At Dudley CVS we’re passionate about nurturing young people to develop their skills and experience a possible future career path. Last week we had the pleasure of meeting Evie Colesby, a work experience student, who spent a week working with our teams at Dudley CVS. It was great to have such an enthusiastic self-starter on board and an extra pair of hands in the lead up to our AGM and Volunteer Awards! Here’s what Evie thought about her time at Dudley CVS…
“Early last year I was told by my school that I had to try and find work experience for a week in October. Typically, most of my class left it to their parents or our teacher to organise. However, I sat down with my parents and we spoke about what I was potentially interested in doing with my life. It’s such an overwhelming prospect, a 14 year old trying to decipher what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives! After mulling over several ideas I decided, because I’m very creative, fields that seemed very interesting to me were media, marketing and comms. Granted, I may have let my mom take the lead, however, I am so glad I did! She knew Eileen, volunteer manager at Dudley CVS, through work they had done together with volunteers before, and Eileen so very kindly offered to have me. At Dudley CVS they have made me feel so very welcome, even at a time of stress (the week before the awards!), they have never failed to include me and help me get stuck into tasks I can do to help.
Dudley CVS is an infrastructure charity supporting voluntary, community and faith sectors in Dudley borough, they also support social enterprises. I have learnt, in a nutshell, that the Dudley CVS team work incredibly hard to support, to advise, and to train local people to benefit their organisations.
Throughout the week commencing 9th October, I spent my time moving from Albion Street to DY1 Venue. In this time I met some of the nicest people, everyone is so caring and giving. I was shocked at the amount of work they were all so willing and happy to put in to help others.
MONDAY 9th OCTOBER: On Monday I had a little induction with Eileen and met the team at Albion Street, who were all very lovely. Seeing as everyone was preparing for the awards on Wednesday 18th I became an extra pair of hands to help with this. Meaning I was doing all sorts like putting certificates in frames for the main award winners and organising which certificates went onto which tables. I also met Dale and Steph, the admin staff (who were lovely!) and they asked me to make phone calls regarding the awards and proxy votes etc.
TUESDAY 10th OCTOBER: The morning of Tuesday consisted of finishing off the phone calls made on Monday. And then at midday Eileen and I went to a volunteer celebrations at Live at Home (http://www.mha.org.uk/community-support/live-home/), which was so interesting! I met the mayor and had some great conversations with the volunteers, who received their certificates from the Volunteer Awards. I also learnt about volunteering as a community and the help received for this to happen.
WEDNESDAY 11th OCTOBER: Wednesday was one of my favourite days, I went to the DY1 Venue and met Mel, Faye and Becky from Healthwatch (http://healthwatchdudley.co.uk/). I started the morning by talking to Mel about how varied a comms role can be and how I might like to be involved with comms. We also proofread the annual report and I helped her make some adjustments so that it could be sent off to print. She then told me about a new project they are working on based around neglect in communities, and what it means to thrive (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thrive-in-dudley-learn-it-try-it-celebrate-tickets-38433770442), we spoke about how we could present this campaign to young people and how it could be promoted in schools. This was all before lunch!
After lunch, I met Faye and Becky (a young health champion) and we went to “Gather” (https://en-gb.facebook.com/gatherdudleycic/), a café with lovely food and a great atmosphere, where they invite anyone in the community to come along to events held there or just to go for a sandwich and a drink.
“So many people have so much to give and we want to bring them all together to help make Dudley the place where things happen.”
I spoke to Faye and Becky about the young health champions and what they do for Dudley, and that Becky had raised lots of money for mental health charities. We then went back to DY1 Venue and we spoke about how to construct a press release and how a USP makes a more creative and improved marketing campaign.
THURSDAY 12th OCTOBER: In the morning I went to an event at DY1 Venue called “Navigating Difficult Times”, this was basically a chance to have a coffee and connect whilst doing so. I met the staff involved with organising this, obviously I already knew Eileen and I had met Martin on Monday too. But I was introduced to John, Helena and Andy. Who each spoke to everyone there, I learnt about what funders are looking for from Martin, how to effectively network, sell yourself and your company from Andy, and Helena spoke about how Dudley CVS support groups with their communications, The Echo, (their newsletter) and annual report for 2016/17.
Navigating Difficult Times event
FRIDAY 13th OCTOBER: On my last day I went to Holly Hall Secondary with Nicki and Donna to promote and launch a programme called izone (http://izone.org.uk/). The programme is basically a way of allowing young people in the community to have a platform where they can fall back to if they’re struggling with things such as mental wellbeing, relationships, finance and lots more. The website and app also offer a link to “giving back” this allows young people to get involved with the community and help or support others. I also went to a few of the other talks given by other corporations such as St John’s Ambulance and the Fire Service. I then came back to Albion Street where Eileen and I completed my assessment and reports of the week, I was glad to know it was all positive feedback!
My week at Dudley CVS has been very interesting and my experience has been so welcoming and inclusive. I’d like to also use this as an opportunity to thank everyone I have been working with this week, I appreciated that they all treated me like an adult and involved me in everything, especially seeing as I was there on the busiest week of the year! I hope I was helpful as an extra pair of hands and didn’t get in the way or further stress anyone out. The lessons I have learnt this week I will definitely take forward with me, to consider my future career. It has been such a valuable and important experience that I have also thoroughly enjoyed, so thank you!
On Wednesday 18th October I have been invited to the awards (https://dva2017.wordpress.com/) to take informal photographs and to see the amazing commitment and hard work endured within volunteering. I am really looking forward to the night as I have been told by everyone how fabulous it is when it has all come together! This is also something Eileen asked me to do because I had participated (a very small role) in making the awards happen, which I think is a real privilege and compliment from them, as the event is so important.”
A thank you to Evie, our volunteer photographer and work experience student with the Mayor of Dudley and Mike Abrahams, Dudley CVS Chairman
We wish Evie all the best in her future and thank her for joining us last week. Don’t forget to keep your eyes out for Evie’s volunteer awards photos at www.dva2017.wordpress.com
borough, through 1-2-1 interviews and focus groups, recently undertook a survey with 417 Dudley residents who had been victims of crime. The aim of the research was to seek and represent the views and experiences of victims of crime as of February 2015.
Dudley CVS blog 