Become Green Messenger at the LEEDS FESTIVAL

Give up your free time for a worthwhile cause during Leeds Festival.

Every year the Leeds Festival attracts thousands of people. Keeping the site environmentally friendly is a huge challenge, that the Green Messengers try to manage. As a Green Messenger you will work to promote recycling during the festival by encouraging campers to sort their waste, distributing recycling bags and collecting cans & plastic bottles. After the festival you will be salvaging good quality, re-usable camping equipment and food that has been left in the campsites. These will go to charity and community organisations.

You will work during the festival and for two days afterwards (25th-30th August). In return, you can spend your free time in the festival enjoying all the bands and entertainment on offer!

Everything is Possible is looking for volunteers so if you think you’re full of energy, don’t mind getting your hands dirty and are a passionate recycler, please send the  Application Form (that you can download in clicking here) fully completed to Raphael : raphael@everythingispossible.eu

For more information about the programme and the projects, click here. 

Watch the video of last year, on our Youtube Channel : click here.

Watch the video of Last year:

The Green Messengers work in all the recycling initiatives at the festival. You will be doing some or all of the following:

• Hand out bin bags to people on arrival.
• Tell the campers about the recycling initiatives, especially promoting the idea of packing their camping gear down and taking it home.
• Be stationed at the sets of recycling bins throughout the campgrounds telling people what bin to put their recycling in. You will be armed with a litter picking stick and if necessary you will have to pick out the wrong stuff that gets thrown in the wrong bin when you’re not looking. You may also do some litter picking around the roadway your bin is stationed on. Daytime shifts only.
• Be part of our Recycle Exchange team. You will receive bags of cans and other rubbish from the campers and hand out beer vouchers. You will need to be a bit bossy for this job as you will have to make the people pick out any ‘contaminants’ from the bags they bring back before you hand over their beer voucher. We are also looking at a way of collecting up all the trashed metal chairs, so you may end up on that duty too.
• Be part of our Compost Crew. These will be highly sought after arena jobs, so volunteers will need to jump through a few hoops to get this role. The Compost Crew will roam around the arena with a handy hoop and a litter picking stick working as mobile compost bins. This is so people don’t have to sit in each others' squished kebabs and also so we capture the estimated 70% of compostable waste produced in the arena ends up as compost and not as methane puffing out of a landfill. OK, so not such a glamorous job, but we’ll kit you out in some fun t-shirts and you’ll get to see and hear the bands.
• You will be promoting the option of packing down their gear and donating it to our Tent Recycling points.
• Staffing Tent Recycling points on the Monday morning.
• Working in the sorting area to re-pack all the donated gear.
• Salvaging and scavenging good quality re-usable gear that’s left in the campsites, to go to charity and community organisations.

''Roman invades Leeds'': Article in the British Red Cross newsletter about our former long term hosting volunteer, Roman.

Click on the next image to read the article:

Project part of BREAKING BARRIERS
BUILDING PARTNERSHIP
and supported by EACEA

and the Youth in Action Programme

of the European Commission.

For more information about BREAKING BARRIERS BUILDING PARTNERSHIP, visit the special webapge in clicking here.

Testimony from Natasha, UK participant in our Gruntvig Learner Workshop ''Exchanging Dreams''

Read a short testimony from Natasha, UK participant in our Grundtvig Learner Workshop ‘’Exchanging Dreams’’. This project has been organised by Everything is Possible and supported by ECORYS and the Lifelong Learning Programme.



Natasha taking pictures at the Leeds City Museum

‘’I’m really proud of my film because I just enjoy editing and I’m hoping to do this at some point in the future.’’

Natasha

''This morning we came to a radio station, then we plan about what we will talk about. We talked about politics and underage like young people being unemployed underage and this stuff. And we also talked how young people in UK would gain more money and how does that work and how it is different in other countries. And we did it with two people from Hungary so we had two sides to the stories. And it was really scaring, so I don’t think I want to do it again. I liked it but I was really nervous. I’m not a big speaker anyway.




Natasha during the video editing workshop at Lifeforce productions

 

My favourite workshop was the editing workshop. During the workshop we have taken all the clips that people have recorded and we put them together in short film and we add edited music and transitions and at the end of the week all the films got presented . And I’m really proud of my film because I just enjoy editing and I’m hoping to do this at some point in the future.''

Natasha

Video created by Natasha during the video editing workshop:

Watch as well the video of the Grundtvig Learner Workshop:

Read a new extract from Paul's blog, long term volunteer in Jamaica



Paul with some of his students



" 'they're all yours to teach, Mr Newham'. Clearly he wasn't expecting someone with absolutely no teaching experience or training to his name to walk into his classroom. [...] It  was all too sudden to be nervous about it anyway, so I just decided to go for it [...] The fact that I more or less held their attention all that time seemed to make it a success. ''

Paul

The Mighty Gully Youth Project is very much a family affair. I am living directly with his first wife, Althea, daughters Kara, Kayah and Kadaye, and son Jayvan, who is now in charge of the project, as well as 'Crazy' Chris, Kadaye's baby son Keshaun (not sure of spelling!) and Ryan, the five-year-old son of a family friend. Across the way live Mr Bryan's elderly parents, brother, sister-in-law and sister, plus assorted neices, nephews, and grandchildren, while in the third house in the yard live another of Mr Bryan's daughters, Marsha, her partner Stretch (also known as 'Rasta' and creator of some awesome vegan Ital food) and their children.

The rest of the extended family is made up of the wood carvers. They spend their days, from morning until sometimes late in the evening, transforming lumps of lignum vitae, the hardest wood in the world and known as 'iron wood' for its durability, into fantastic works of art - birds, animals, portraits and, frequently, beautifully executed and stylised female nudes. Watching them work is an education in patience, precision, skill and vision - the wood is notoriously difficult to work so the job can be physically demanding, but one false move can ruin an entire piece. And once happy with the carving, each piece has to be meticulously course sanded, fine sanded and polished by hand until it literally shines in the sun. They are the proteges of a recognised master and it shows.

After CCCD with its hundred-or-so pupils, the school I'm working at Marlie Mount Primary and Infant School - is HUGE - well over a 1000 pupils, making it as big as most UK high schools. With just 50 staff and not enough space to accomodate all pupils at once, the school runs a shift system - the first lot of pupils come in at 7am and leave at midday, the second starting at midday and leaving at 5pm. It must be exhausting for the teachers - with it being the last week of term and things easing back a bit, the longest day I worked was 7am til 4pm and that absolutely knackered me. But, through a lot of dedication and hard work, they make it work, and the school has a very proud record for achievement in all areas of school life.


Somehow I felt like I'd be letting him and the class down (given as they had all cheered in unison when he told them I'd be 'teaching' them) if I explained that I didn't have a clue what I was doing, let alone a lesson plan, and had never taken a class before. It was all too sudden to be nervous about it anyway, so I just decided to go for it - I asked them what they had been doing in English, they said 'nouns', so away I went - nearly two hours later, I had somehow managed to take them through the distinctions between common nouns, proper nouns and pronouns, spent some time on adjectives and the correct grammatical ways to describe things, and also touched on verbs and tenses, before finishing off with a quiz about where various countries are using a map I'd brought. The fact that I more or less held their attention all that time seemed to make it a success. The thing that impressed me most in class, and has continued to do so all week, was how well behaved and respectful the kids are. There was no back chat, no smart alec remarks, no tantrums, no attention seeking - yeah, they talk and fidget, fool around, bicker and sometimes whack eachother, but when a teacher raises their voice and demands attention (including me), they listen. It's probably worth pointing out that corporal punishment is still very much part of school life in Jamaica, and I've seen a fair few kids get hefty whacks off teachers. But as someone who has always thought the backlash against smacking in the UK is ridiculous and is a direct reason why so many kids grow up thinking they can behave as they please, I don't think this is a bad thing at all. And anyway, it's not like the kids are unhappy or live in fear of getting beaten - just the opposite, they seem really happy, and the enthusiasm they have shown towards me has made me feel like some kind of pop star at times. The troop of students, mostly girls, I have had literally hanging off my arms and fighting eachother to stroke my hair has made me feel like a cross between the Pied Piper and Justin Bieber.


 I have had classes arguing with eachother and begging me over who I teach next, the best being 3.1A (who I have to admit are my favourite class) trying to put me off taking 3.2A instead of them by telling me they 'all like to use cuss words and tell lies' and that '3.2 acting up on you would be my worst nightmare, sir!' Another reasons I get on with 3.1A so much is that their teacher, Mrs Smith, has been teaching them sign language, so I've ben able to pick up some of that with them and had a lot of fun.I arrived first morning not really knowing what to expect, having not even spoken to the principal yet as I had kept missing her the previous week when I'd been trying to call. As it was, she wasn't in that morning, but the deputy principal welcomed me kindly and quickly gave me a class to go and 'sit in with' - 5.3 (they 'graduate' at grade 6, which is 11-12 year olds here). No sooner had I walked in the classroom and the teacher, Mr MacIntosh, had introduced me than he sat down to mark some books, giving me a quizzical look -'they're all yours to teach, Mr Newham'. Clearly he wasn't expecting someone with absolutely no teaching experience or training to his name to walk into his classroom.


Even if I can't always follow the conversations, everyone has gone out of their way to make me feel welcome, often through the medium of food - Kara has taken it on herself to teach me how to make authentic Jamaican dishes like turned corn and spicy steamed callalloo (a kind of cabbage), while Jayvan is constantly bringing me fruit from the various trees in the yard, mainly mangoes and delicious, watery Ethiopian apples at the moment as they're in season, and I've already mentioned the fantastic Ital food from the Rasta cookhouse. As a side note, I've gone vegan again now I'm cooking for myself (well, unless someone insists on cooking for me!) and it's surprisingly easy over here, plus it gets me serious props from the Rastas. And seeing as everything is laced with searingly hot Scotch Bonnet chilli peppers, I'm in my element food-wise.After the quiet nights at CCCD, it's good to have people to talk to and hang out with, even if I am still trying to get my head round patois ('Yes Paul, wha' gwaaan!!').

Paul

Project part of CREATIVE INCLUSION

and supported by EACEA

and the Youth in Action Programme

of the European Commission.

For more info about Creative Inclusion, visit the special webpage, clicking here.

To read more about Paul's volunteering in Jamaica, visit his blog : http://nogsjah.blogspot.com/



Life in Lille and 4th workshop, extract from Rebekah's blog, long term volunteer in France

Rebekah Warburton

Everything is still going great here in my project, although quite honestly I do not know where all the time is going !!! I have already been here nearly 7 weeks (tomorrow!) and it feels like only last week that I arrived ! I feel like I have really settled well in to my project and the people I work with are all great to be around and very welcoming, but 6 months here is just not long enough.  I mean yes it is amazing and everything, but I want more :-) 

La Place de la Reblique - next to my office
and one of the places where I spend my lunch breaks

In terms of my French development, although I feel that I am progressing, it is almost as if the more I understand the harder it gets.  Let me explain !  When people are talking to me, I can usually understand what they are saying if they are looking at me (don’t ask me why hehe).  I then get incredibly frustrated if I understand a conversation or a question, but find it difficult to express myself in my response… It’s like the more I progress and understand, the more pressure I put on myself !  Regardless, bit by bit I am definitely learning new vocabulary and slowly picking up more grammar :-) I’m hoping to be able to speak very comfortably by the time I leave Lille.

Also, I had my fourth English Workshop last week (13th July) which I was very pleased with.  I am starting to develop a relationship with the young people which is great.  I started with some general discussion about what they had been up to and if they were planning on doing anything for the 14th July bank holiday.  I then handed out a worksheet with a script on it regarding talking on the telephone… We worked through it as a group, ensuring that we had all understood.  I then had them do role playing, which was the first time I had done it.  It worked really well and everyone was speaking in English.  I asked them to take turns with one person asking to book a room for 3 nights, the other person playing the role of receptionist.  I think I will definitely do more role plays in the future !





"Who Am I?" - Everyone getting involved
 (from the 3rd ''Atelier Anglais'')

Afterwards, I had them doing a quick worksheet on syllables for revision and some pronunciation practice.  They tend to try speaking too fast, so I ensured everyone took their time and pronounced things properly.  In between these exercises, we also watched You Tube clips which everyone enjoyed.  You Tube is also a nice way of breaking up the more difficult exercises because it is a rest from speaking or writing.  Afterwards, it is very easy to have a discussion about the topics on the videos.  I played a video called “21 accents” which is interesting to listen to, to see if the learners can notice the difference in pronunciation.  I also watched a clip of a French guy in America doing a comedy sketch in a speech competition, where he compared stereotypes and general culture of the USA and France.  He did this by switching between a cap (hat) for the USA and a beret for France.  It was very funny though sometimes difficult to understand, so I was pausing the video to explain.

Finally, I also did work on the preparation leaflet that I talked about before.  We looked at the section where the volunteers must find information regarding France so that they know the facts to present when they are in their hosting projects.  It was very interesting and they had to use the internet to research at times because quite often they didn’t know the answers.  It is intriguing to find out things that you really don’t know about your own country !!!  I had to do the same yesterday in fact.  This afternoon I am going to another organisation that sends volunteers on EVS projects.  I will talk about my experience and will do a presentation on England.  When preparing my presentation, I realised that I really didn’t know any useful facts ! Terrible or what ?!  Now I am all clued up however.
 

To read more about Rebekah's volunteering in France, visit her blog : http://bex-warburton.blogspot.com/

Our UK volunteers on a new video about our partner SKIP (Peru)

A volunteer from SKIP (Peru), Jano Lavalle, created a new video about the organisation. You will probably recognise some of our UK long term volunteers which are still in their project in Peru, right now. These EVS projects are funded with support from the European Commission (Youth in Action programme).



SKIP, ONG TRUJILLO - EL PORVENIR from TáhuanoFoto on Vimeo.

Project part of BREAKING BARRIERS
BUILDING PARTNERSHIP
and supported by EACEA

and the Youth in Action Programme

of the European Commission.

For more information about BREAKING BARRIERS BUILDING PARTNERSHIP, visit the special webapge in clicking here.

Tatiana, our long term hosting volunteer from Costa Rica, is in the Groundwork Newsletter

Click on the next image to read the article:

www.groundwork.org.uk/leeds

Groundwork Leeds is a charity which helps people and organisations make changes in order to create better neighbourhoods, to build skills and job prospects, and to live and work in a greener way.

Project part of BREAKING BARRIERS
BUILDING PARTNERSHIP
and supported by EACEA

and the Youth in Action Programme

of the European Commission.

For more information about BREAKING BARRIERS BUILDING PARTNERSHIP, visit the special webapge in clicking here.

Welcome to our 4 new short term EVS volunteers

Sofiane, Aurelie, emilia and Patricja with their two mentors, Bob and Barbara

All the Everything is Possible Team is happy to welcome our 4 new short term EVS volunteers: Aurelie, Sofiane, Emilia, Patricia. They come from Poland and France and Reunion Island (Fr) and will volunteer in an environmental project for one month.

Testimony from Marta, an Italian participant in our Gruntvig Learner Workshop ''Exchanging Dreams''

Read a short testimony from Marta, Italian participant in our Grundtvig Learner Workshop ‘’Exchanging Dreams’’. This project has been organised by Everything is Possible and supported by ECORYS and the Lifelong Learning Programme.



Marta during the news reading experience at the National Media Museum in Bradford

‘’After this discussion we were able to get in the radio and do our own radio emission and this was a very exciting experience. This experience showed us how it’s possible to realise the ideas that you have. […] It gave us a lot of hope. ‘’

 Marta

''My favourite workshop was the one at the Aculco Radio in London. we spent there all the day and the activities were so interesting. We were divided in different groups to speak about our dreams and the opportunity about the job, especially the situation of the market of work in our countries and the problem of the youth unemployment. After this discussion we were able to get in the radio and do our own radio emission and this was a very exciting experience.



Marta during the workshop at Aculco Radio in London



This experience showed us how it’s possible to realise the ideas that you have and you can create almost what you want, what you think is the best for you and for your friends, for the country in which you live. It gave us a lot of hope.  I learned a lot of things, I can start to know other people from all over the world and this is a way to improve the capacity of know myself and know how to manage with the relation and with other people and with other nationality is better because you have to relate with such different kind of culture and education so this was the first skill I think; and the second was of course to use this media instrument. So the first day we started using camera and that was the way to know an instrument that is so known but we cannot use in the best way, we don’t know such a lot about this. And of course the radio and we visited also places like the BBC in which they do a lot of work in an open wild world way.  It was an occasion to develop the knowledge about the world, how the world is going on and why this. This was another opportunity.''

Marta



Competition ''Your Story'' for UK participants about their experience through EVS, Leonardo, Grundtvig or other programmes

Dear volunteers/trainees,

Ecorys and the British Council are running a competition for UK participants of the Youth in Action (European Voluntary Service-EVS and other actions) and Lifelong Learning (Leonardo, Grundtvig and others) Programmes from across the UK.

As EVS volunteers, Leonardo trainee, or participant in Grundtvig, you are invited to participate in this competition by sending your testimony of your experience through words, photos or film. (for more information please visit the official your story competition website http://competition.lifelonglearningprogramme.org.uk/  or contact Raphael: raphael@everythingispossible.eu )

‘’Studying, living, training or working in another European country is a great opportunity to explore new countries and cultures, make new friends and learn another language. However it also broadens your horizons in many other ways. It can improve your ability to deal with differences, question the established ways of seeing and doing things and trigger independent thought.

We are sure you have had lots of different experiences through involvement in the programmes and have a story to tell. This competition allows you to share your story with other participants and will also give you the opportunity to see some of your photos, films and stories on our websites.’’

Conditions and deadline?

The competitions are open until 30 September 2011. All the winners from each of the six programmes will be invited to attend a joint prize-giving event at the British Council head office in London in November 2011. It is only open for people from UK participating in one of this programme.

For specific conditions regarding each programme, please visit the official your story competition website http://competition.lifelonglearningprogramme.org.uk/  

There are some exciting prizes on offer:

For Leonardo:

Written: First prize winners will receive a trophy and the popular reading tablet, Kindle. Two highly commended winners will each receive a certificate and Amazon vouchers worth £35.

Photography: First prize winners will receive a trophy and Amazon vouchers worth £100 and a digital photo frame. Two highly commended winners will each receive a certificate and Amazon vouchers worth £35.

Film: First prize winners will receive a trophy and a Flip camcorder. Two highly commended winners will each receive a certificate and Amazon vouchers worth £35.

For EVS:

Written: The winner of the essay category will receive a Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device.

The second prize winner of the written category will receive £50 worth of Amazon vouchers.

The third prize winners of the photographic and written categories will each receive £15 worth of Amazon vouchers.

Photography: The winner of the photographic category will receive a Nikon Coolpix S4100 in Black.

The second prize winner of the photographic category will receive a Diana Mini Camera.

The third prize winners of the photographic and written categories will each receive £15 worth of Amazon vouchers.

Film: The winner of the film category will receive a Flip Ultra.

The second prize winner of the film category will receive £50 worth of HMV vouchers.

The third prize winner of the film category will receive £15 worth of cinema vouchers.

For Grundtvig:

Written: First prize winners will receive a trophy and the popular reading tablet, Kindle. Two highly commended winners will each receive a certificate and Amazon vouchers worth £35.

Photography: First prize winners will receive a trophy and Amazon vouchers worth £100 and a digital photo frame. Two highly commended winners will each receive a certificate and Amazon vouchers worth £35.

Film: First prize winners will receive a trophy and a Flip camcorder. Two highly commended winners will each receive a certificate and Amazon vouchers worth £35.

More info?

Visit the official your story competition website:  http://competition.lifelonglearningprogramme.org.uk/  

Or contact Raphael: raphael@everythingispossible.eu

Read the July Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER

Please, discover the Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER of July, wrote by our new volunteer Annapina. You will find in this newsletter some information about Leeds, Bradford and London, and some advices about how to spend yoru free time:

- What's on: in Bradford
- Theatre, Music, Cinema and Art;

- Trips: ;
- Recipe of the month: Crepes;
- Events.

To dicsover the newsletter please click on this link.

Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER July 2011

You can also download see previous version, in clicking in one of these links:
Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER June 2011
Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER May 2011
Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER April 2011

Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER March 2011

Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER February 2011

Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER January 2011

Turn Up the VOLume NEWSLETTER December 2010

Read an extract from Rebekah's blog, long term volunteer in France

''My Desk in the Office in Lille :-)''



''I passed Everything is Possible’s stand and Steve asked me “Would you be interested in volunteering?”… My response was “I would love to but it’s just too expensive”.  Well lo-and-behold, the European Voluntary Service (EVS) doesn’t charge a penny for volunteering as it is funded by the European Commission''

Rebekah

''Hey everyone! For those who don’t know me, I’m Rebekah Warburton and am currently 22 years old.  I am originally from Leeds in West Yorkshire (North UK), but since I was 10 years old have been living in Yarm, further up North in Stockton-on-Tees.  I have just finished my degree in Psychology and for the past year have been thinking “What the heck am I gonna do after I finish?”  Scared of becoming bored after finishing my studies, I searched and searched on the web for jobs, sending in many applications (ultimately none being successful).  I spotted a leaflet in careers services at my university (Teesside University) for a European Jobs Day up in Newcastle…. I figured why not… Dropped dad at work and went for a drive.





That was where I decided that some kind of French speaking job / experience was the next step.  My first instincts were to apply for Disneyland Paris (!) but that didn’t happen.  I passed Everything is Possible’s stand and Steve asked me “Would you be interested in volunteering?”… My response was “I would love to but it’s just too expensive”.  Well lo-and-behold, the European Voluntary Service (EVS) doesn’t charge a penny for volunteering as it is funded by the European Commission, a programme that Everything is Possible work with.  The European Jobs Day ended up being the best decision I could have made.

Within a couple of weeks I was in Leeds meeting Ash, the coordinator of long-term volunteering programmes.  After a discussion on what I would like to do, it seemed that Lille, North France, would be the best option for me.  This worked out perfectly because I was visiting Brussels shortly afterwards, so I just jumped on the train and went to meet Yves, the coordinator in the welcoming organisation (i.e. the Boss J ).

It’s now 28^th June 2011 and I arrived in France on the 1^st June, just 4 days after my final exam! To begin with it felt like I must be in a dream, that I really am finally in France, but it has slowly sunk in and I am making the best of my opportunities here.  I want to use this blog to document my experiences here in France and life after my volunteering adventure. I hope you enjoy it!''

Rebekah



To read more about Rebekah's volunteering in France, visit her blog : http://bex-warburton.blogspot.com/