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

Beat Ambassador Training

This week, Joe, Rio and Jaleesa headed down to the Beat Ambassador Training day. The event was spilt into two parts, with the first being a mentoring session where young volunteers got into groups and discussed their understanding of what their role as a mentor consists of, as well as ways of being a good mentor and how they can use their experiences to help others.

The afternoon session was focused on the mygames (powered by v) My Personal Best website project which aims to promote well-being and positive self-esteem. The volunteers were able to see how their ideas and suggestions have been used to design the website. They were talked through many of the different aspects of the site including news and blogs and the challenge section – where users will be able to set goals and mark them off as they achieve them.

This was followed by an engaging presentation from Joe and Rio, who talked to the group about the Digital Documenters project and gave them some useful information and tips about filmmaking; as the volunteers will be making small videos for the site. It was an insightful and productive day and the team got some great interviews!

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Centrepoint’s SpeakOut event

 

Image by id-iom via Flickr

 

This week, Joe, Jaleesa and Gabriella went along to film the SpeakOut event, which helped them to better understand the service Centrepoint provides and the young people that they work with.

SpeakOut was organised and run by young people living at Centrepoint hostels. The event gave Centrepoint service users the opportunity to voice their opinions and raise any concerns, views and ideas that they may have about their living conditions. With entertainment and food in abundance, and a prize draw, the event was filled with many great activities: There was a Rap Zone where young people brainstormed concerns that affected them, and looked at how song  lyrics are often influenced by real life issues. There was also a Graffiti Zone for people to leave comments.

Additionally, young people were joined by members of the youth parliament and a panel of senior managers where a heated debated quickly formed; as frustrated young people were not happy with the responses to their questions. The panel responded as best as they could and were  pleased to receive feedback, as it gives them a chance to make improvements on Centrepoint’s services.

Centrepoint is a national charity working to improve the lives of socially excluded homeless young people. They provide a range of accommodation-based services, specialist projects and floating support services. From these accommodation based services, Centrepoint helps young people to turn their lives around by gaining essential life skills, tackling physical and mental health issues, and moving into education or employment and a better future.

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For more photos from SpeakOut click here