What volunteering can you do for DofE? 7 simple ideas anyone can sign up for
It’s important to you find a volunteering programme that you’ll find both rewarding and enjoyable. Luckily, with a wide range of officially approved options, from tutoring to charity work to campaigning, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find the a programme that works for you. In this post I explore 7 pre-approved ideas that allow you to make a difference — and have fun whilst doing so — all while working towards your DofE qualification.
First things first: how long is your volunteering section?
Before you start contacting people, charities or organisations, it’s important to know how long your volunteering section is going to last. On DofE, with each successive award, the volunteering sections become increasingly long:
Bronze - 3 months (or 6 months is you select volunteering as your longer section)
Silver - 6 months (12 months if you haven’t completed Bronze)
Gold - 12 months (18 months if you haven’t completed Silver)
For a full breakdown of timescales on DofE, check out my post on How long is DofE?.
1. Tutoring
Tutoring is a brilliant way to help out a person or community because you’re assisting someone in furthering their education. There’s also a huge variety of things you can teach — tutoring doesn’t just have to be academic subjects like maths, science or history! If you have a talent such as a musical instrument, sport, or skill (e.g. drawing or chess) that you are happy teaching to others, then this could be the option for you.
There are lots of different routes you can go down to find an appropriate tutoring arrangement. The simplest option would be to ask your school if there is anyone that would benefit from tutoring in a subject or skill you’re particularly good at. You may be partnered up with an individual student, or asked to help out at an after-school club.
You could also ask friends of friends, or post on sites like Facebook or Nextdoor to get your word out: the more people you offer to tutor, the more chance you have of finding a tutee.
2. Working with the environment or animals
If you’re an animal-lover or are keen on environmental conservation, you’re in luck. The DofE charity lists a wide range of qualifying activities, including animal welfare, rural or urban conservation, litter picking, and zoo/farm work. In general, if you’re involved in the protection or maintenance of animals or the environment, it will qualify.
There are many zoos across the UK that have regular volunteering vacancies, such as ZSL (who run London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo), BIAZA, Paradise Wildlife Park in Hertfordshire, and Drusillas Park in Sussex. You could also volunteer at the RSPCA and make a real difference in the prevention of animal cruelty across the country.
If you’re more interested in environmental conservation, I’d check out naturevolunteers.uk. They offer regular placements all over the UK, and match you with projects based on your interests. You could also volunteer with Wildlife Trust, the National Trust, or contact a smaller, more local organisation. Even something as simple as regularly collecting litter from your local park/beach would qualify.
The BBC wrote this great article listing a number of other organisations that offer volunteering programmes in animal and environment conservation.
3. Charity intern
Working for a charity is one the more common routes for the volunteering section of DofE, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad choice! Lots of people find working in a charity shop or helping out at charity events extremely fun and rewarding. It’s also one of the most readily available forms of volunteering in urban areas.
You can check out the website do-it for inspiration even find a placement, as it has a huge database of charity volunteering vacancies across the UK. Another useful resource would be to contact your local volunteer centre, which you can find the details of here.
Alternatively, you could go down the more traditional route of finding work in the well-known high-street charity shops, such as the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, or Oxfam.
4. Religious education / serving a faith community
For many people associated with a religious community this is a natural and easy way to make a positive difference. Ask your local church, mosque, or synagogue if they would like any help — you might be surprised how happy they are to take on volunteers.
You could get involved in Sunday schools, help clean-up before and after functions, run projectors / sound systems, or take part in fundraising events.
If you’re keen to get involved in a volunteering with a religious community but don’t have a natural place to look for a programme, you could contact a few of a wide range of organisations across the UK. You could volunteer for Churches Conservation Trust, Muslim Hands, Jewish Volunteering Network, Christian Aid, or Islamic Relief, to list a few.
5. Campaigning
Campaigning is a lesser known volunteering option for DofE, and falls under the category of ‘community action and raising awareness’.
If you’re involved in a political or social group that campaigns for community action or aims to raise awareness of social issues such as cyber safety or drug & alcohol abuse, you may already be doing your volunteering section without realising it!
If there is a political issue that you feel particularly passionate about, whatever it may be, try to find a local or national organisation that you can join. If they hold regular campaigning events, this would qualify for your volunteering, as you aim to make a positive difference on people’s lives.
6. Head student
Yes, being a head student can count as your volunteering section of DofE! However, it’s not quite as straightforward as it may sound: you still need to be engaging in regular activity that has a positive impact on people’s lives. In this case, that’s likely to involve your school.
As a head student you might run a student council, represent the school at open days, be involved in assemblies, or organise student events. And if you don’t have set regular duties, you could use your position to have a positive impact on the community by running a weekly cake sale for charity or starting a club promoting awareness in a topic you care about.
7. Leadership roles
There are a wide range of leadership roles that will qualify for your volunteering section, from dance leadership to sports leadership to group leadership. As well as this, DofE list a number of specific organisations who offer leadership roles in voluntary groups. These include:
Girls’ Venture Corps
Sea Cadets
Air Cadets
Jewish Lads’ and Girls’ Brigade
St John Ambulance
Scout Association
Air Training Corps
Army Cadet Force
Boys’ Brigade
CCF
Church Lads’ and Girls’ Brigade
Girlguiding UK
Girls’ Brigade
(Bonus idea!) 8. Assistant Coach
If you’ve been a member of a local sports team, dance club, yoga studio (etc.) for a long time, then offering yourself as an assistant coach could be perfect — you’ll be doing an activity you already love while helping out a local business or organisation.
I know people who helped out at weekly training sessions for their Sunday league football team and loved it so much that kept going after their DofE volunteering ended!
Still not found what you’re looking for?
If you still haven’t found something that ticks your boxes, you can read the full list of DofE approved volunteering options here for more inspiration.