AIBU to ask what ‘volunteering’ your yr9/14 year old did for DoE?

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My daughter wants to do this next year. Skill and sport are sorted, expedition will hopefully be planned with the leaders. But the opportunities for volunteering roles are pretty limited for this age group, with the DoE website having few ideas. Most shops/charities/rescue centres require 16 year olds and older. Can I ask what your 14 year olds did for their bronze volunteering element?

Most of the kids rounds here do parkrun, ask them early, it’s so popular, and there are some volunteering roles that under 18s can’t do, that several gave a waiting list

Parkrun seems popular! We don’t do them sadly and there aren’t any close enough for her to get there independently. Shame.

My DS has just started bronze. At his cycling club, he assists the coaches with younger children one week out of four.

Mine did online volunteering participating in a project where they needed humans to look for abnormal cells in images to help train an AI to look for placental issues. He really enjoyed it and did it till the end of the project not just when he'd done enough hours.
He did it through Zooniverse

One volunteered with a
Brownie group and the other at the local library.

Mine helped at Beavers.

local scouts groups is a good idea
a primary after school club
litter picking is a good one

Mine volunteered at the summer reading challenge in the library and then kept going after the summers holidays had finished. They were glad to have her as there seemed to be hardly any actual staff.

As PP both of mine did the summer reading challenge at the Library. They are always looking for volunteers and happy to take them from 14.

Ds1 helped out at a dog rescue. We went with him the first few times until they were happy that he was safe with the dogs, then they were happy to have him alone.

One of my DDs helped with little kids at her swimming club, the other went into the local primary school after school and did some admin. (Learning some totally inappropriate information about people known to me, which she should not have seen, but that is beside the point)

Try your local food bank
Charity shop
Local football team coaching assisting
Animal shelter

Shifts in one of the main high st charity shops, I think it was Cancer Research. They were well set up for taking DoE volunteers.

Dd helped in one of the younger ballet classes at her ballet school (and she has continued this as she wants a dance career so it’ll look good on her CV). Her friend helped at a local animal sanctuary, and others in the group helped at the after school club in their old primary.

Mine did Zooniverse too (it was during lockdown so IRL opportunities were limited).

Others that his friends did included litter picking, helping on family member’s farm.

Joined the friends of our local park and helped out planting and gardening earlier this year.

Taught the tiny children's class at their dance school.

My DD volunteers with the Woodland Trust. This is at Mead Forest in Derbyshire (Shipley Country Park). They are foresting an area that used to be a coal mine. DD has enjoyed it and has carried on doing it. She also did a first aid course with them.

Your local friendly scout group would love a 14 year old to help as a young leader with their Beavers or Cubs! My group welcome them with open arms and we have a structured induction programme for them to make sure they feel confident and safe when with us!

With regards to parkrun, I believe volunteers need to be over 18 so parents will need to accompany them. Most DofE volunteers at my local parkrun stand around looking bored while their parents put in the work.

Mine are not old enough for DoE but my neighbours son helped with coaching the kids football team. I also used to be a brownie leader and we had a DoE student helping.

Helped with Beavers/cubs.
Coached after school football at a primary school linked to their secondary.
Helped with church kids group on Sunday mornings.

The library has been great for my dd. She has a busy summer so it’s good she can book several hours one day, then be away for a week and come back and do more slots then, as long as it adds up to enough hours.

They've trained her to do general library tasks as well as the summer reading challenge, so she’s not sitting there bored if no kids come in.

What is she doing for skills as if in a club they may let her help with younger group. My DS just went to the earlier training session for his sport and helped out with younger ones.

My DS is wanting to do this next year. Thankfully I work for a charity so he can come and help me in our foodbank or doing fundraising admin (I'm head of fundraising). It's hard though if you don't have any contacts and a lot of places won't take under-16s.

Quite a few kids here did online volunteering with the Red Cross, as there wasn’t much opportunity locally to help, especially at 14.