Volunteering towards our DofE Awards!

#PowerOfYouth #iWill

Today’s Volunteers’ Week theme is ‘Power of Youth’ and our DofE Award participants are the perfect example of youth power!

As part of the work towards earning their Award, VICTA DofE participants need to find for themselves opportunities to volunteer and give back to the community. We asked them to share with you all the ways they have been donating their time to make a difference!

Volunteering with the Eco Council — By Eliza

For my Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award I volunteered at my school’s Eco Council. I have a strong interest in learning about sustainability and more eco-friendly solutions, so taking part in the council was extremely fun.

As part of the Eco Council, I set up a recycling scheme to collect crisp packets and bread bags for a local recycling collection point. Firstly, I created cardboard bins to put in each block at school and fitted them with a bag to collect the crisp packets in. I put each bin a location people could access, but also where it would not get knocked or moved so that I could find it again. Each week I took the bag from within the bins back home, and sorted through them with rubber gloves to pick out the crisp packets and flatten them down, before giving them to our local Cubs group who sent them to TerraCycle for recycling. I also collected bread bags from the school canteen which would then also be collected for another recycling company. After speaking with the catering staff to tell them of this, each week I would go to the same place in the canteen to collect the bags they left for me there. At home, I would then clean the bags and take them to the collection point.

I enjoyed starting this task for the Eco Council because I was able to complete it on my own with the collecting and sorting, before I dispatched them to the Cubs group. I became more organised through this volunteering role, as I had to create a schedule of the collections coming in and out, as well as organising the whole scheme with the teacher at school. I became more confident creating this recycling scheme because I had to speak to the catering staff who I had not spoken to before, to ask if I could collect the bread bags that they would otherwise throw away. I also had to organise with the Cub group’s leader when to drop the recycling off, and I had to check what could, or couldn’t, be recycled. Overall, I felt it was very successful and the scheme has continued even after I had finished my silver award. Our final totals after six months of setting the scheme up were over: Crisp packets: 2627 grams, Sweets wrappers: 181 grams; and bread bags: 306 grams.

Eliza’s weighed out crisp packets

Volunteering at Junior Parkrun – By Scarlett

For my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, I volunteered at my local Junior Parkrun. The volunteering system was very structured, with a rotation system so people are allocated different roles each week, but also, for beginners like myself, a system that allowed me to experience each role from a marshalling point to run director.

Initially, I started as a marshal, clapping and encouraging the runners around the course. I could hear the sound of the runners’ feet and heavy breathing approaching coming past my point, which allowed me to know when to start encouraging the runners when they were passing my point.

After a few weeks of marshalling, I moved on to giving out the tokens at the finish funnel. Each time I held the token out, and the child took it from me, so I didn’t have to find their hand each time — it went very efficiently, especially because the tokens were already in the correct order as they were always put in order after being used.

After giving out tokens, I moved on to barcode scanning. This could be a bit fiddly, but after a few practices, it went well. The scanner beeped every time the barcode and token were scanned successfully, meaning I knew when the barcode and token number had been registered. The auditory feedback from the scanner made it easier for me to do it on my own, which I really liked. When the child brought their barcode and token to me to scan, they gave them to me face up so that I knew which side to scan, which made the process much easier to do independently.

After that, I did time keeping. I could tell when runners were finishing from heavy breathing and their footsteps, but we also had someone who would count us in ‘three, two, one’, as there are always two time keepers. When you press the button to record the time on the stopwatch, it also beeped each time so you knew that the time had been saved.

My penultimate task was tail walking. This is an important role as you make sure everybody has travelled around the course safely, and you also encourage the final runners. As I was already familiar with the course due to running it previously with my guide runner, I was able to tail walk without support, although a guide was available if necessary.

My final role was being Run Director and organising the whole event. I was sent the notes of what to say in advanced so I could read them on my Braille Note at the marshals’ briefing and then the runners’ briefing. I memorised the warm-up, which I then led before the run, as I had this in advance too.

Overall, volunteering at Junior Parkrun has helped me to understand the organisation that makes the run as enjoyable as possible. My favourite role was scanning because I liked the independence I had with it with the audible scanners but also it was nice to congratulate the runners when they had finished.

Scarlett volunteering as Run Director, reading the briefing on her BrailleNote

Scarlett and her sister Eliza marshalling on fancy dress day and getting into the fun of it all

Volunteering at my local Cub Scout group – By Jacob

My name is Jacob Hare and I’m 17 and I have been volunteering since the age of 13 at my local Cub Scout group and am still volunteering till this day.

For my Duke of Edinburgh’s Award I took up volunteering at my local Beaver group, essentially carrying out the same role as at Cubs but just with a different group of kids. It was slightly more hands on as the children were younger.

Since that time I have begun volunteering at another Cub group in my local area and at my local Scout group to help me achieve my Young Leader belt.

I love volunteering and feel a great sense of pride by helping young people to have some of the same experiences I had when I was younger.

Throughout my life Scouts has helped me so much and I have always wanted to be able to give something back, so volunteering with the younger sections was the most I could do to give achieve this.

However, Scouts isn’t the only thing in my life. I also help out my local parish council with village maintenance and area improvements, as well as being a level one qualified cricket coach.

In the future I would really like to become a fully qualified Scout leader as I love seeing the progression of the Scout groups as they go through their journey and how much they get out of the experience.

I would also like to be involved in disability sport either in a paid capacity or as a volunteer coach at a small team or club.