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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

Impact mappers

Map charities in your community and learn about their impact. Which could you support?
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Sticky tack
  • String
  • A4 paper
  • Pens or pencils
  • Simple A3 maps of the local area
  • Leaflets about local charities (or safe web access)
  • Labels
  • Sticky dots or marker pens
Traffic light voting
PDF – 99.3KB
Download Traffic light voting

Before you begin

  • This activity will help everyone choose a local organisation to help through a Community Impact project.
  • You’ll need information about between four and six different charities, projects, services, community centres or not-for-profit organisations based in your local area. Depending on where you live, there may be lots close by or you may have to look a bit further afield.
  • Leaflets are a great source of information about the charities. Libraries and community noticeboards are good places to find out about organisations and pick up leaflets.
  • Print (or write) labels with the names and addresses of the organisations. You’ll need several sets – one for each group.
  • Get hold of some sticky dots or marker pens ideally red, yellow, and green.
  • Print one of the ‘Traffic lights voting’ sheets for each organisation. Write the name of a different organisation on each sheet in the ‘voting for…’ box.

Map know-how

  1. The person leading the activity should ask everyone to name any charities they know and briefly describe what they do.
  1. Everyone should split into groups. There should be between four and six groups. The person leading the game should give each group a map, some sticky tack, some string and a set of organisation name and address labels.
  2. To build map-reading confidence, the person leading the activity should ask everyone to find their meeting place or a well-known location on their printed maps.
  3. Everyone should read the address labels and find the organisations on the map. They should use a dot of sticky tack to mark the location and then stick a piece of string to the sticky tack. They should stick the address label to the other end of the piece of string. The labels should all be on the edge of the map, so they don’t cover up any of the map.
  4. The person leading the activity should give each group one organisation. They should give the groups the leaflets and information for their organisation, and some pencils and paper.
  1. Everyone should use the information to find out what their organisation does, who they help and how they impact on the community. Everyone should make notes so they remember what they found out and tell the other groups.
  2. Everyone should gather together and take it in turns to talk about what they found out about the organisations. Each group should try to promote their organisation – why should everyone support it?

Make an impact

  1. The person leading the activity should explain that now everyone knows about the different organisations, they should choose one to support with their community impact project.
  2. The person leading the activity should stick the ‘Traffic light voting’ sheets to the wall or a table.
  3. The person leading the activity should give everyone a green, yellow, and red sticky dot (or a green,red, and yellow pen – which people could share and take it in turn to use).
  4. Everyone should take it in turns to use their dots to vote for an organisation. They should stick the green dot on the organisation they’d most like to support, the yellow dot on their second choice, and the red for the option they’d least like to help. No one can stick both their green and their yellow dots to the same organisation – their first and second choices must be different.
  1. Together, everyone should count up the green and yellow votes. The organisation with the highest combined number of green and yellow votes is the one that everyone has chosen to support.
  1. The person leading the activity should then remind everyone what the winning organisation is and what they do.
  2. Everyone should split into pairs or small groups and think about they could help the organisation everyone chose. Would fundraising or donating items help? Could they run an event? Could they volunteer on a project? Or run activities for people the organisation supports?
  3. Everyone should gather back together to share their ideas. Everyone should look out for any common themes or types of projects?

Reflection

This activity helped everyone to discover more about their local community and think about how they can take an active role in it. Everyone should talk about whether they’d heard of these organisations before. Why do people think they’re so important in the community?

This was a good opportunity for everyone to remind themselves about the importance of community togetherness. These organisations help others, something that’s also at the heart of being a Scout.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Online safety

Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. As always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.

It’s up you how many organisations you use in this activity. It might depend on where you live or how big your group is.

To make it a bit easier to find the organisations, you could draw a grid over the maps and include grid coordinates on the address labels.

If you have a small group, people could split into pairs to research. If you have a big group, more than one group could research the same organisation. It’s up to you and your group how much each group researches – they could just look out for important facts like who it helps and how to donate.

Make sure that any leaflets are available in the formats for people, for example large print. If you’re using computers, people may need to use screen reader technology or adjust settings.

Adults should support with research if people find reading tricky.

You could use coloured pens to colour the columns on the ‘Traffic light voting’ sheet. This way, it doesn’t matter if people can’t read the headings.

If anyone is colour blind you may need to use an alternative, such as different shaped stickers, or sticky dots with letters drawn on (for example, R, Y, and G for red, yellow, and green).

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Community Impact Stage 2
Cubs Our World Challenge Award
Community Impact Stage 1

Contact the organisation your section has chosen and invite someone to visit and talk about their organisation and cause. This will help everyone plan the best project to support this organisation.

In this activity, young people vote for the organisation they’d like to support.