Organisation Name:
City of York Scouts
Organisation's Cause(s):
Children / Young People / Families
Location of voluntary activity:
1st Strensall (Robert Wilkinson) Scout Group, Robert Wilkinson Primary Academy, Strensall, York
When are volunteers needed: Wednesday evenings in term time, 6.30pm to 7.30pm. About an hour and a half door to door, once you count setting up and stacking the chairs.
There's a bit more than that across the year. Beavers get out for day trips, a sleepover and camp. Ed plans two years ahead, so those dates are in the diary long before they come round, and you'll know what you're saying yes to.
Type of Voluntary Activity:
Volunteering with Children & Young People
Role description:
Beavers are six, seven and eight year olds. The Strensall Colony opened in September 2019 because families in the village asked for one, and it has met on a Wednesday ever since. Ed runs it, and he has the next two years of programme already planned. What he'd like is another adult in the room.
A Wednesday goes something like this. Games at the start while everyone arrives, because they come in from tea with a lot to say. Then whatever's on that week: making something, cooking something, a visitor, getting outside while the light holds. Badges get handed out. Somebody's water bottle goes missing. At half past seven they all go home.
Your job is to be one of the adults. Joining in the game. Sitting next to the one who's gone quiet. Holding the glue sticks. Counting heads at the door. You won't be planning sessions by yourself, and if you'd rather never run one, you don't have to.
You won't be on your own in the building either. The other sections meet at the same time, so there are other adults around. You'll know your section well by Christmas.
One more pair of hands changes something straight away. Scouts sets how many adults a group of children needs, and at the moment Beavers stay in the hall. With another Team Member they can get out of it: the village, the woods, the field behind the school.
1st Strensall has been going since 1991. You'll have seen the Group around without knowing it, in the daffodils along the village road that come up every spring, at the carnival parade and the hot dog stand, or the bingo nights.
Skills and behaviours needed for the role:
You don't need any experience of Scouts, and you don't need to have worked with children. Four questions instead:
• Do you like six to eight year olds, noise and all?
• Can you give an hour and a half on a Wednesday in term time?
• Are you happy to follow someone else's plan while you find your feet?
• Will you turn up when you've said you will?
Four yeses and you'd fit in fine.
Will there be a DBS check? Yes
Driving Licence required? No
Volunteer's own vehicle required? No
Suitable for:
Ongoing Volunteering
What will the volunteer gain/benefit from:
Once you start there are two short online modules, safety and safeguarding. You can do both at home in an evening. A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is arranged and paid for, and somebody can sit with you while you fill it in. First aid training is booked for you on a date that suits, it's part online and part in a room, and it lasts three years. You won't be left to find any of it yourself or to work out which course you need to do.
The training is free to you. First aid and safeguarding are worth having whatever else you do. You'll also get better at managing a room of small children, which is harder and more useful than it sounds. And on a wet Wednesday in February, when you'd rather have stayed home, you'll leave glad you went.
How to get involved:
Email [email protected] and say you're interested in Beavers at Strensall. Or come along one Wednesday, watch for an hour, and decide afterwards over a cuppa. Nobody signs anything on a first visit.
Web link: Click here
Closing date: 30-11-2026