We have a number of opportunities for people to become volunteer literacy tutors in schools across London in September 2010. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer and changing a child’s life then please get in touch. There will be opportunities to see the work we do in action in an a local school in June and July so contact me now to find out more and book your place on a visit session.
Spring term team meeting
A new term has started at Springboard for Children and we kicked it off in London with a team meeting for all the staff and volunteers. As part of the continuing support and development we offer to our volunteer literacy tutors we had Matt Collins from Chance UK come in to the meeting and give us some training on building self esteem in children.
Matt started by getting everyone thinking about the tools available to volunteers, such as: body language, encouraging words, stickers, star charts, certificates, displaying work and all the other good quality resources such as books and activities which Springboard volunteers have to engage children in learning.
Matt then introduced the “thoughts-actions-feelings” cycle and everyone broke into small groups to discuss how they have seen children develop self esteem through changing something in the cycle. This was a great opportunity for volunteers to share their experiences with each other and learn from others’ ideas and perspectives. Volunteers spoke about how they had helped children grow in confidence by showing them what they could do and constantly being positive.
The final part of the training was about the solution focused approach, which means focusing on what a person wants to replace a problem with and what strengths and resources they have that can help them get there.
After the training, the views of volunteers were collected and everyone surveyed said they found the training appropriate and interesting. Volunteers said they found the group discussions useful and that the training would help them focus on some particular issues with their own pupils.
Following the meeting everyone was invited back to the central office for lunch and another opportunity to chat some more. We didn’t take a survey on lunch but from the empty plates afterwards we could tell everyone enjoyed it!
Springboard Summer Party
On 20th July we had a summer party at the central office for all of our volunteers and staff at Springboard for Children. We had a fantastic barbeque, with a range of delights on offer and the weather held out to make it a lovely day outside!
During the party, our full-time volunteers, who come from all over the world, were presented with gifts from Springboard to say Thank You for their huge dedication and their tremendous work throughout the year.
Aside from our full-time volunteers, we had two co-ordinators, (one of which originated as a volunteer), who celebrated their tenth year at Springboard. They too received gifts from Springboard as a Thank You for all of their amazing work.
The Springboard Summer Party is a great chance for everyone to see each other and catch up. It is also a chance for people to say goodbye to those who are not continuing another year with Springboard. Primarily it is another way of thanking our volunteers, full and part-time for their incredible commitment to our work.
National Volunteers Week 1-7 June 2009
Volunteers' Week is a national celebration of volunteers and volunteering which takes place from 1-7 June of each year. This year, Volunteers' Week celebrated its 25th anniversary.
At Springboard for Children, our volunteers are the real stars of the show, they make a huge commitment to us for a year and are cost-effective for the charity. To say Thank You to our volunteers we decided to do something special during National Volunteers Week. The central office made and set up Thank You banners in each of the literacy units within the schools, and then delivered a range of doughnuts, cakes and refreshments to the volunteers.
The volunteers were delighted at the effort of the central office and loved the doughnuts! They also each received a trolley coin marking National Volunteers Week 2009.