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Outdoor Activity Family Wellbeing Volunteer – Bide Oot

Children 1st
VO101244

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.

Experience required

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.

Travel expenses

We also reimburse reasonable out-of-pocket expenses for travel and costs incurred as part of the volunteering role

I want to volunteer

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Training details

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.