It’s the final quarter and my quietness on the blog front is not a reflection of a quiet working world this November and December!!
For the past 2 months my calendar has been packed full of events! Much tooing and frooing to Wellington was done for the Volunteering New Zealand Conference (where Lani’s crew of young volunteers stole the show), then to Parliament for a special Foundation presentation to MPS in the Great Hall, and back the following week for a Youthline National Executive meeting.
November kicked off with the World of Difference 2010 announcement event and induction day. This was an exciting time to meet with the new recipients and hear about the wonderful work they are going to be doing next year. What an incredible bunch of young leaders: they left me with a sense of inspiration that anything is possible if there is passion and commitment.
As they look forward to new beginnings we are busily wrapping up a very full year at Youthline House. And we have been busy in the hub! Celebrations abound for the mentor team who have DOUBLED the number of trainee counsellors who have graduated to solo this semester from 2008. What has been most awesome is that we have managed to do all this hard work whilst keeping the team happy and relaxed so that they can begin the year afresh in 2010 with lots of positive energy for their work. Our final Mentors team meeting was a chance to celebrate and look back at how far we have come as a team! Wooooooo hoooooooo thanks Vodafone!
Mid November I was invited to speak at the Vodafone induction day sharing with new employees a little bit about the impact the World of difference programme has had on Youthline and how volunteering has changed my life. I relished in the opportunity to reconnect with the sense of purpose this work has given me.
Events continued to make up my calendar with a morning on the Grey Lynn festival Stall. Fight Night: Fight for Youth followed and we raised over $10,000 for our Manukau Centre, and supported our own Georgina ‘cool hands’ Clarke in the ring, beating her opponent and doing the Youthline Whanau proud.
Back on the home front more preparation was in action for the volunteers ‘Red Featuring White’ Christmas party. Red and white adorned volunteers packed the dance floor- they sure know how to party! Amongst all the silliness we had the opportunity to celebrate everyone’s contribution through the year and to announce our inaugural Volunteer of the Year award. A special taonga had been carved and blessed for the occasion and the votes had been coming in fast and furious for 2weeks. The nominees were the top 10 contributors on the helpline, this group did a staggering 700 volunteer hours combined in 2009- that’s 30 days work, day and night.
Youthline CEO Stephen Bell (left) Volunteer of the Year Jaimee Lynn McPhee (centre) and Tiffany (right)
24 year old Jaime Lynn McPhee was the winner and received the award with grace and modesty. She is known to her peers as incredibly compassionate, always able to provide enlightening perspectives and has deep empathy and understanding.
What a way to end the year and bring on the holidays!
As we start to see Santa Claus making his rounds of the shopping malls it is hard to believe another festive season dawns. It only feels like yesterday that I was preparing for my World of Difference year with YES and Carabiner but what a year it has been. From speaking to disability groups in Japan to speaking alongside the Prime Minister at the social Hero Awards in Auckland, from 5 matches in Carabiner to nearing 20 mentors and mentorees, from a dream to reality Carabiner and the YES Disability Resource Centre have enhanced our foundations to continue supporting the dreams and aspirations of our youth. It is through the support of our sponsors and community and the involvement of our mentors / mentorees that we have been able to create such fond memories.
On Sunday the 13th of December Carabiner mentorees took to the ice at Paradice Ice Skating Rink (Botany). Dubbed Carabiners Day in Paradise the experience day was created by youth to create a new exciting challenge while building their networks amongst one another. With four planning sessions in lead up to the event the crew of Mentorees made sure that the event was accessible to all and with wheel-chairs zooming around the ice on the day, it was great to see the guys having a blast!
On Thursday the 3rd of December both the YES Disability Resource Centre (Auckland) and iCAN (Wellington) collaborated on a project to celebrate the International Day of Persons with a Disability.YES iCAN was an initiative driven by youth and people with disabilities to show the contribution that we make to society. To actively promote our passion of making a difference we set out to collect as many cans as we could for the Auckland City Mission over a 5 hour period. By using social media sites and e-mail we got our message to individuals, businesses, schools and community groups to bring in a total of 2,300 cans on the day.
While the year is wrapping up, I’m busy in planning for 2010 and in full excitement for what it contains. Our first training in the New Year is on February 27th and open to mentors / mentorees linked and waiting to be linked, for those who are thinking “is Carabiner for me”? or “What could I contribute”? Originally training was for mentors / mentorees already matched but as we have found this can be an important part of the matching process. It provides a full insight into Carabiner without having had made any long term commitments. With the training youth and people young at heart are then ready to become a Mentor / Mentoree at anytime and can go straight into the process rather than waiting for the next training dates. Registrations for the training are now open so do contact cam@yesdisability.org.nz for a spot. Following the training (which we hope to be massive) we will have a mentor evening for all mentors to network, ask questions and hear from other mentors who have completed their year in Carabiner to share tips and advice.
2010 looks to be an awesome year and I look forward to sharing my plans with you in the New Year.
The HYPE-GS “season” is well and truly upon us. No winding down for holidays for us!!! We have a fantastic team of enthusiastic people who want to work crazy hours and holiday periods to support young people at events and in their gathering spaces. The commitment of youth workers is amazing – many have just come to the end of a long year and then they put their hands up to work for HYPE-GS. Unbelievable passion!!!
We have some new staff that I look forward to working with and in addition to the HYPE-GS training day all the staff and I undertook an intensive first aid training course.
My focus now is on inducting new workers on shifts and providing on the job training and support to them and the YOUTHTRAIN volunteers. The hours are long and it’s hard on your feet but young people are really stoked that we are back out in their gathering areas.
We held the last YOUTHTRAIN training weekend last weekend which was awesome. “Big ups” to Paul Cooke who came to share his passions about globalisation and its impact on young people. The level of discussion blew me away, NZ young people are really aware of the impact of globalisation. It was hard to draw the overall training course to an end on the Sunday as we have built a great rapport within the group, overcome many group and individual obstacles and shared many personal stories. I will be supporting 5 of the young people as they go on to volunteer and work for HYPE-GS on our event, street, beach and recreation services and I hope to continue to work with the others through the planning of Youth Week 2010 activities.
Work is still underway for the 18 YOUTHTRAIN participants completing their workbooks to attain their Level 3 Certificate in Youth Work and carrying out evaluation activities. We are also planning a BBQ celebration event in January for participants and the wider community that have supported the programme in various ways.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all and be sure to PARTY SAFELY. If you come across the ORANGE PEOPLE in Nelson/ Tasman this summer don’t forget to say HI
