Latest News from Learning Partnerships

Congratulations to our Volunteer Literacy Programme Manager, Gail Clark, who received a ‘Special Mention’ in June this year at The Yorkshire Women of Achievement Awards 2009.

Gail was nominated for the Education Award in recognition of her 10 years service to recruiting, training, placing and supporting volunteers from both local businesses and communities to support children’s literacy in inner city primary schools.

This last year her 200 volunteers have supported over 700 children making a significant improvement in their reading ability, confidence, self-esteem, speech and language.

The event, run by The Yorkshire Evening Post, began over 20 years ago as a way of celebrating the achievements of Yorkshire women and raising money for Sue Ryder Care Wheatfields Hospice in Leeds. The event continues to grow in profile and prominence, bringing stories of personal achievement from all across the Yorkshire region.

The first ‘Welcome to Leeds’ Summer School was arranged by the Job Zone, it spanned across three days and was well-attended by ESOL students wanting to see a wider variety of the sights Leeds has to offer. Development Worker Zahoor Ahmed and ESOL Tutor Sally Spencer accompanied twelve students around Leeds whilst they practiced their English skills, building on confidence that has been developed in classes.

We feel that by visiting local attractions such as the Cathedral, Leeds City Museum, Leeds Art Gallery and Millennium Square on foot and by bus, students can develop their awareness of environments that they may have previously found daunting. Students also got the chance to visit and join Leeds Central Library giving them access to resources that they may not have had or even known about previously and there was also a chance socialise when they stopped for a picnic at Park Square.

We expect that this experience, whilst relaxed and informal, will help attendees to feel more comfortable in our community and give them a greater understanding of our city and culture.

The success of our Volunteer Literacy Programme was recognised in April this year at the Yorkshire Forward Better Futures Awards for its partnership work with city centre law firm, Addleshaw Goddard since 2000. The prestigious awards highlight the successful partnerships between private sector and voluntary, community and faith organisations. They aim to demonstrate true partnership working and encourage the sharing and development of skills, knowledge and best practice within the community for its economic development. Each of the winning voluntary organisations received a prize of £10,000 to invest in their cause. Gail Clark, Volunteer Manager for Learning Partnerships comments;

“Winning one of the Creating Better Futures Awards has made our year and a significant contribution to the sustainability of our Volunteer Literacy Programme. We are delighted to have been chosen as one of the winners against some other very worthwhile and deserving organisations."

“Not only is it a great achievement for both ourselves and Addleshaw Goddard but also, an official thank you to the volunteers for their time and commitment in supporting local primary school children."

 "The Awards highlight the amazing work that is currently going on between the voluntary, community & faith sectors with private and public organisations to make the city of Leeds a better place."

On Friday 19th March 2010 - 1pm at SHINE Harehills Road. Learning Partnerships celebrates the success of our recent projects: Job Zone Four out of Ten A2E New Opportunities Active Citizenship Including: Special Guest Speaker Presentation of Certificates Refreshments & Lunch on Arrival

On Wednesday 10th March 2010 from 7.00pm – 11.00pm at The Loft, Leeds City Centre. vinvolved Leeds is holding the first ever city wide event to celebrate the fantastic achievements of young volunteers! vinvolved Leeds is all about youth volunteering and action. We are part of a national network of teams and projects that create and celebrate volunteering opportunities for 16-25 year olds. vinvolved, the nation's biggest ever youth volunteering programme, started in April 2008, backed by funding from youth charity v. Learning Partnerships was awarded funding in partnership with Children Leeds and the University of Leeds to run the scheme for three years. The vinvolved Leeds team is working with organisations across all sectors in Leeds to create over 8,000 taster, part-time and full-time volunteering opportunities for 16 to 25 year olds linked to the cares, interests and needs of young people. Since April 2008 we have, with your help: Created 5609 taster, part-time and full-time volunteering opportunities working in partnership with organisations from across the Leeds voluntary, community, and faith; public and private sectors Brokered 2012 young people into opportunities worked with 156 organisations from across the sectors supporting them to create exciting opportunities for young volunteers. We think it's really important to recognise and celebrate the achievements of young voluteers, and to showcase the amazing work that they do, and we hope that the event in March will do just that! And that's where you come in! As a valued partner we want you to help us raise the profile of youth volunteering in Leeds. We would like you to nominate your young people for a series of awards to make sure that young volunteers in the city get the recognition they deserve. We also want to demonstrate the impact youth volunteering has on a range of local communities, on youth groups, charities, schools, colleges, universities, youth led projects and many more - we want it all to be recognised!