We think – to get the most out of volunteering - you really have to pick something you enjoy and that you can believe in. There are lots of opportunities to volunteer near to you. We’ve tried to collect some of the larger organisations below but there are many smaller ones that would really welcome your support too.
The Scout Association and Girlguiding started from very similar beginnings and still share a common believe in helping others and making friends. The Scout Association,
www.scouts.org.uk, is open to all while Girlguiding,
www.girlguiding.org.uk, is a dedicated organisation for girls and women. They both offer a range of skills and volunteering opportunities and occasionally the chance to travel abroad! Depending on your age, you could join a youth section or become a volunteer.
Both of the UK’s biggest First Aid charities need volunteers of all ages. The Red Cross,
www.redcross.org.uk, and St John Ambulance,
www.sja.org.uk, give you the opportunity to learn life-saving skills and to make new friends.
spend some time working in a school before taking the ‘jump’ into teaching. For three years, I worked to support young people with Autism in a mainstream school and this experience felt so helpful to me starting my teacher training. It also made me realise how many of the skills I had learnt in Scouting would be useful, from taking the young people climbing and kayaking to teaching them life skills, like cooking.
Now in my second year of teaching, I reflect on how the different roles I have held in Scouting have shaped my career now - and how they could benefit it in the future. The two most recent Scout roles I have taken on are Deputy District Chair and a member of the Appointments committee. Both these roles are about supporting other adults and I could see a clear link to how they could help my teaching career in future. Skills such as managing adults effectively could help if I wanted to become a Head of Year, for example.
Scouting has a clear focus on skills for life. I would agree that it has given me many of the skills I have needed to get to where I am now. I also think it influences the kind of teacher I am. I believe that young people need to grow up being given the skills to prepare them for the world in which they will live. Both Scouting and teaching enable me to support this.
All three branches of the UK Armed Forces have ‘cadet branches’ that allow young people to get a taste for the opportunities and disciplines of military life, whilst experiencing all sorts of new activities and responsibilities too. Their websites are: Army Cadets
www.armycadets.com Sea Cadets
www.sea-cadets.org Air Cadets
www.raf.mod.uk/aircadets
If you are over 16 and a lover of animals, you could volunteer with one of the UK’s many animal charities. Visit their websites to find out what is local to you, here are three of the large charities: RSPCA
www.rspca.org.uk RSPB
www.rspb.org.uk Blue Cross
www.bluecross.org.uk
And, if you’re a sports fan, you could volunteer while you indulge your favourite hobby! We found these pages from two of the UK’s most popular sports, but we know there are more out there too. Football
www.thefa.com Tennis
www.lta.org.uk
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