Dwayne Fields proudly holds the title of the UK’s 11th Chief Scout.
An explorer, adventurer, and TV presenter, Dwayne has appeared in the BAFTA-nominated Channel 5 series Race to the Pole, on BBC Springwatch, Countryfile, National Geographic, and Disney+.
Scouting is for adults too!
Help us lead the adventure
#SkillsForLife
Our Scout Groups rely entirely on volunteers. We have volunteer vacancies across the Conwy Scout District for roles working with young people and behind the scenes.
Not sure how you’d like to help yet, or how much time you have to give? No worries. Your local team can chat with you through a range of options, including flexible and occasional volunteering.
You don’t need previous experience of Scouting or to be an expert at anything. Whatever your background, identity or ability, there’s a volunteer spot with your name on it.
Your team members will help ensure your journey into Scouts is enjoyable, rewarding, and filled with incredible opportunities.
Our volunteering opportunities are flexible and can easily fit around the time you have available to get involved.
Our volunteers come from all walks of life. From the Princess of Wales or our Chief Scout, explorer, adventurer and TV presenter Dwayne Fields, to teachers, postal workers, shop assistants, nurses and stay-at-home mums and dads, there is no such thing as a typical volunteer. The one thing they share is the enjoyment of working together and helping young people reach their potential.
If you’d like to get involved with the Scouting movement, helping young people overcome challenges, make new friends, and learn skills for life, please get in touch and email Jim Pitts, our interim District Lead Volunteer.
Introduction
We want to ensure that, as a volunteer, you have the skills and knowledge you need to feel confident helping young people stay safe and build skills for life. The Scouts’ training scheme for volunteers means that adults get as much from Scouts as young people do.
Scouting is about everyday people working as leaders and supporters in Scout Groups in their communities, giving young people confidence, a sense of purpose, life values and outdoor skills that are hard to find anywhere else – we call this everyday adventure! Our volunteers put their skills to use and learn new ones, while giving something back to the local community.
Volunteering with Scouting is easier than you think. With full support and training, you can volunteer on a flexible basis, meaning that if you are unable to make the meeting, it’s fine; we don’t expect everyone to be available every week. People today have busy, often unpredictable schedules, so they can’t commit to fixed hours on set days.
Scouting is still scouting, whether you’re involved once a week, once or twice a month, every six weeks or even once a year; and whether you are in the thick of activities with a group of young people or working behind the scenes in a management, trustee or support role.
Everyone has something to offer as far as supporting Scouting is concerned, whatever your age or ability, and there are lots of ways to get involved. You don’t have to have any previous experience or any specialist knowledge, just a passion to see children develop into confident young people.
Scouting offers a wide range of roles to suit everyone. For example, you could be great at engaging young people in activities, ideal for a leadership role, very organised and strong in administration, skilled with numbers and figures, and well-suited to joining the group executive committee. We’ll make sure you’re properly trained and supported.
Everyone has something to offer to support local scouting. Whether your age or ability, we have a role that suits you. Not all our roles involve working with young people, so there are many ways you can get involved and make a difference. See below for opportunities to get involved in a way that suits you, or speak with the leaders when you visit one of our groups.
Adults in scouting support the movement in the following ways:
Working with young people. Working as part of a small leadership team to help plan and run an exciting programme for members of one of our youth sections. These people are trained to lead the adventure. You can do this on a flexible schedule: weekly, biweekly, monthly, or as it suits you.
This is a fun and rewarding role, ideal for people who enjoy working with young people. Over time, you will see members grow in confidence and ability as they learn from the programme you help run.
We know that life can be busy, so we’re all about flexibility: You really can give as much of your time as you choose on your terms! Whether you can spare one hour a week, a month, or a term, it’s much easier to provide engaging activities at our meetings with your support.
You may think that you have nothing to offer, but you’d be surprised! Give us just one hour (in a way that suits you), and you can help us provide scouting to even more young people.
No prior scouting experience is required. What’s more important is your skills and experience, as well as your empathy for our mission and values.
We provide a warm welcome, a sociable network, relevant, easy-to-access training, and extensive online resources to support activity planning, along with ongoing face-to-face support.
Being part of scouting is great fun, and it goes without saying that helping young people can be one of the most rewarding things you can do, plus it also looks great on your CV!
Take a turn in your child’s group. Whether you can spare an hour a week, a month, or a term, it’s much easier to provide engaging activities at our meetings with your support. We understand that you may not be able to help regularly, which is why our Squirrel Drews, Beaver Colonies, Cub Packs, Scout Troops, and Explorer Scout Units operate adult rotas. Our rota means you can make a difference and help when it suits you.
Management and strategy. Our volunteer managers provide support and guidance to other adult volunteers, motivating and inspiring them to deliver first-class scouting opportunities for young people. Whether it’s someone to talk to or to thank, or practical help with resource management and recruiting other volunteers. These are important and rewarding roles.
Put your professional skills to use. Behind local groups, we have a network of people who offer training, guidance and support. If you’ve got skills in HR, finance, fundraising, communications, training or health and safety, we’d love to hear from you. Help manage short projects, organise events, help manage funds, help with recruitment, marketing and publicity, deliver adult training or manage a volunteer team.
Governance and administration. If you would like to support scouting but don’t have the time to be a leader or helper, a trustee role at one of our groups is a great way to make a meaningful impact with minimal time commitment.
Our trustees help make decisions about local scouting and ensure our leadership teams have everything they need to run quality programmes.
Our group trustee boards play a key role in the day-to-day running of a group. In fact, we could not operate without it. The members make decisions about local scouting and carry out administrative tasks to ensure the highest-quality scouting experience for young people in our sections.
Although the ‘trustee’ bit in our board’s title makes it sound very formal, it is not like that at all – our board members are people like you! Everyone brings different skills and experiences and comes from different backgrounds. This helps ensure a variety of perspectives and a more well-rounded, effective board.
This is a rewarding role and is ideal if you would like to support the growth and development of young people and our leadership team, without working directly with young people.
No prior experience in scouting or as a trustee is required. What’s more important is your skills and experience, as well as your empathy for our mission and values. We provide a warm welcome, a sociable network, and short online learning to help you get started, along with ongoing support.
‘Active support’ means helping out when needed. It could be by running activity badges for young people, helping with catering for events or camps, assisting with activities, helping with transport, or anything else that supports local scouting. It’s a way to offer some of your time to scouting and help out when it’s convenient for you.
Come and join in the Fun and Adventure, you never know, like us, you might even enjoy yourselves!
Whatever you bring to the table – however often you can help – being a volunteer changes young people’s lives.
There are many ways you can get involved with a team. It’s flexible, and you can get involved in a way that suits you. Visit scouts.org.uk to learn more about what each team does and how you can get involved.
Try our four week challenge!
Join our meetings for 4 weeks (they don’t need to be consecutive). You’ll be amazed at the fun you will have and the difference you can make…
The four-week challenge is an opportunity to test-drive scouting. It’s fun, fast-paced, and light-hearted — and it offers a chance to experience the spirit of Scouting firsthand. It’s a try-before-you-buy-(in) with no commitment. It’s a great way to experience the fun of scouting and see if volunteering is right for you.
Week 1:
Come along and see what we get up to.
Week 2:
Start to help out.
Week 3:
Get a little more involved – maybe run a game or activity.
Week 4:
By now, you’ll know if scouting is for you.
We offer a wide range of flexible opportunities, either working with young people in one of our age groups (we call them sections) or behind the scenes supporting the adults who do.
Interested? Get in touch with René Stevens, our District Lead Volunteer.
Volunteer Welcome Pack
Joining a new place can be daunting. We want to ensure you feel equipped and ready to start volunteering at your own pace and get you settled in.
There is a handy welcome pack for new volunteers, containing all the basic information you will need about Scouts and our general expectations as volunteers.
Opportunities for learning
We organise the learning at Scouts in what we call the Learning Tree. It’s made up of our Growing Roots and Branching Out learning.
Growing Roots is the key learning that helps you get started with Scouts. It includes Safety and Safeguarding training to be completed within your first 30 days, along with other key modules for your first six months. The First Response training has to be completed within 12 months. Days start counting from the day your details are added to the membership system. You need to renew Safety, Safeguarding and First Response training every three years.
You complete all the Growing Roots learning online by accessing My Membership. You will find the learning for your role under the section ‘The learning you need’. Your progress is tracked automatically and recorded on the system.
The only people who don’t need to complete this learning are Presidents, Vice Presidents, Non-Member – Needs Disclosure, Retired Members and Designated Carers.
Branching Out is an optional learning program designed to further develop your skills and knowledge, covering a wide range of topics. Specific learning is required to do certain things, such as for our accreditations. There are other learning opportunities to engage with if and when it’s helpful for you.
Of course, most of what you’ll learn is probably through doing. So, don’t be afraid to get stuck in. Learn from your fellow volunteers and keep trying new things.
The picture below shows the Learning Tree route and timeline to become a full member of Scouts.
