Volunteer

Become a Volunteer

Can you make us truly awesome?

Every week our volunteers give up a little time to support young people to gain skills for life.

You don't need scouting experience and you don't need to commit to be there every week, you just need to decide you can give a little time and let us know. We'll guide you through how you can support us. We have roles working with young people and roles working behind the scenes.

Could you drive a van with equipment to camp?
Could you organise a fundraiser?
Could you show our beavers, cubs or scouts a skill?
Could you join our trustee teams?
Could you update our accounts?
Could you help us tidy up?
Could you keep our kit in good order?
Could you coordinate a parents rota?
Could you cook while we're in camp?

You can check out some of our roles below, or simply contact volunteer@3rdwashingtonscouts.org.uk to set up an informal conversation, we're brilliant at matching individuals to the right role.

Family Support in Scouting

Parents and carers' support to our groups is incredibly important to us and many of our volunteers are parents who share our goals of supporting their young person to do more, share more and learn more. If you're a parent or carer who could help us out, why not talk to your child's section leader.

Why volunteer?

There are many reasons why adults choose to volunteer for Scouting. Here are some that existing volunteers have given:

To give something back to the community: ‘I believe the young people get such a lot out of it; I just put a bit back for what they take out.’
To support the Leaders: ‘They give so much, you’ve got to give some of that back.’
Because volunteering is a ‘good thing’: ‘I just personally believe that you should always do some kind of voluntary work…otherwise nothing would get done in this world.’
As an enabler, so the Leader can do more: ‘If I can help Sam, our Leader, out by doing the little things, then it means she has got more time to give the young people and then they get more out of it.’
To spend more quality time with your child: ‘David used to go on his PlayStation while I read the paper after school and work – now we get a chance to do activities together.’
To develop your own skills: ‘I hadn’t used a compass since I was a Scout. After I learned how to use one again, I take one out on family walks. We get lost less than we used to!’
To enjoy and rediscover adventure for yourself: ‘We had a water fight at Beavers the other week, it was great!’

One way to get an introduction to volunteering is to take our 4 week volunteering challenge.

Our Roles

Sectional Assistant

Our sectional assistants are a key part of the team working with young people. They complete a couple of modules of adult training and get involved in running games and organising activities. Its a role that can be flexible, it doesn't matter if you can't attend every week.

Occassional Helper

This is our most flexible role as a volunteer, there's no commitment to training or to wear uniform and we'll call on you when we need your support. This could be because you have a specific skill or interest or it could be that you've agreed to come to camp with us.

Becoming an occasional helper is a great way to dip your toe into scouting.

Executive Member

Our executive members manage the group behind the scenes and form our trustee body. The group works very much like a school governing body working to support the adult volunteer team to deliver skills for life ensuring the group has the policies and resources in place to deliver safe and active scouting. As a group executive member, you could be looking after group accounts, fundraising or simply offering great advice.

Assistant Section Leader

An assistant section leader is able to take the lead to take groups of young people out and about. Assistant section leaders complete around 15 modules of training, although a lot of the training is on the job. An assistant section leader role is a great place to really develop your skills and feel the reward of changing the lives of our young people.