Duke of Ed, What can a 13 yr old do for voluntary work?

[serin]

She has already been rejected as too young to help with charity shop work by Scope and BHF and is too young to help out in any NHS establishment.

Nothing available at school either, she can ride and plays music to a high level and is good at art. She would like to help out with little kids but all the toddlers groups are when she is at school.

What did your kids do or are doing?

We tell teachers that have signed up to do the Dof E in our area and under our license is that the candidates have to be in year 9. i.e. they are going to be 14 that year. The reason is so that a group of mates in the same year can do teh scheme together. As you know some kid will be 14 in September while some have to wait until the following August.

Have you phoned your local voluntary service centre (can't remember their official name)? They were helpful when my 14 year old was looking for something although he ended up helping at a sports club he goes to with some of the younger kids.
If they already belong to clubs it's easier to find them jobs to do as they are known by the leaders.
Do you have a park where she could help with weeding?

See if you can find what volunteering local guides or scouts do. IIRC I did a lot of washing up and serving food at church events at this sort of age working towards guide awards.

Fund-raising for a charity may count, hows her craft skills, can she consistently make cards or knit scarf's to a saleable standard.

Do you have a any community owned and managed spaces / halls near by who might have her involved in a spring clean up day? We have this event at church and reg ground and village hall, so a youngster could notch a fair few hours over 3 weekends helping.

My son said it had to be at least an hour a week for 12 weeks. You can't just do several hours over a weekend.

Here is a list of the timescales. Volunteering is minimum 3 months. The link prob won't work as mumsnet links don't usually but you could cut and paste.
www.dofe.org/go/Bronze/

So something regular, for 3 months min. suitable for a just 14 yr old.

ideas- working in School library, school council, circle of friends or peer mentoring scheme...

Building a carnival float and making costumes, raising money with said float for good cause....

Working on an ammeter dramatics play? Rehearsal and show tend to take over 3 months to come together. ( might be too close to skills section for some tho)

Creating AND maintaining and up to date web site or newsletter for a purpose?

depending on the candidate and their abilities and enthusiasms any of those MIGHT be considered suitable. Volunteering doesn't HAVE to be something you dislike.

WhatEhat about at a riding school, helping eih the kids lessons ( although probably won't be
any under 4"s)

Any weekend drama or sports groups?

In my day, for bronze, it was called a "serrvice". A group of us did a police course that involved lectures at a police station, with an exam at the end. Something like Aur Cadets would have counted then, but not sure about now.

My DD did some volunterring at a local day nursery. She went straight after school and helped out with tea time and reading stories to the children whilst the workers cleared up.

Local libraries also sometimes have student volunteers. DS did a programme at ours last Summer, encouraging littlies to read and get stickers etc, but they do term-time stuff too.

For your enquiry on Air Cadets, it only counts as volunteering if your child is in a rank higher than Private. This means they have to be Lance Corporal or higher.

Gardening for elderly neighbour
Is what I did for mine

DD is 14 and doing Bronze. Her voluntary work is helping out with the younger group (5-7y) where she does drama. She goes for an hour a week, before going to her own group.

Argh - old thread!!

Friends Dc helped out in school library, another helped less able students at school practice Maths/English.

My DC 14 helped out in a local hospice charity shop, yes they are to young because under 16 and have to have adult supervision but you can offer to help supervise and they will bite your hand off. 2 for 1.

Its only 1 hour a week and I get to have a chat, make new friends, get a 15% discount and first pick of all the best donations that come in. BARGAIN! And I am helping the charity at the same time ;)

Bronze is only for 3 months lol but enjoyed helping so have stayed on after Dc left.

DD was told that being part of the school play (they do big musicals) will count for her volunteering. Even stage crew would count.

Help at Brownies
Help at junior classes at dance school
Help at beginner orchestra / choir group
Help at primary school with able readers

its about turning hobbies into volunteering

We get a few DofE students volunteering at our local junior parkrun. Worth looking online to see if there's one near you (they are always on Sunday mornings) and contacting the event director to see if they can accommodate a volunteer of that age.

You can start bronze D of E in Y9 whether you have turned 14 or not.

My DC did CCF for their service element.
DD also helped with tennis coaching at a local school

Do you have a local parkrun? They take DofE volunteers.

Just seen someone suggested junior parkrun. The "senior" parkruns are on Saturday mornings, generally at 9am, 9.30 in Scotland and NI.

Re cadets, it isn't the rank that is important really, it is what they do (although an NCO is more likely to be doing it than a cadet). Simply turning up doesn't count, they have to be doing something extra to help the unit. This could be tidying stores, running naafi, making training aids or teaching other cadets.

Re starting ages, it has changed recently in that it is now year 9 for bronze (used to be "14") and year 10 for silver (used to be "5"). Gold is still 16.

DD has just started her Bronze DofE in Y9. She's helping out at a local youth club type thing for the volunteering side of things. Others are helping in church cafe, charity cafe, animal rescue place, Brownies, etc.

Does your DD do any sports outside of school where she could help out? Swimming, gymnastics, etc. often have younger coaches / helpers...

Ok so it appears this is a zombie thread...

Could she do something at her own schools? I've a feeling one of my 5 did that - helping with school clubs, the very little children in the school or something like that? I don't know what the rules say about that but I expect it counts. One of mine also had a church thing - lots of churches need help with Sunday school classes.

Ah people say 14. That's true - mine were that age.

Her school should be helping on all this. Ours always did - it told them exactly what they could do and even set up voluntary work schemes. Last year my son (not for D of E) went under his school's programme into a local disadvantaged schools and heard children's reading - he got a lot out of it and I hope the children did too. I did the same when in the sixth form.