Trades Volunteer (Joinery, Electrical, Plumbing, Building, Groundworks, Mechanics, Chainsaw)
Location of voluntary activity
York Scout Activity Centre, Stockton on the Forest, York YO19 5XS.
When are volunteers needed
Two or three hours at a time, when it suits you.
The team is on site every Wednesday, 9.30am to 1pm, and again from 6.30pm until it gets dark. Once a month there’s Pitch In Sunday, when volunteers from across the District come and help. Come to either.
Some jobs take longer than an afternoon. We’ll agree those with you before you start.
There’s no minimum time commitment. Some people come once a year, and that’s fine.
Role description
Are you a joiner, an electrician or a plumber? Do you do building work or groundworks, or fix engines? Have you got a chainsaw ticket?
Could you give us two or three hours to help look after York Scout Activity Centre?
We’ve got the materials. What we’re short of is people who know how to use them.
Two or three hours of your time means a toilet block that works, a gate that shuts, and a path Cubs can walk down without ending up in the mud. That’s what you’d be doing for the young people who come here.
York Scout Activity Centre is the District’s campsite, just outside York. Most people in Scouting know it as Snowball Plantation. It’s seventeen acres of woodland with three buildings, campsites, toilet blocks and kitchens. Scouts, schools and youth groups from across York stay here all year round.
These are the trades we’re looking for. You’d come in for one.
- Joinery. Doors, windows, gates, benches and shelters.
- Electrical. The Lodge, the Centenary Building, The Cabin and the toilet blocks. This one needs a qualified electrician, because of who’s using the buildings.
- Plumbing. Toilet blocks, showers and kitchens.
- Building and roofing. Brickwork, roofs, gutters and painting.
- Groundworks. Paths, drainage, fence posts, and the ground that gets churned up every time it rains.
- Mechanics. The mowers, strimmers and other machinery that keep the site going.
- Chainsaw work. Trees that have come down, branches over the paths, and looking after the woodland. You’ll need a chainsaw certificate for this one.
You’d be working alongside the site team, not on your own. They know where the stopcock is and which key opens which door. You bring the trade.
You don’t have to be a Scout, or to have been one, or to have children in Scouts.
If you run a business, there’s another way to do this. Some firms volunteer a day, or a whole job, as a team. Mention it when you get in touch.
Skills and behaviours needed for the role
You need to know your trade. That’s the one thing we can’t teach you on site. It doesn’t matter whether you’re still working, semi-retired or retired. Four questions.
- Are you qualified or experienced in a trade?
- Are you happy to look at a job, tell us straight what it needs, and say if it’s bigger than you can do?
- Can you work safely on a site where children and young people might be about?
- Will you do the job you said you’d do, when you said you’d do it?
Four yeses and you’d fit in fine.
For electrical work and chainsaw work, we’ll ask to see your qualifications.
Support offered
- A walk round the site with the site team before you start, so you know where everything is.
- Materials paid for by the Centre.
- The site team with you for anything that needs two pairs of hands.
- Out of pocket expenses covered.
Will there be a DBS check?
Yes
What will the volunteer gain/benefit from
Once you start there are two short online modules, safety and safeguarding. You can do both at home in an evening. A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is arranged and paid for, and somebody can sit with you while you fill it in. You won’t be left to find any of it yourself.
The training is free to you.
Beyond that, it’s the work. You’d be doing the thing you’re good at, on a site that Scouts, schools and youth groups use every week. If you’ve retired from the trade, it keeps your hand in, with a team to have a brew with. If you’re still working, it’s the satisfaction of a job well done.
And you’d see the place the way most people never do. The woods on a Wednesday morning, before anybody arrives.
How to get involved
Email volunteer@yorkscouts.org.uk, say you’re interested in trades at the Activity Centre, and tell us which trade.
Or come and try it first. Come along to a Wednesday session, morning or evening, or join us on a Pitch In Sunday. Walk round with the site team, see what needs doing, and lend a hand if you feel like it. Nobody signs anything on a first visit.
Closing date
30 November 2026
