{"id":47445,"date":"2014-09-10T14:10:32","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T14:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=e0250d14179d94c83600f7721b470786"},"modified":"2014-09-10T14:10:32","modified_gmt":"2014-09-10T14:10:32","slug":"news-story-cities-of-service-launches-to-help-volunteers-address-local-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=47445","title":{"rendered":"News story: Cities of Service launches to help volunteers address local issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Seven cities have unveiled plans to organise up to 2,000 volunteers to address local problems, as <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nesta.org.uk\/project\/cities-service-uk\">Cities of Service<\/a> launches in the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr>. <\/p>\n<p>The volunteer programme is based on the <abbr title=\"United States\">US<\/abbr> model that the former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg started in 2009. The <abbr title=\"United States\">US<\/abbr> programme has now expanded to over 180 cities across the country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Find out more about <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nesta.org.uk\/project\/cities-service-uk\">Cities of Service <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The new Cities of Service are Barnsley, Bristol, Kirklees, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Swindon, and Telford and Wrekin. Over the next 18 months these cities will use their new status to encourage local volunteers to go out into their communities and address neighbourhood issues. Some of the challenges that volunteers will be get involved in include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>helping to reduce energy bills for lower income families by mobilising volunteers to help clear loft space ready for free insulation<\/li>\n<li>improving the literacy of primary school pupils through weekly reading sessions with volunteers<\/li>\n<li>reducing social isolation amongst older people by arranging for volunteer \u2018buddies\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cities of Service <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> is backed by innovation foundation <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nesta.org.uk\">Nesta<\/a> and the Cabinet Office. Nesta will work with each of the 7 cities to help them measure the impact of the volunteers. <\/p>\n<p>To celebrate the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> launch of Cities of Service, <abbr title=\"United States\">US<\/abbr> Ambassador Matthew Barzun will host an evening event at the <abbr title=\"United States\">US<\/abbr> Embassy on 10 September. The Minister for Civil Society Brooks Newmark will attend.<\/p>\n<p>Brooks Newmark, Minister for Civil Society, said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The Cities of Service <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> programme is a great example of how we are mobilising communities to take action on the issues that matter to them. I\u2019m looking forward to hearing about the impact of these volunteers on tackling their cities\u2019 key challenges \u2013 putting people at the heart of solving problems from poor child literacy to loneliness amongst older people.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Vicki Sellick, Nesta Director, added: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Cities of Service is about helping to funnel the passion of local volunteers into areas most in need of support in their own communities. The programme has already proved successful in the <abbr title=\"United States\">US<\/abbr> and we look forward to replicating that success in the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr>, supporting the 7 cities to mobilise thousands of volunteers where they are needed most. Ultimately, we think every city in the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> could become a City of Service.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the next 18 months the programme will encourage up to 2,000 volunteers to get involved in local issues in UK cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}