'Make the team' campaign

‘Make the Team’ is organised by v, the National Young Volunteers Service, which helps 16-25 year olds to volunteer and gain recognition for what they do through the vinspired awards scheme. vinspired.com attracts over 90,000 visits per month and has provided over 900,000 new youth volunteering opportunities across England.

v’s new national campaign, ‘Make the Team’, hopes to harness the passion and enthusiasm that young people have for football and their favourite club to encourage young football fans to volunteer in their local community.

Sky Sports commentators Martin Tyler, Andy Gray and Chris Kamara are helping  the project, along with footballers Kieran Gibbs, Stuart Pearce and David Seaman, and the campaign is being advertised on radio stations such as Galaxy, Choice, Capital and XFM and in publications such as FHM, 442 and Metro.

(Chris Kamara can be seen promoting the campaign at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIObhppBH6A)

In addition to helping communities volunteers will also benefit from the work they do. There are a wide range of opportunities covering a broad spectrum of interests and any work completed can help to develop their skills and enhance their CV. In some cases volunteering may also lead to other opportunities - such as the chance to complete the FA level 1 coaching badge - and new opportunities are being added all the time.

Examples of volunteering opportunities include:

• Coaching young children
• Stewarding at local matches
• Helping to run football groups for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems
• Delivering footballs to children in Africa
• Promoting ‘Make the Team’ online

(The full list of opportunities can be found at http://vinspired.com/make-the-team)

Volunteers will also be entered into a draw and given the chance to win tickets to see Premier League clubs. Details of how they can do this are given below.

This explains how you can volunteer:

1. Go to http://vinspired.com
2. Sign up (it’s free)
3. Go to http://vinspired.com/make-the-team, select ‘click here’ and then ‘I’d like to do this’
4. Select your favourite Premier League club and state male/female
5. Volunteer for one of the opportunities on offer
6. Upload a photo of yourself volunteering for the chance to win tickets to see Premier League clubs

(There will be two prize draws: one on 1st December 2010 and one on 1st February 2011. The opportunity to enter the prize draws will end on 31st January 2011)

As a fifteen year old, I think this is a great opportunity for people out there aged 16-25 to earn recognition for hard work and something I would certainly be interested in when I turn 16.