Duke of Edinburgh's award - volunteering, any suggestions?

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Ds (nearly 15) is doing his bronze award and has just told me he needs to get 3 months' experience volunteering for a charity or community group.

He wants to work in a charity shop 'because its easy'. I think he'll get bored to death as all the ones near us are manned by sweet elderly ladies.

He is shy and needs a bit of help getting organised - anyone got any good ideas or experience they can share please?

Oh, and all this volunteering needs to done either on a saturday afternoon or Sunday as he has a heavy schedule the rest of the week.

Thanks.

How about a local animal shelter? (always providing he's at all fond of animals?)

Is he a sociable chap? Perhaps there's an old people's home where he could go along and help make tea and chat to some elderly people who don't have young family to come and visit?

If he likes physical work then there are usually some National Trust/Earth Trust/community garden type places that need strong young things to do some digging and hoiking of a weekend.

Whereabouts do you live?

my dd helped at disabled swimming club, once a week for 2 hours on Saturday morning

Try your local Beaver or Cub groups. They are always looking for young leaders to help out. He doesn't have to have been through Scouting himself.

Bag packing in the supermarket.

My DD has helped out at a local Rainbows group for her DofE, charity shops wouldn't have her until 16.

BTW, it's not meant to be "easy". He will have to show commitment to whatever community work he takes up.

Thanks, helpful suggestions.

FriskyMare I understand it's not supposed to be easy. But this is a teenage boy with rather limited social skills and he needs quite a lot of encouragement.

Could he help at a school club or after school club, perhaps helping younger children in a club he is already in? I agree, charity shop work would be quite boring for a teen. Dog walking for an animal shelter could fit in with the weekend schedule. Good luck.

Helping at a food bank?

He doesn't get home from school until 6.30 pm so I think after-school type activities aren't an option.

We live in a rural area, so options are limited.

But thanks for some useful suggestions so far.

Have you seen this link before? Useful for identifying what's in your area.
www.do-it.org.uk/

Any national trust sites nearby, they like volunteers to help with outdoorsy stuff especially at this time of year.

Silverapples that link is amazing - I had no idea there was so much going on locally. But more stuff that I would like to do, than suitable for a teenager.

Problem is, being 15 is a very different proposition for many work places, liability-wise. Local library volunteering for some of the read-a-story sessions and activities?

My DS volunteered in a local charity shop, and it did him the world of good! He also came home with some good buys occasionally, and I was so pleased that he had learnt not to be snobbish about it!

It would be great if he could look at it from the perspective of - where could I be most useful? At that age, I visited and helped out at an old people's centre. Later on I visited a particular elderly person in their home. I wonder how you could find out about elderly people who are getting the bare minimum of help from the Council, and could do with more help and company from a young person? Could go on beyond the 3 months, if they got on well. He could do some gardening for them, pop to the shops, chat etc.

I did lifesaving for mine. Some people helped with disabled swimming (there's a theme - I spent a lot of time at the pool.) Others did St John Ambulance. PHAB - physically handicapped and able-bodied club - don't know if it still exists and if so, if it has that name, but there's probably someone similar if not. Local wildlife trust - scrub clearance and so on. Helping with sports club. Mucking out at local animal sanctuary. There's loads of other stuff, once you start thinking about it and finding out more.

My DS (who also doesn’t have the world’s best social skills) enjoys helping at the charity shop. The sweet battleaxe lady who manages it has a lot of DofE volunteers coming through and she keeps them all busy and organised. My DS had to write a proper application form and wait for a place (because all the schoolkids want the same times!) so if that’s what your DS wants to do then he should ask round the local shops as soon as possible.

Thanks Kleinzeit - it's certainly the simplest option as he could get there under his own steam on the bus if I'm not around, which is good for his independence. And our little town has about 5 to choose from, so we will do the rounds this weekend...

I think the charity shop sounds like a great option and actually the DofE official site does encourage the teens to make at least one part of the challenge easy as it is rather daunting to take on 3 new things. So there is actually a line on the site about making one of the parts, eg the activity or the skill but it could just as easily be the volunteering, something they already do.

I know you say your son can't take on after school things, but does the school itself offer any opportunities? My son's voluntary work was cleaning in the school once a week. It is actually a very popular option and the children are then offered paid work to carry on doing the same once they turn 16.

Does he do any sports at all ? How about volunteering to help coach the younger ones. My Neice helps with the local athletics club.

Do they do Buddies reading sessions in his school? Our Y10s read with Y7s three mornings a week in registration and have used that for the volunteering part of DofE.

My DD helped at the local library.

My dd helps at the local library for her bronze DofE award.

Does it need to be over 3 consecutive months?

I ask because my DS is at boarding school so unless they organise all their charity work, it would all need to be done during holiday times. (Mental note to self to check with him on this).

During the summer last year we contacted the local authority regarding voluntary work and he ended up working throughout the holidays, a couple of days a week, with the young kids doing active sports clubs.

He had to have an interview for the position and fill out a proper application. He was 14 at the time. He loved it so much he is helping out again during the Easter holidays and the summer holidays.

The benefit of this type of work was that the local authority were prepared to help him achieve qualifications on coaching so when he turns 16 he can get paid for the work he is doing and when he goes to Uni he can continue with this kind of employment during the holidays and at weekends. As he said, it is better than working at a fast food chain, I might as well get paid for something I enjoy!