Why it was needed

It was needed for many reasons:

* Encourage community cohesion
* Create links, integration, networking opportunity
* Chance for students, groups to showcase their talents at the event
* An event for the public to participate in and attend
* Promoting volunteering through an entertaining event

What's being done

Organised a Community Talent Show (one-off volunteering event)

How it started

I designed a questionnaire as a method of consultation for my target audience (university students). I hoped the questionnaire would give me an idea what events students would volunteer in and would like to take place in their community.

I randomly selected 10 males and 10 females from UCLan (students sat in Foster Refectory one afternoon) to fill out my questionnaire. I felt Foster Refectory was a suitable venue to hand-out the questionnaires as many students go there for their lunch and to socialise. The random sample was effective as students of different ages and from many different areas filled out the questionnaire. The questionnaire maintained anonymity as I did not ask the student’s name on the questionnaire.

After analysing the results of the questionnaire, it informed me students would most likely want a community engagement event or a media and entertainment event organising. After further consulting with some students, I decided I would propose to organise a community talent show to Ella. Thankfully Ella felt it was a great idea and gave me the go-ahead to start organising it.

I then contacted some organisations / group who I have worked with in the past to ask if they would support and like to attend the event. I informed the organisations the event would create networking opportunities for the organisations involved and a chance for individuals to showcase their talents at the event.

I designed a poster to advertise the talent show, which I decided to call The V (Volunteering) Factor.

I sent out invitations to all the organisations involved and hoped an audience of over 100 people would attend.

I then gathered students who wanted to help me with the organisation of the talent show and gave them tasks to undertake.

I continued and maintained contact with the organisations involved, booked venues arranged meetings and held many rehearsals for the show. This process continued until the actual talent show event.

More

The community groups and individuals involved in the show were from Preston, Burnley and Nelson.

Brookfield Dance Club
Frenchwood Community Primary School
Marsden Heights Community College
Nelson Youth Centre
Preston YouthBank
Soundskills
UCLan - Centre for Volunteering and Community Action
UCLan - Students

The best part of the talent show was rounding up some students to put on a performance. I decided it would be good if I took part in the performance too. I discussed with the students what they would like to do within the show. After deliberation, we all decided we would dance to the classic song from the film Grease “Go Grease Lightening”.

The talent show on the night ran smoothly and according to plan (thank god). I enjoyed it, my colleagues, the students, the participants and the audience enjoyed it too. This feedback gave me a great sense of achievement and I felt very proud of myself. I also felt proud of the students who were involved in the show. All the students who helped me organise the talent show and those who performed in it received a certificate.

Due to the success of the show with promoting and encouraging volunteering, the show was featured in the Lancashire Evening Post, Preston’s local newspaper. I can certainly say all the hard work was absolutely worthwhile in the end!!!!

Overall the talent show was amazing. 112 people altogether that attended and participated in the show seemed to have a great time. I am glad I decided to organise the event, as it did create links and networking opportunities for individuals and the different community groups involved. Due to the community links made from the talent show it will encourage and make it easier to organise other community engagement events in the future which will promote volunteering.