I’ve been involved in Scouts for many years, mostly supporting international connections and adventures, but about 5 years ago I got involved with DofE provision within Surrey Scouts. Whilst many of our leaders offer Bronze DofE, it’s a big step up to offer high quality Silver and Gold expeditions in wild country, such as Snowdonia or the Lake District. We support this provision via a specialised team of leaders with significant mountain leader experience, ranging in age from 18-73. Each year we run three big expeditions, at Easter, in August and in October, which enable young people aged 14 – 25 to complete their DofE practice and qualifying expeditions.
Additionally, we run skills training weekends for the young people and of course work with them to plan and prepare for their expeditions, and we run Bronze DofE expeditions for those whose local leaders are unable to offer this. I co-lead this group together with my colleague Andrew; he leads on the technical/mountain skills aspects, whilst I lead on managing the team and many of the administrative and financial aspects.
I really enjoy getting to work with a fantastic group of leaders to make this programme happen. We have had many wonderful experiences together and I have made friends, learnt a lot from them, faced challenges and pushed my boundaries with their support, and we’ve enjoyed time in the UK’s beautiful national parks together. We are proud of the unique experiences that we have been able to offer to the young people in our care and the skills that we have helped them to develop.
At Scouts we work together to give young people skills for life by offering them a huge range of experiences, from hiking, camping and the outdoors, to taking part in arts and crafts, learning about technology, helping in the local community, making international friendships and lots more. Young people (boys and girls) aged 4 – 25 can join and as leaders we have a great time facilitating all these activities and seeing the young people grow and develop.
There are lots of different volunteering roles, you can be part of a team running weekly meetings of course, but we also need activity specialists (like the team I run), people to take on governance roles such as secretary and treasurer, people to help out on weekends away by driving, cooking etc and more.
“We have had many wonderful experiences together and I have made friends, learnt a lot from them, faced challenges and pushed my boundaries with their support, and we’ve enjoyed time in the UK’s beautiful national parks together.”