Millennium Volunteers (often abbreviated as MV) is a youth volunteering initiative in the UK, set up with public funding, and aimed at people aged between 14 and 24. The programme works to engage young people in a variety of volunteering opportunities, providing recognition through certificates and awards up to 200 hours. Originally operating across the UK, Millennium Volunteers is now only available in Northern Ireland and Wales, it was replaced in England in 2008 by vInspired and in Scotland in 2012 by the Saltire Award.
The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.
Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial or social gain "to benefit another person, group or organization". Volunteering is also renowned for skill development and is often intended to promote goodness or to improve human quality of life. Volunteering may have positive benefits for the volunteer as well as for the person or community served. It is also intended to make contacts for possible employment. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster.
In England, from 1 April 2007, the Millennium Volunteers scheme was taken over by the newly established charity 'v', who assumed management of the scheme, before replacing it in England with 'vinsipred' in January 2008.
In Scotland, MV was rebranded as 'The Saltire Awards' from April 2012. The Award is run by Volunteer Development Scotland (VDS) and includes a 500 hours award, which is not available in the rest of the UK.
In Wales, MV is run by the GwirVol initiative, the Welsh programme to encourage and promote youth volunteering, and from 2012 has been open to 14- to 25-year-olds. Organisations can apply for grants from GwirVol of up to £10,000 to run Millennium Volunteers programmes.
In Northern Ireland, the Millennium Volunteers programme is run by Volunteer Now, with the support of the Department of Education and the Youth Council for Northern Ireland. The programme is delivered through a network of charity, community and voluntary groups known as delivery partners, with young people taking part receiving certificates after completing 50, 100 and 200 hours of volunteering. As well as the main programme there is also a specific stream for volunteering in sport called GoldMark, and a Schools Award for second level students.
Although the four countries of the UK now have their own version of MV, the Awards follow roughly the same principles and hours can be interchangeable between counties of the UK in some circumstances.
Millennium Volunteers were partnered with BTCV, a national charity whose resources were used to provide an MV service in some regions.
The nine key principles
Sustained personal commitment
Community benefit
Voluntary involvement
Inclusive
Ownership by young people
Variety of opportunities
Partnership
Quality of volunteering opportunities
Recognition of achievements
Activities
Millennium Volunteers (MVs) can become involved with a wide variety of different activities, some examples include:
classroom assistant in a school for disabled children
sports leaders
helping on trips with younger students
Taking part in a Cadet program, Air Training Corps, Army Cadet Force, Sea Cadets
The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British volunteer-military youth organisation. They are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Air Force. The majority of staff are volunteers, and some are paid for full-time work – including Commandant Air Cadets, a Full Term Reserve Service RAF officer, at the rank of Air Commodore. Although many ATC cadets go on to join the RAF or other services, the ATC is not, nor has it ever been a recruiting organisation for its parent Service.
The only requirement was that the activity was unpaid, it benefited the community in some way and that the organisation hosting the volunteer agreed to the 9 Key Principles.
Rewards
In the original MV programme, the organisation encouraged young people to work for the good of their community by offering two rewards that could be used as proof of the hard work they have done. The first reward was given on the completion of 100 hours of community work, and an Award of Excellence upon completion of 200 hours. An award for 200+hours was also available. The 200 hours Award was signed by a member of government - for instance, in Wales the Award of Excellence is signed by the First Minister of Wales.
There have been several developments to these arrangements. Wales and Northern Ireland introduced a 50 hours award in 2008 and then a special award for sports volunteering linked to the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2010-11. In Northern Ireland the sports award is called GoldMark and in Wales it is MV50 Sport. Additionally, in Scotland there is a 500 hours award available.
Following the creation of 'vinspired', V withdrew the 200 hours Award in England and introduced a 25 and 50 hours award instead and made the maximum award for 100 hours of volunteering.
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