Free To Be supports particularly vulnerable children to begin to change their stories about who they are, and who they can be. We help children who have often grown up with significant adversity or hardship to more often feel proud of themselves and to experience feeling brave, adventurous, included and successful - often for the first time in a long time.
We do this via overnight adventures and nature based residentials; after-school groups; and mentoring support. We work using the inherent power of the outdoors, animals, nature and self-expression - all of which are integral to the programmes we run. Children experience meeting animals at the farm, building dens in the forest, building rafts in teams to paddle across a lake, standing on the beach for the first time, cooking together in groups, camping out under the stars and a wide range of other activities all carefully designed to both broaden horizons, but also to scaffold the building of self-confidence, resilience, and trust in others.
Our Kitchen Crew volunteers ensure that our adventures are possible by creating nutritious meals for the children, running cooking workshops for the young people and you also have the option to go out on the activities too! You’ll spend your days singing along to the radio whilst you food prep with the other Kitchen Crew team members, going for walks to pick flowers to decorate the tables or just generally helping out with things around the site. Once the young people get back from their activities, they’ll be ready to devour biscuits as they tell you all about their day and try to convince you to go for a quick bounce on the bouncy castle with them… You’re also the project fairies who organise little treats for the other volunteers (like hidden chocolates or a sneaky portion of brownies for the evening) - you’ll be given a budget for this and can decide what you want to do with your Kitchen Crew teammates.
You will gain full training in working with children and safeguarding. You’ll gain confidence, make a huge difference to the lives of these children and meet some incredible other like-minded volunteers.
If you’re looking for an exciting and rewarding volunteering opportunity, get in touch!