During 2010/11, 16 young volunteers from the Bradford district have given up an incredible 15,488 hours in volunteering.
The young people, aged 17–25, have been on full-time volunteering placements within Bradford Council’s young people’s services as part of the vtalentyear programme.
They have made a positive contribution to the lives of others and learnt more about working with children and young people. More than 2,000 children and young people have benefited from their work.
During their time with vtalent they have worked on a variety of placements across the district including:
- Sure Start centres
- Youth Work Teams
- Youth Offending Teams
- Early Years Teams
- Health and Equality Teams
- Inclusion project
- Positive Futures
- Arts and Environment Initiatives
- Outdoor Initiatives
- Skills4success / Alternative Education
There are also four Bradford Metropolitan District Council youth work apprentices
Check out some of the volunteers experiences below.
Hi my name is Zoe and I live in the Little Horton area of Bradford with my one year old daughter, Sienna. In my spare time I enjoy reading, drama and going to the theatre. I enjoyed school and left with 11 GCSEs and before vtalentyear I did a BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts and went on to Salford University to do a degree in Media Performance.
I have always enjoyed spending time with my nieces and other children in my family and after having my daughter I realised that I would like a career working with young people. After reading about last year’s vtalentyear participants in the local newspaper I knew this was something I would like to do and that it would be a great opportunity to develop new skills in youth work and meet lots of new people. Also, I feel volunteering is a good way to give something back to the community and at the same time do something that I love whilst gaining new skills and qualifications along the way.
My placement was at the Shipley Youth Café where I offered help, guidance and information to the young people, who used the provisions, in a safe way. I did direct, face to face work with the young people, offering support and information. I came up with topics and issues for the topic board, put together food parcels and helped run sessions on, for example sexual health, and cook and eat. I talked to and approached the youths in a friendly and open way. Before that I had a placement in the Early Years Child Care and Play team in a Holmewood Sure Start Centre. I have helped run a number of sessions with them, including baking, face painting, lantern making, vegetable planting, talent shows, making posters, and more.
After vtalentyear I would like to go on to do a degree in Social work and I feel this scheme has been a great way to lead onto that.
My name is Jade, I am 17 years old and I live in Holmewood with my mum. I am an active person and love playing sports. I did okay at school qualifying with 5 GCSE’s. Before vtalentyear I was doing the Activity Agreement. I have tried a lot of different things including horse care, working in café’s and also doing a range of other courses. What inspired me most to work with young people was how my youth workers helped young people on the street and made it better for them.
I wanted to do vtalentyear to help my community and guide young people who are going down the wrong path to help them back on track, like people did for me. I am hoping to become a youth worker in the future or a learning mentor as I hope to change how children act with each other. My aims are to keep young people off the streets and help stop any issues that may cause trouble.
At my placement I had many different tasks to carry out including, assisting in the running of the youth club and various projects such as alternative education for positive futures. At the TFD Youth Centre I planned 6 weeks worth of sessions for a group of 13 - 16 year olds. The sessions taught DJ and music skills. To do this I used communication, writing, planning, organising and teaching skills. These sessions were empowering for many young people.
The scheme has made me feel more confident in helping others and not to be judgemental. I feel I have gained a lot of experience from completing my placement and attending training courses. Vtalentyear has inspired me to work with children and I feel it has been a great opportunity. After vtalentyear I would like to continue doing more training and hopefully get to college to do a sports leadership course and get a job in this field. 
Hi my name is Josh and I am from the Windhill area of Bradford. I am 20 years old and I came on the vtalentyear scheme to try and get more involved with youth work. I have seen, first hand, some of the issues that young people may face everyday such as drugs, alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, crime and much more. All these things are never going to change completely but hopefully in completion of the scheme I am able to help towards making young people stay clear of this kind of life and begin doing more positive things.
My placement was at a couple of youth centres over in Keighley, Parkwood youth centre and Longlee youth centre. On a Monday I would be up at Longlee where I helped run sessions and encouraged young people to take part in various activities, while interacting with them. At Parkwood I ran my own music workshops to teach young people the skills of music production and how to write their own lyrics. Whilst doing this I feel I have definitely developed leadership skills. My confidence has risen as I have had to be assertive towards the young people at times, especially when they need to settle down to take part. I have also learnt a lot about how to interact with young people in different situations
I would like to get more young people involved in music as it is a common interest that we all have and is an ideal outlet for young minds. Therefore, after vtalentyear, I hope to carry on running music workshops all around Bradford, whilst using what I have learnt on my courses to teach young people.
