Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Volunteering - 14yr old DS

[shushpenfold]

Dear all

OK, so my lovely DS (14yrs) has decided to complete his DofE Bronze. I'm really pleased that he's decided to do it but now need to help a bit with the volunteering side of things. All of the 'usual' roles have been snapped up very quickly (their parents have older DC and knew the sketch!) and after searching locally, there seems to be very little which a 14 yr old can do....it's slightly easier for 15 and 16 year olds. They are supposed to do at least an hour's volunteering a week and I'm at the point of suggesting that I offer to go with him and help too so that the workplace are not in charge of him (so to speak) and hence will be able to avoid so many issues related to H&S etc. Has anyone done the same and if not, how did you manage to find something? xx

Hi Pixie - he already does 5 hours of sport (rugby and hockey) per week at school so they are kindly letting him put that!!!!

My DD helps out at Sundat school for her DofE.

we have a few who help at our local charity shops for both bronze and silver.

My DS and his friend have helped the PTA at his former primary school at various fundraising events, between Xmas Fayre, prize bingo, bag packing etc they easily got the required hours for Bronze award. His primary teachers loved seeing him again and he enjoyed being able to give something back to his old school.

He seems a tad confused however regarding the requirements for Silver as he is under the impression he cannot start his volunteering until he receives his Bronze certificate? Also his Bronze is being held up because a member of the group hasn't uploaded his evidence so none of the group will be awarded, is this really the case or he is feeding me a lot of rubbish?

When I did mine, many moons ago the police station did a sort of course for D of E which I ended up doing because I had no other volunteering, I think it was a week long.

Shush, get him to volunteer to help coach younger kids one evening a week at a local hockey or rugby club then. The community rugby club I am involved with has a constant stream of youngsters doing this.