Filed under: meetings | Tags: arts, DCMS, education, England, Northern Ireland, olympics, OTS, Scotland, UK, vcs, volarts, volunteering
I was in London on Wednesday to take part in the ‘Volunteering and London 2012’ symposium, organised by Volunteering England. This event brought together volunteering agencies and voluntary sector infrastructure organisations from across the UK. We heard from David Huse, Head of Volunteering at LOCOG, about the latest plans for recruiting, training and managing the 70,000 games-time volunteers needed to help run the Olympic and Paralympic Games: the application process for these volunteers (including volunteer performers for the ceremonies) will be launched in summer 2010. We then had a presentation from the Government Olympic Executive about plans for a social legacy marketing plan: the ‘big idea’ is to use London 2012 to inspire participation in volunteering, culture, sport, education and more, across the UK. There will be a campaign to inspire the whole of the country to give time to their local communities. A creative agency has just been appointed and the campaign will be launched in early 2010. We also heard from the Volunteer Development Agency in Northern Ireland, Volunteer Development Scotland and Greater London Volunteering about the progress of their 2012 volunteering initiatives – including the ‘People Making Waves’ programme in Scotland which includes Voluntary Arts Scotland’s ‘Make a Splash’ project. The symposium was followed by a second meeting of the London 2012 Volunteering Legacy Stakeholder Advisory Group where we specifically focussed on the Volunteering England/YouthNet project which is expanding the national volunteering database (do-it.org.uk) to include a wide range of opportunities catalysed by London 2012.
Robin Simpson.
I was in Belfast on Thursday where Brenda, Stephen and I were at Stormont to give a presentation to the Culture, Arts and Leisure Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly as part of the Committee’s inquiry into the funding of the arts in Northern Ireland. We recommended that the funding allocated to the Arts Budget by the Assembly be increased to bring it into line with per capita expenditure in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. We asked that additional funding be dedicated to enabling the voluntary arts sector to survive and develop participation and audiences. We also asked the Department to take the lead in establishing an inter-departmental forum to increase the engagement of other Assembly Departments in the arts and that the Department commission research into participation and needs in the voluntary arts sector to inform the development of a plan of action to improve financial and other supports flowing into this important area of arts provision. Our points seemed to be well received by the Committee and there was a good level of understanding and appreciation of the importance of the voluntary arts sector as part of the wider arts ‘eco-system’.
Robin Simpson.
