Award for Youth Volunteering

A beacon of excellence

Youth volunteering in Dorset has been recognised as a national beacon of excellence.  Dorset Wildlife Trust’s youth volunteering programme has been awarded REACH accreditation by the Youth Action Network, following rigorous external assessment.  REACH is a nationally recognised quality framework, similar to Investors in People and Investors in Volunteers, with a focus on youth action work.

V funding

Dorset’s biggest conservation organisation is in the second year of a 3 year project to advance volunteering for young people aged 16 to 25 with funding from V, the national youth volunteering organisation. 

Steve Davis, Volunteering Programme Manager at Dorset Wildlife Trust, said: “We are seeing great benefits from our work with young volunteers, not only for our work for wildlife across the county but for the self-confidence and skills of the young people themselves.  We are keen to hear from any young people or groups who would like to take up this unique chance to do their bit in supporting their local environment for the future.”

Volunteers will try anything

Sam Hamer, Youth Volunteering Officer at Dorset Wildlife Trust, leads the team of young volunteers in tasks ranging from building bridges, clearing scrub and restoring ponds to erecting fencing and signs and undertaking survey work, with everything else in between.  Some of the young volunteers focus on administration or marketing, while others have shown their skills in painting, decorating or design, not to mention enthusiastic blogging.  The team, which can include up to a dozen at a time, includes school and university placement students as well as individual volunteers over the age of 16.

Sam said: “It seems there is nothing the young people won’t have a go at.  There is something for everyone here, with such a wide variety of jobs and we regularly see volunteers taking up paid employment with the benefit of the experience they have gained here.”

For more information about youth volunteering, contact Sam or Steve on 01202 642788