Digital Documenters

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For any queries about any content on this site, please email: info@olivia-heath.com

Thank you for all the support during the start-up of this project right through to the end. The 2012 Olympics are approaching soon and we hope that you all get actively involved in volunteering up and down the country and help to create a positive legacy!

First Light Awards 2011

The 2011 First Light Awards was a star-studded event to celebrate the talents of young people across the UK. Hosted by Radio 1′s Nick Grimshaw at the Odeon in Leicester Square, the awards kicked off with a great energy and saw a  host of film industry faces including Miranda Hart, Hugh Dennis, Noel Clarke and Michelle Ryan to name just a few.

Team Exeter won the award Digital Documenters award for their film Disability Swimming. It was a well deserved win too!

The other awards won by young people were inspiring to say the least, there really is some great talent out there. One of my favourite nominees that stood out was for Best Animation! Although they didn’t win, I thought School of Lego produced by Sawston Village College was great and had many of us in fits of laughter!

Anyway, check out all the fun and backstage action from all the Digital Documenters team in a selection of pictures below:

Enjoy!

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Until next time….

Watch all of our 60 second films!

So guys, all 60 second films are now complete and ready to view on our YouTube page…

As I’m sure you know, Centrepoint & Me was nominated for a First Light Award… Unfortunately we lost, but to worthy competitors, so well done Team Exeter and to their mentor, Peter Snelling! Their film, Disability Swimming is great, check it out below:

Please remember to check out all of our films. Each of them highlights a particular Olympic value and we hope that they inspire you to volunteer as well.

Please leave feedback too, as we would love to hear what you think of it!

And last but not least, a massive thank you to everyone who voted!

 

THE RACE IS ON… It’s time to VOTE!

DON’T MISS OUT ON VOTING FOR TEAM LONDON’S FILM, CENTREPOINT & ME, WHICH HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A FIRST LIGHT AWARD!

WHY SHOULD YOU VOTE?

• This film was made by passionate volunteers and equally young-budding filmmakers!
• Centrepoint gives homeless young people a future and we’re trying to raise awareness for them too!
• We think every young person should volunteer, it’s so rewarding and beneficial in many ways!
• This film highlights several key Olympic values: Respect (acceptance, appreciation, judgement) & Equality (fairness, stereotypes, respect, inclusion)

Jaleesa says:

“Producing Centrepoint & Me was a great experience for us, we got to learn about the work Centrepoint do in a fun and creative way! We enjoyed attending and filming their events, meeting their volunteers and even became Centrepoint volunteers ourselves – helping out at their SleepOut event, we had a really good time at SleepOut and met some great people.”

SO PLEASE VOTE… LET’S MAKE THIS HAPPEN AND HELP US TO COMPLETE OUR DIGITAL DOCUMENTERS EXPERIENCE IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE!

Great Ormond Street Hospital: Activate project

This week, Joe, Olivia and Anna headed down to Great Ormond Street Hospital to interview and film two volunteers taking part in the Activate project. Ali Naqvi and Alia Sheikh Mohamud are two very passionate volunteers who take time out each week to play sporting activities and games with the outpatients.We spent the morning filming the volunteers in a briefing and then interviewed them later on at Queen’s Square. Despite the cold weather and spot of rain, Ali and Alia were great and we were really inspired by their stories and motivations for volunteering. Ali used to be a patient at Great Ormond Street Hopsital so he volunteers to provide a better experience for the patients there. As for Alia, this is her first time volunteering and she wants other young people to know how rewarding it can be.

Check out some of our photos from the shoot below and go onto our Flickr profile to view them all!

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Are you 18-25? New to volunteering? Passionate about film & fancy joining a high profile media team?

Image via Wikipedia

Since September the Digital Documenters have been busy producing short documentary films to tell the world how the Olympic ideals affect young people.

 The plan? To create a buzz about the London 2012 Olympics, show the massive variety & impact of volunteering and encourage more people to volunteer!

As part of this campaign will include a special Digital Documenters category at the amazing First Light Awards 2011 in Leicester Square, London. This star studded event is an amazing chance to show everyone how important volunteering is and celebrate the achievements of young filmmakers.

Want to be part of this once in a life-time opportunity? Click here to find out how to take part!

NEWS: We’ve been featured!

Check out who’s been talking about us on the volunteering scene…

1) Social action network, i-volunteer did a great feature on us about the project, mygames (powered by v) and how our London filmmaker Joe has benefitted from volunteering on this project.

View the news feature here

2) Also, award-winning travel writer, Andrew Mersmann, did a great post about the Digital Documenters on his blog, Change by Doing. He looked at the bigger picture of the Digital Documenters project, specifically how we can help to promote volunteering amongst young people and taking part in the 25th Hour.

Read Andrew’s full blog post here

For volunteering opportunities click here

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news as it happens, by following us on Twitter and joining our Facebook fanpage!

Related Articles

• Why Volunteer? by Jen Hancock (helpmyresume.info)
• The Lucky Number (socyberty.com)

Q&A with Beat

A couple of weeks ago, Joe and Rio headed down to Beat‘s My Personal Best training day and caught up with project coordinators Beccie Smith and Frances Burrows for a Q&A!

My Personal Best is a mygames (powered by v) project. The creation of this virtual project is intended to appeal to  the wider population and not just the usual groups of people who associate Beat with an eating disorder charity. Overall, the project is about self esteem, so it’s a good chance for people who wouldn’t usually get in touch, to engage with them.

How do you feel about the Olympics and the impact it can have on young people?

The premise of what we are trying to achieve in the website reflects all the Olympic and Paralympics values. Young people think with the Olympics it is purely about being an athlete. These projects will get people that aren’t necessarily interested in sport engaged with the Olympics and the whole Olympic message. The Paralympics ideals with the inclusion and equality, fits in with our ethos of making sure that people can play a part in what we do and actually help them achieve their best.

How will the website work and how much interaction will the volunteers have with it?

Up until now the volunteers have produced most of the content which will be going into the website. They have also done a lot of the initial management, evaluation and monitoring of the site. When the website is launched it will be the volunteer’s responsibility to make sure that the site is updated and moderated and all the things that are included in running a website.

They will do this in their own time. If they are moderating live chat sessions they will have to volunteer for those specific times. But most of it can be done in their own time, so it is quite a flexible project purely because it is online. Even though they are volunteering they can use the website themselves to get help or motivation. The more the volunteers put into the project, the more they will get out of it. There will be more content, features and support that they can provide each other with.

What roles will the volunteers have?

There are three groups: A Steering group oversee the management and the delivery of the project, so if they don’t think I’m doing a great job or missing something, it’s up to them to tell me that. They are also in charge of monitoring and evaluation of the volunteers. All of the steering group have had past experiences with eating disorders. On the website they have a section called My Personal Best challenge plan, so young people can set themselves goals and challenges and achieve them. Within that there is a journal so they can track their progress based on what they have done.

The Action Group is responsible in producing a lot of the content and the production of the site. They have been involved with forum topics, pictures, films and podcasts for the site.

The rest of the volunteers are able to dip in and out of different things on the project and able to focus on different areas such as web moderation and research. Other volunteers have had eating disorders, other mental health issues and disabilities. There are two full time volunteers who both had eating disorders and were both very ill and are better now. Working on the project will provide support and how they recovered.

What would you like to be included within the film?

The important issue is the volunteers providing support for each other and the positive aspect of it and how it is created.

Check out the My Personal Best website here