Do you love to spend time outdoors and understand the benefits that this can bring? Can you spare a few hours a month to share this with families to support their emotional wellbeing and build connections in their local community? If so, please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you. At Children 1st our ambition is for every child in Scotland to be safe, loved and well with their family. As a charity we offer emotional, practical, and financial support to help families to put children first and campaign to uphold the rights of every child. Children 1st Bide Oot works alongside families from all over Scotland offering opportunities to support their wellbeing through spending time in the outdoors. We provide families with the chance to try new skills, sports and activities together during a residential weekend. After a residential trip we offer family activity sessions with local communities to encourage families to continue to benefit from spending time outdoors and provide opportunities to build local connections. We are looking for volunteers to support Children 1st staff to enable families to participate as fully possible in in family activity sessions in Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian. What would I be doing? Family activity sessions provide families with opportunities to socialise and spend time with like-minded people while trying activities such as forest walks, beach combing, cook outs, archery, climbing, watersports, hill walks, foraging and bush craft. You would work alongside Children 1st staff to build positive relationships with families and provide support before and during the sessions in a range of ways. The way that you do this will depend on the individual needs of families and the type of activity and could include: • Providing practical support for families to get to and from local activities, e.g. by driving them or travelling with them on public transport. • Providing support and encouragement to children, young people and parents/carers during the session to help them participate in activities and build their confidence, e.g. being alongside them when meeting new people or joining new groups; talking with them to help ease anxiety or settle nerves; help to highlight what they are good at; advocate on their behalf when needed. • Helping Children 1st staff with the practical elements of running the session, e.g. preparing tea/coffees/snacks and setting up equipment. Families who have experienced Bide Oot say it has helped them strengthen relationships, built their confidence and had a long-term positive impact on their mental health, relationships, and emotional wellbeing. Volunteering with us is a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of children and families and develop valuable skills, knowledge and experience. Please see the role description below for more information about the role. Training and support We provide a comprehensive introductory training course that will equip you with the skills and knowledge that you need. We are planning to start our next training course in November 2025 (exact dates TBC) which will run from our Midlothian base in Eskbank. We provide all of our volunteers with ongoing support and opportunities to develop in the role. We also reimburse reasonable out-of-pocket expenses for travel and costs incurred as part of the volunteering role. Further information You don’t need to have any specific previous experience or formal qualifications although you should have an interest in spending time outdoors, good communication skills and some understanding of issues affecting children, young people and families. A full driving licence and access to a vehicle is desirable but if you don’t have this please get in touch for a chat about what the options might be. After training we would ask you to commit to giving 4-8 hours a month for at least three months. If you would be interested in offering more time than this we would be more than happy to chat to you about it. If you would like to find out more about the role or have any questions please get in touch via volunteer@children1st.org.uk - we’d love to hear from you.

The Primrose Community Trust are looking for youth work volunteers (16+) to help at various sessions for young people in Crossgates in Fife. The sessions would involve setting up, taking part in the sessions, and encouraging young people to be active participants, tidying up, taking part in the evaluation at the end of sessions. The sessions will be working with the youth work team and will be on a rota basis, so will not have to volunteer every week if this is not manageable. Junior Youth club drop-in: Monday 5.45-8pm (8-12yrs) Lego Club sessions: Tuesday 3-5pm (7-12yrs) Senior Youth Club drop-in: Fridays 6-8.15 pm (12-15yrs)

Give the gift of your time and become a volunteer mentor for young people. It could be life changing for you both! Would you like to support a young person on their journey to gaining new skills and experience, becoming more self-confident and achieving their goals? If the answer is yes, we would love to hear from you. Why mentoring? Mentoring is at the heart of what we do here at ProjectScotland and we offer every young person we support, the opportunity to be matched with a volunteer mentor. We are searching for people in and around Aberdeen who are able to offer one hour of their time once a week or fortnight for up to 12 months to help transform the life of someone else. The young people we work with all face different challenges in their lives such as; mental ill health, long term unemployment, low confidence and self esteem, care experienced, limited English communication skills due to being new to this country or disabilities. As a volunteer mentor, you could support your mentee with whatever is important to them. This could be: goal setting; identifying interests and strengths; confidence building; helping to establish a routine; support to explore job, training and further education opportunities; social connections; or just someone consistent to talk to and check in with to see how they are. The support you can offer is invaluable and can be life changing. How does it work? • Following recruitment, we provide training, support to join the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme, ongoing support, access to lots of resources and a wonderful community of mentors across the country to connect with, learn from and build friendships with. • you are matched to one young person and meet with them once a week or fortnight for around one hour • meetings can be face to face or virtual using email/telephone/video chat/WhatsApp. There is also an opportunity to do a mixture of the two which offers a flexible and accessible approach to this volunteering role in addition to the match itself. •matches can last from 3-12 months depending upon the relationship and the needs of the mentee What’s in it for you? • Help transform your mentee’s life • Develop communication and interpersonal skills e.g. coaching, motivating others, adaptability • Gain transferable skills and experience volunteering with disadvantaged people • Participate in regular support and training • Meet new people, connect and have fun! • Learn about yourself and gain a sense of achievement supporting others • Learn more about your community and the challenges that people can face If you are interested in this opportunity please email: asia.wieloch@volunteeringmatters.org.uk We would love to hear from you! More info about ProjectScotland: ProjectScotland (part of the Volunteering Matters Family) works with people (predominantly young people) across the country who are struggling to overcome challenges such as social isolation, mental health issues, low confidence and general uncertainty about their futures. By providing wrap around support and the chance to complete a voluntary placement with a local charity; not only can this enhance confidence and self-belief, but it gives that individual the opportunity to build on their skills and experience and potentially move on to a job, further education or training. Everyone we work with is also offered a volunteer mentor.

Explorers: Try more. See more. Do more. As an Explorer Leader, you’ll join in and make memories to last a lifetime. Explorer Scouts are young people, usually aged between 14 and 18 years old. They make up the fourth section of the Scouting family. And we are looking for an Explorer Scout Leader and Assistant (Friday). Explorer leaders are passionate about giving young people a voice. They are enablers: supporting young people to pursue their interests and push their boundaries. Explorers are encouraged to lead themselves in deciding the programme and direction of the Unit, with support and guidance from leaders. The Explorer Scout Leader and Assistant Section Leader therefore support/look after an Explorer Scout Unit. They are responsible for developing and providing quality Explorer Scouting and working with the District Explorer Scout Commissioner in developing and supporting Explorer Scouting in the District as a whole. Would you like the chance to canoe, climb and make bird boxes while improving your CV? As an Explorer Scout Leader in the 14th Midlothian Scout Group you will do all of this and more, using your current skills and learning new ones. We are looking for a fun, committed person to support young people, helping run games and activities as part of regular meetings. As part of a small team, you will support planning and delivering a safe and exciting programme for young people, helping them achieve badges and awards. Enthusiasm, an empathy with young people and a sense of humour are a must. But we can teach you the rest! We’ll support you all the way and ensure you get the training and support you need. Scouting offers fun, friendship and life changing adventure but this is only made possible by our talented teams of volunteers. There is no doubt that you will already have knowledge and experience that will complement the provided training.