Kids and their families can roll up their sleeves and get involved in some volunteering with local charities this year.
Children up to the age of ten can learn what it’s like to take care of animals, plant bulbs, get food packages ready to be sent out to vulnerable people, organise clothes donations or work in an art gallery.
The idea of the scheme, called the Family Volunteering Club, is to get young children in Southwark and Lambeth involved in practical activities, and to help them understand some of the problems people face.
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Sessions will start in June and run until December. They will be free but you have to book in advance.
Charities include:
- Surrey Docks Farm, a community farm by the Thames in Rotherhithe
- Bee Urban, an urban beekeeping site in Kennington Park
- Bankside Open Spaces Trust, a charity looking after open spaces in Bankside
- Little Village, a charity in Peckham that takes donations for babies
- Roots & Shoots, an outdoor educational organisation in Peckham
- The Felix Project, a food charity in Deptford
- Dulwich Picture Gallery
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Barnaby Shaw of Bee Urban said that children almost certainly won’t be getting involved with the bees themselves.
“We’re going to get them to help us with some gardening and propagate plants, and helping clear the garden space.
But he added that there was “a slim possibility that we could get them harvesting [honey].”
Maddy Mills, who founded the the Family Volunteering Club, said that the club was good for parents as well as their children. “Often you get people who volunteer, and then when they have kids they quite understandably have to pause that… this is a chance for them to get more involved again.”
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She added: “More than ever, kids are increasingly aware of the issues that our world and societies are facing – however big or small.”
Book from Monday May 23 here.
