YOUTH VOLUNTEERING FORUM -WEDNESDAY 17th FEBRUARY 2010 (held at Leicester YMCA)

Following the first meeting on 30th September 2009 of the 'Youth Volunteering Forum’ (Leicestershire & Rutland), the second meeting was held on 17^th February 2010 at Leicester YMCA providing some valuable space, time, guidance and support regarding as an informative and practical forum about developing, sharing & promoting appropriate and beneficial short-term, part-time or full-time youth volunteering opportunities.

COMMENTS RECEIVED

•  “Good for networking and to be ‘part of the loop”.
•  “Good mix of presentations and people/agencies present…Good networking opportunities…Good to be able to highlight events/activities”.
• “Good networking opportunity…Problem sharing/solving”
• “I like the fact that everyone can get involved in the same thing. At the end of the day we are all in the same boat”.
•  “Very informative…chance to meet new organisations”.
•  “Useful to meet other people facing similar dilemmas/challenges and some opportunities have arisen for future work”.
• “Networking was excellent…Sharing of information, roles and new contacts was very good…Would definitely attend again”.
• “Informative, structured, relevant…Good networking opportunity…More please”.
• “Very useful networking opportunity”.
• “It was useful to be able to meet and network with people…Have made some useful contacts”.
• “Good networking opportunity”.
• “Found lots of promotion of North-West Leicestershire but South Leicestershire seems rather a ’Cinderella’…Good to be informed but could the information collated be fed back in a cohesive way – list of organisations/names/contact details…could this be added to the website so we can point colleagues in that direction?”
• “Very informed and well balanced with practical and presentation”.
• “Useful for networking and exchange of information. Met lot of people from various organisations”.
• “Good to hear/meet other professionals – networking. Given me more pointers on how to raise the profile of volunteering with young people I work with…PowerPoints could be more to the point and clearer to read…Good current volunteers got to speak – they did very well”.
• "Good balance between informal networking and structured presentations”.
• “Informative and thought-provoking. Good for networking”.
• “Networking opportunities”.
• “It was useful to find out problems other partners are having and sharing information/ideas”.
• “It was good to make contacts and network as to help with the post of Community Development Coach for Vollyball England, although a lot of work still needs to be done in regards for sports specific bodies”.
• “Very good for networking…There are many youth sections that I didn’t know about…also ways of promoting my project that I didn’t know about”.
• "Very useful for networking with appropriate organisations”.
• “Enjoyed group exercises…Meeting with workers from other organisations…Initial exercise was useful to identify youth/community workers in my area”.
• “Average because it was very broad and very vague. I would have liked to have content geared more around how to engage with young people to become volunteers, an opportunity to talk about different opportunities out there in more detail. Talking more about the difficulties in getting volunteers and encouraging some creative discussions. Encouraging volunteering cross-culturally and across age and so on”.
• “Fun and informative”.