Basecamp Programme Volunteer (Lake District)
Published | 5th November 2024 |
Location | Leeds, United Kingdom |
Category | In the field |
Job Type | Volunteer |
Description
Do you…
Love the outdoors?
Want to help young people to have amazing experiences?
Have knowledge, life experience or skills to share?
Want to do something meaningful with your time?
Want to gain experience, skills, training and development?
Basecamp Adventure Trust delivers 1-year adventure and personal development programmes to young people in Leeds that face barriers to thrive. Through a combination of skills workshops, exhilarating adventure trips and a deeply relational approach, we challenge, celebrate and inspire young people to discover a newfound sense of confidence, resilience and self-belief, and to explore new possibilities for themselves. Our programme spans the academic year of Year 8, in which groups of 30 young people take part in 6 themed modules, comprising of 6 skills workshops and 6 2-night adventure residentials.
We are looking for Basecamp Programme Volunteers to support us in our work with young people, by joining us on adventure residentials.
What's involved?
Programme Volunteers attend our 3-day adventure trips, working directly alongside the young people. Our adventure trips take place in the Lake District between October and June and last for 3 days, mid-week, in term-time.
The 3-days are jam-packed with activities, adventure and reflection. It's very immersive and you'll come home exhausted, but hopefully in all the right ways. Alongside the young people, you'll push yourself out of your comfort zone, experience new things and discover confidence and a sense of aliveness along the way.
These are some of the things you might get up to as a Programme Volunteer on an Adventure Trip:
- Working directly with one of our Adventure Youth Coaches to support a ‘Huddle’ of 10 young people
- Offering pastoral support such as making sure everyone has a packed lunch, tying shoelaces, checking young people have everything they need
- Taking part in outdoor adventures (hiking, kayaking, gorge scrambling etc) alongside our young people to chat to them, offer support, and celebrate their achievements
- Creating Basecamp ‘magic moments’ e.g. setting up a hot chocolate station at the end of a gorge scramble.
- Supporting/facilitating downtime activities e.g. games of football, craft activities, board games. If you have an idea for an activity you could run, we’d love to hear it!
- Help support ‘Huddle’ Check-in/Check-up/Check-out sessions and encourage young people to reflect on their achievements
- Support our evening activities (sometimes outside and sometimes inside) and bedtime routine.
- Generally provide an amazing, supportive, empathetic, positive experience that leave our young people feeling seen, safe and heard
We want to make volunteers feel a part of the Basecamp Team, which means getting your own Basecamp top and access to high-quality professional training. As a result, we’re asking all volunteers to sign up to support us on a minimum of two Adventure Trips per year, but if you can help with more, that’s great!
- Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th December 2024 (Borrowdale, Lake District)
- Wednesday 11th - Friday 13th December 2024 (Borrowdale, Lake District)
- Monday 27th - Wednesday 29th January 2025 (Borrowdale, Lake District)
- Wednesday 29th - Friday 31st January 2025 (Borrowdale, Lake District)
- Monday 24th - Wednesday 26th March 2025 (Windermere, Lake District)
- Wednesday 26th - Friday 28th March 2025 (Windermere, Lake District)
- Monday 12th - Wednesday 14th May 2025 (Windermere, Lake District)
- Wednesday 14th - Friday 16th May 2025 (Windermere, Lake District)
- Monday 9th - Wednesday 11th June 2025 (Coniston, Lake District)
- Wednesday 11th - Friday 13th June 2025 (Coniston, Lake District)
Essential requirements for the role:
We ask that Volunteers are:
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Interested in getting to know and understanding young people and their perspectives, even the ones who 'act out' or 'disrupt'
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Empathetic and caring
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Willing to get stuck into all manner of activities
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A positive role model for young people
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Able to represent the charity with professionalism and responsibility
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Committed to keeping young people safe
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Aged 18 or over
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Obtain (via Basecamp) a satisfactory Disclosure & Barring Service check
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Able to provide access to satisfactory character references
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Able to commit to 2 x Adventure Trips
Why Volunteer?
We are a people-oriented organisation and our staff & volunteers are the backbone of what we do. We want staff and volunteers to feel seen, heard and valued for the work they do. As a result of volunteering with us, you could:
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Make a real difference to the lives of young people
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Experience new activities and adventures
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Meet new likeminded people and make new friends, on Adventure Trip and at our Staff & Volunteer Adventure Socials
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Develop confidence from pushing yourself out of your comfort zone (yes, what we do applies to adults to!)
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Gain access to high-quality training in the industry, such as Mental Health First Aid, Restorative Practice & Coaching and Mentoring, which provides professional development & experience for other areas of your career
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Develop skills in a wide-range of areas, such as facilitating group sessions, bushcraft and social emotional self-awareness
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Improve your physical and mental wellbeing
How to apply
Please complete our application form here - https://www.basecamp.org.uk/volunteer
We are particularly keen to hear from members of the Explorers Connect community so please mention Explorers Connect in your application.