________images_______________ that they fully _______deserved_______________ but don’t always get.”

4.                  David mentions that some of the volunteers are semi-retired. What does this mean? ____________that they are working and having a free time________________

5.                  Zoe worked in Events Services. Where was this located?

 _____________event series at the Olympic stadium ______________

6.                  How does she describe the experience of volunteering for the Olympics and Paralympics? ______Best experience in her life________________

7.                  What benefits of volunteering, according to Zoe?

a.       ______________fun________________

b.      ____________satisfication_______________________

c.       __________meet new people____________________

d.      ___________improve confident________________

8.                  Why does David feel that volunteering in the community is so important?

__________________help community and organizations that relies on the volunteering ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 This page is also from AGE UK.

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/volunteers-week/

What volunteer roles do the following people have?

	Name	Job
1	John McArthur	Admin and information, to regain his self-esteem and confidence.
2	Samarah Hashmi	Survey analyst, the job provided her with extreme valuable work experience.
3	Oliver Stannard	Copywriter, enjoying the different experience.
4	Stanley Parker	Market drayton shop, he wants to help the less fortunate society.
5	Camilla Williamson	Not mention, she found it both interesting and useful.

Look again at these people and their jobs. What can you say about volunteering from the information in your chart?

They are all of all ages, the volunteering helped them meet new people and improve confidence and it was fun, interesting and useful for most of them.

Have a look at this page on the internet: http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/browse/sectors/education.html

This page has some ideas about how people can volunteer through education projects.

Once you have read through the pages, you need to work in groups of 4 or 5.

In your groups, come up with a project which you think can be advanced through an educational setting. There are no restrictions, but your idea should be innovative and should aim at adding real value to the people you are trying to help.

As you are working through your project, one of you should be putting together a short presentation (Powerpoint, etc) to explain to the rest of the group what you are trying to achieve.

You should aim to cover the following points, at least.

1.                  What are the aims of the project

2.                  Who are the target audience, and why?

3.                  What activities would your project involve?

4.                  Who would be volunteering? Why?

5.                  What are the benefits your project could bring to the target audience?

6.                  How would you look into launching your project with reference to the relevant authorities in the UAE and in the country you have targeted?

7.                  What problems do you think you might come across and how would you try to get around them?

You should aim at one or two of your group making a 4-6 minute presentation to the rest of the group explaining your findings.