Adult help!
Scouting cannot happen without adults to help and support the young people!
Scouting is a growing movement. Our membership numbers have increased every year since 2004 and there are currently around 500,000 people involved throughout the country, of which 80,000 are adult volunteers. There are several different ways you can volunteer as an adult within the Group: as a leader or helper, taking part in meetings which young people attend; providing fundraising support and helping out at events; or on our Executive Committee, as a part of the team which oversees the smooth running of the Group.
If you'd be interested in helping out and either know what you want to do or just need a bit more information, please fill in our form and we will try and get you involved with the Group as soon as possible.
But I don’t know anything about Scouting!
That doesn't matter to us: we don’t expect our volunteers to come to us with any particular knowledge or experience. All that we are looking for is energy and enthusiasm: we can help with everything else that you need to know. Please bear in mind that we are not just looking for people to help out on meeting nights, but also people to help out behind the scenes with organisation of equipment, finances, and fundraising.
I work full time – can I still volunteer?
All of our adult volunteers work full time and they fit their Scouting roles around this. Most meeting take place outside of normal working hours but even if your work means that you can’t help out with sectional meetings, there are many other ways to get involved. We will always look for ways that a role can be adapted to suit your needs, whether you can help out once a fortnight, month or term or just at special events or camps.
Are there any restrictions on helping out?
Scouting does not discriminate – whatever you gender, age, religion, abilities or skills we will find a role to suit you. Adult members must be over 18, but we also welcome Young Leaders, aged between 14 and 18.
What is the process for joining?
Fill in our online form to give us some information about what you would like to do. Someone will be in touch shortly to discuss how to get you involved and you will be given an application form to complete. An enhanced DBS check is carried out on all volunteers, no matter what their role, and is required even if you already have an enhanced DBS check from a different organisation. For some roles you will have to go along to an appointments meeting, to talk to people outside of your Group about the role you want to take on. Depending on your role you may have to do some training, or demonstrate that you already have the required skills. More information about the adult training scheme is available from the national Scout training pages.