Make a date to make a difference

Davina McCall says: "My recycling kit is a great new way to get involved in CSV Make a Difference Day. If you're stuck for ideas on how to volunteer, the How-To Kits are a fantastic source of inspiration."

The kit contains useful ideas on how to recycle anything from foreign coins and stamps to old mobile phones and unwanted spectacles, to support your favourite charities on CSV Make a Difference Day. By using the kit and volunteering to collect discarded items, you can make a real difference to elderly people in the community, homeless families or children in developing countries.

Organised by the UK's largest volunteering charity CSV and supported by Barclays community investment programme, CSV Make a Difference Day is now the UK's biggest day of 'hands-on' volunteering. It takes place this year on 30 October, when nearly 100,000 people nationwide will give time rather than their money on the day, to improve their local communities.

CSV Make a Difference Day volunteers are aged between 2 and 105 and activities include brightening up youth clubs, holding tea parties for older people in the community, launching recycling schemes, turning waste ground into parks and tackling bullying. See Fast Facts.

Davina's kit is part of the CSV Make a Difference Day's free 'How-To' Kit series, which offers easy to follow activities to help you make a difference on the day. For example, why not knit a soft toy for a local children's hospice?

CSV Make a Difference Day 'How-To' Kits are:

• Antony Worrall Thompson's Cake Recipe
• Silvana Franco's Cookie Recipe
• Ground Force Kirsty King's Sensory Garden Design
• How-To Build a Bat Box
• How-To Build a Bird Box
• Knitting Patterns (rabbit, teddy, snowman)
• Davina McCall's Recycling Ideas

To obtain a copy of Davina McCall's Recycling Ideas or another CSV Make a Difference Day 'How-To' Kit, visit www.csv.org.uk/difference and fill out an online registration form, or call freephone 0800 284 533.

CSV Make a Difference Day is a chance for young people to act on issues that are important to them. Every volunteer receives a certificate of achievement, which can go towards National Record of Achievement files.

Anyone registering gets a free Action Pack, including a badge, a pen, stickers, chocolate and lots more.

For CSV Make a Difference Day 2003:

• 12 year old Jessica Sykes and five friends tackled vandalism and brightened up their village recreation ground in Shepley, Huddersfield, painting swings, a roundabout and a climbing frame.
• Students at St Patrick's High School in Armagh, Northern Ireland, organised a School Conservation Club, recycling paper and plastic bottles, as well as collecting old stamps, clothes and mobile phones for charities.
• Marginalised young people from the Manor Health Youth Project in Sheffield designed and built a playzone, complete with skate-park and basketball area.
• Young volunteers from Chelsea Youth Club and YCTV (Youth Culture Television) shared their video production and film-making skills with young people from Western and Northern Ireland to make a series of short films about the issues surrounding homelessness.
• Young people from the SOVA Millennium Volunteers Project in Sheffield organised a multi-cultural event to celebrate cultural diversity and promote tolerance in the community. The event included breakdancing, gospel singing, Irish dancing and Indian dancing, as well as music from a local band.

Fast Facts:

• 30.7 tons of rubbish was collected for CSV Make a Difference Day 2003 - equivalent to 8 double-decker buses!
• Nearly 34,000 people under 18 took part.
• Over half (51%) of those who took part in 2003 were volunteering for the first time. 93% of these first-time volunteers said that they wanted to carry on volunteering, so the day mobilised an estimated 41,666 people into volunteering in their communities on a regular basis!
• The average person spends 128 days of the year sleeping… can you give one day to make a difference?

ENDS

Notes for editors

1. CSV Make a Difference Day is organised by CSV (Community Service Volunteers) and supported by Barclays community investment programme, the Community Fund and the Home Office Active Communities Directorate.

2. CSV (Community Service Volunteers) is the UK's leading volunteering organisation and creates opportunities for people to play an active part in the life of their community through volunteering, training and community action. Each year 129,000 people give 3.8 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV.

3. Barclays PLC actively encourages employee involvement through its Employee Volunteering grant giving, Volunteer 2day time giving and £ for £ match-funding schemes, as well as encouraging the wider public to do the same through supporting flagship projects such as CSV Make a Difference Day and Barclays SiteSavers.

4. "We actively encourage our employees to give their time and effort to local charities, urban regeneration, fundraising and all forms of volunteering. We are proud of their efforts and not a little humbled by them." Matt Barrett, Group Chief Executive.

5. Around 20,000 Barclays employees from around the world took part in community activities in 2003. Nearly 7,500 Barclays employees took part in Make a Difference Day activities alone, including staff in Africa and Spain. Volunteering projects ranged from mentoring, clearing beaches, serving meals in hostels for homeless people to gardening, painting and decorating.

6. Barclays takes its social and environmental responsibilities seriously, supporting social and financial inclusion both nationally and at grass roots level to make a real and lasting difference to the community. In 2003 the bank continued to be one of the UK's top corporate contributors, making a global commitment of £32.8m and one in four Barclays employees volunteered for their local communities.

For further information see social responsibility at http://www.barclays.com
Media enquiries contact: Richard Mackey, Head of Sponsorship PR Barclays PLC on 020 7699 3761.