Volunteering opportunities for 14 and 16 year olds?

[StayingZen]

My DDs, 14 and 16, need to find "service" opportunities for Bronze and Silver (respectively) Duke of Edinburgh awards - i.e. around 2 hours a week for 3/6 months. They are interested in animals and history. Any ideas, tips or warnings and, in particular, anything the 14-y-o can't even apply for because of her age? Thanks.

not much help with their particular interests, but round here, most seem to do Brownies/cubs or work at charity shops. The DofE website (haven't got the link to hand, sorry) has some ideas though. How about an animal rescue place, or try the National Trust (they might have an age policy though).

my dd works in a charity shop for d of e. (and loves having firsts dibs at the vintage clothes)

sorry not in the right interest bracket but at least they use kids of 14 up!

i used to volunteer at our local independant animal shelter.
just go through the yellow pages and call them all offering their services.

im sure most places would be very gratefull

I work as a Countryside Ranger, we have volunteers helping, perhaps helping with childrens activities or conservation work, you could try a local country park or local authority like Shringking Violet says, National trust, or others in your area like wildlife trust or RSPB, ours would link in with both interests as we do wildlife consertvation and its a schedualed ancient monument.
Our museum service also has volunteers helping, not sure what they do and what age though.
Or try any local animal rescue centres, for cleaning out and excercising animals.

Local libraries sometimes uses DofE volunteers (and could get a part time job afterwards). Also, some GP surgeries provide opportunities (ours does).

DD worked at a nursery for Bronze and Junior CHurch for Silver & Gold.

look at rspb website

this months teenage version of their mag Phoenix requests applications for residential volunteers for next summer

about time i changed my nickname!

I used to run DofE at my school - the animal rescue centres are a good starting point or getting in touch with local kennels to offer services as a dog walker, etc. Local vets may be able to point in the direction of places which would benefit from volunteer work. Do any stables locally offer Riding for the Disabled or do you have a local RSPCA education officer who would appreciate some help in schools? Fundraising counts as a service - the one doing Bronze could get together with some others and plan and put on a fundraising event for an animal charity. The older one might be able to get involved with things like waterways restoration projects on the canals.

The website - www.theaward.org - has loads of ideas and advice.

StayingZen,

There have been some great ideas here, but I would also suggest getting in touch with your local authority and finding out if there is a local volunteer support and/or youth volunteer organisation which matches volunteer opportunities with people wanting to volunteer.

The sheer choice in voluntary work can be overwhelming, and many of those mentioned are the ones which often come to mind and so can be oversubscribed.

There may also be opportunities to combine interests in ways not immediately obvious.

What you need to look for:

Volunteering has a come a long way and changes in laws have put a lot of responsibility on organisations which use volunteers, especially young people.

Any organisation for which your 14 yo may volunteer in should be able to show you:
Child Safety Policy (may be called something else)
Risk Assessments for where they will be working and the type of volunteering they are doing. These would include identification of risk, how likely the risk is likely to occur, severity of result if risk did occur, steps taken to reduce risk/severity.
Induction policy for volunteers - for small businesses like vets this may not be a formal policy, however they should be able to satisfy you that in the first instance your child will be taken through H&S issues and some dos and dont's designed to protect your child.
Enhanced CRB checks for staff. Where a local company/organisation may be willing to let your child volunteer for the DoE award they may not meet this requirement, you will need to decide how essential you consider this.
Appropriate insurance
Ideally a designated child safety officer - again in small companies this may not be the case.