Dear Friends and Readers, I’m delighted to announce that I’m joining the awesome vInspired
Photograph by Tom Phillips
team upon my return to London later this month. For anyone not familiar with vInspired, it’s a leading UK charity founded back in 2006 with a mission to provide young people aged 18-25 with an opportunity to do good things by matching them & their skills to suitable volunteering opportunities.
I’m joining as first CEO of vInspired’s brand new Task Squad service. Task Squad’s core aim is to help young people from the vInspired community with proven experience of volunteering to take the next steps into paid employment. There will be three of us in the initial start-up team including Sam Sparrow & Dan Bond although the rest of vInspired will be there to help and support us.
Our online platform is built & operational already and our first few anchor companies (Which?, Sidekick Studios and a few others) have already started posting up some vacancies. You can take a look here www.tasksquadhq.com The basic premise is that companies often need an affordable extra pair of hands for a short term at short notice and with the minimum of fuss. We have a ready supply of young people within the vInspired community who are eager to work. Our young people are able to respond to requests quickly, they want to earn some money and they want to get some work experience for their cv. Everyone wins.
My initial focus as CEO is going to be to start building Task Squad’s profile and to get loads more companies and organisations using Task Squad & posting up tasks. All of you can expect a call from me…
The project ticks a lot of my boxes personally. It makes use of technology for good, it involves young people & it’s an early stage startup – so I’ve been very lucky to be in the right place at the right time and I’m excited about getting started & getting some momentum going along with Sam and Dan. I know that many of you will know about vInspired already and will want to support us with our new initiative. For organisations who don’t have any short term resourcing needs, we’re working out a model whereby you can donate to Task Squad from your CSR budget & we’ll use your money to fund a young person to do some work at a charity instead.
Wish us luck & please send me your comments & ideas.
Mary McKenna's Blog 
Yay! Great news!
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This sounds brilliant Mary and with you at the helm, I can’t imagine it’ll have too much trouble raising its profile ;-). I’ll do all I can to spread the word along the South Coast…
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Fantastic Mary, delighted to read your great news! Best of luck to you all.
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Well done Mary – sounds like an (v)inspired move!
Task Squad sounds right up your alley. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
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Clearly a role that needs lots of energy, charisma, innovative ideas and an excellent network of friends and colleagues. Looks like they’ve found the perfect fit! Good luck in the new role – I just hope everyone else can keep up with you 🙂
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Thanks Steve – I think you are the sweetest man I know 🙂
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Great news – go change things.
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Cheers Nick – it’s going to be quite different. Also hoping to get a new business off the ground with Dave which I’m looking forward to immensely 🙂
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Well done Mary, excellent news. With your enthusiasm, passion and energy, success is just around the corner – I know that Task Squad will be on manoeuvres soon. Let me know if I can help
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Thanks very much Christine – I was just thinking about you this morning when I was swimming my daily mile – you’re very much on the list of people I was going to ask for help when I get started so it’s just brilliant that you’ve offered already. Thank you! And I’ll be back…
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Congratulations! What a great job. Good luck and keep us updated.
Best wishes for a great 2014
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It is indeed a great job & I’m very lucky – don’t worry Jude – as soon as I’m back from holiday & get started at work on Monday 20 Jan I’ll be contacting everyone I know as I expect all of you to help me with this great project.
I’ve never officially worked in a charity before (only volunteered) so everyone I know can expect to hear the words “but we’re a charity” a lot over the coming months.
I’m sure everyone will agree that getting young people into paid work is a great cause!!!
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Exciting times ahead Mary … your focus, enthusiasm, zest for life and eye for an opportunity will set you in great stead for your coming adventure.
A great organisation behind you, a (v)inspiring one ahead … all I can do is (belatedly) shout, “HURRAH for Mary” and look forward to following your journey.
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