Children's Helpers Worldwide (CHW) has been invited to take part in a campaign with an Olympic theme, and you can be involved! The theme of the service project is youth, health and sports.
We need ideas, volunteers, partners and participants, so there are really are lots of ways you could get involved! The event would be in London, as this is where we are based, but if you have ideas, or have done a similar project that we could now organise as well, it would be great to hear from you, wherever in the world you might be!
Details of the Campaign
The Campaign is being run by Global Service Leaders (GSL). They have just launched a new campaign, called "Relay Volunteerism." The idea is that organisations in different countries will form "teams" and host a service project (a volunteering event). Each week leading up to the Olympics, a different country will host their event (like the Olympic torch is relayed across countries). GSL would like the grande finale to be in London, as this is where the Olympics will be, and hopes we could host our service project in the week starting July 20. I have pasted GSL's full details of the Campaign at the bottom of this post.
The Campaign focusses on youth, sports and health, so any service project should involve youth and focus either on sports or health (or both, if possible!). I asked what sort of projects GSL had in mind and this was their reply:
"For the Campaign we want organizations to host a service project involving youth and highlighting sports and health. Some ideas are park and playground clean-ups, sports day, etc. This campaign can help fundraise for the organization involved, as long as the association with the Relay Volunteerism Campaign is there."
As it can be a fundraising event, I would love it if it could raise money for CHW! One of our current projects is related to health - we are trying to raise funds to start a children's music therapy project for a rehabilitation centre in Argentina. We are also trying to fundraise for a playground project in Ghana, and support for this would be great too.
Making it Happen!
I realise that July is not too far away! If you would like to be involved and can help, we would need the following to make it possible:
1. Ideas!
If you have an idea for an event that relates to this theme, please let me know.
It would hopefully be a relatively simple idea... and one where we could easily sort out a venue.
2. Volunteers
If you are happy to help out with this event, whatever idea we eventually come up with, please let me know. It will be great to have help on the day, as well as with the planning leading up to it.
Please also forward this on to anyone else who you think would want to volunteer.
3. Partners
If you are a member of an organisation, if or your work or community may want to get involved with hosting the service project, please let me know, or get any interested people to contact me. GSL will be featuring all organisations involved on their website, so it is a good chance to get some publicity. We would all work together on hosting the service project.
4. Participants
Depending on the type of event, either children/youth will be volunteers on the day (like with the park clean up idea), or the event will be for them (like with the sports day idea). Schools will be closed for the summer holidays by 20 July, which is a shame, as it might have been easier to link with a school and run a project with them. If anyone has links with summer schools/youth projects and think the young people there may like to be involved, let me know.
(NB - I am just using the examples for events that GSL gave - I am looking for other ideas for events!)
I know we are starting from scratch here, but I really think we have the potential to host a service project, and it will be great to involve young people here in London!
Get in Touch!
If you want to be involved with the service project and can help with any of the above, you can contact me either by email: catherine "at" chworldwide.org, or you can leave a comment under this post.
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GLS's Information on the Campaign
Below are the full details GSL has posted.
In light of the upcoming Olympic Games, Global Service Leaders (GSL) is proud to announce a campaign highlighting the values of teh Olympic Spirit. GSL brings together members from across the globe to facilitate the sharing of ideas adn resources; with our new campaign "Relay Volunteerism" we aim to blend the visible and invisible aspects of the Games emulating one of the most unique aspects of the Olympics: The Torch Relay. With "Relay Volunteerism" we are looking forward to a new approach that draws in our collective resources as Global Service Leaders.
We have taken inspiration from the Olympic mottos of "Inspire a generation" and "Faster, Higher, Stronger" and encourage emphasizing Sports, Health, and Youth aspects of volunteering in this summer campaign.
Campaign Features:
- Each country that signs up will become a "national team" (e.g. Team GB, Team Cameroon, etc.)
- Each team has to have different organizations working together to create a national campaign (highlighting Sports, Health, or Youth).
- We are looking to get organizations that may not usually interact with each other to come together as a team and host a national campaign.
- We encourage organizations to bring in partners to set up the campaign and to join GSL as new members.
- Each team will have one week "bearing the torch". During that one week:
- The country will be highlighted on GSL.
- The organizations involved will be spotlighted on GSL.
- Members from organizations will be featured and interviewed.
- Members and organizations involved will be asked to submit photos, blog posts and testimonials to feature.
- We have a tentative start date of June 8th or 15th depending on how many countries sign up.
