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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

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Supported by GO Outdoors

World weekend

Enjoy a global-themed night away.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Clean items of recycling
  • Aluminium foil
  • Spoons
  • Knives
  • Oven
  • Fairly traded bananas
  • Fairly traded chocolate, or chocolate buttons

Before you begin

  • Further guidance on arranging a nights away experience is available under nights away and camping.
  • In the lead-up to your night away, encourage everyone to collect useful recyclable items for craft activities. Also ask people to bring information on a cause they’d like to talk about, such as an endangered animal.

Set the scene

  1. Once everyone has arrived, the person leading the activities should lead a tour around the space and point out all the important parts.

Make sure you point out the essential places like toilets and washing areas, fire exits, sleeping areas and no-go areas.

  1. Everyone should help to turn the space into an indoor rainforest. You could also use this time to make some endangered animal masks.
  2. This is a great time to talk about how everyone can recycle, reuse or repurpose waste. Why not try out an activity like Race to recycle, The art of recycling or Really rubbish maps.

Fairtrade fare

  1. Bake a Fairtrade banana to highlight the benefits of trading fairly with farmers and workers in the developing world.
  2. While preparing and enjoying your snack, talk about Fairtrade and what it means to everyone involved.
    • For other ideas, take a look at Fairtrade’s online recipes.  
    • It’s a good idea for the young people to eat before their first night away but do have snacks or even just a selection of Fairtrade fruit available.

Clean water

  1. During a drinks break, the person leading the activity should chat about the importance of clean water and the fact people in some countries have little or no access to clean water, and have to travel great distances to reach it.
  2. Together everyone should make their own water filters.

Grow together

  1. To emphasise the importance of planting trees and plants to reduce our impact on the environment, the person leading the night away should introduce a seed sowing task.
  2. Everyone should use some plastic bottles or pots to plant a seed.
  3. Follow the instructions for Salad sprouters to plant a salad garden.
  4. Use the filtered water from the ‘Clean water’ activity to water the seeds.

Sparking conversation

During the evening, everyone should gather round a real or pretend campfire to talk through the global activities. Find out what people found interesting and would like to explore further. Are there any causes they are passionate about?

Reflection

This collection of activities encouraged everyone to think about how simple changes to our lives can affect the whole world. It might not be easy to do everything perfectly, but together everyone can have a big impact.

What else can the group do to improve any of the issues discussed? Perhaps they could start a recycling or reuse campaign or do some guerrilla wildflower planting to bring colour and buzzing wildlife to their local area.

This might be someone’s first night away from home. It’s a big achievement and can be nerve wracking. Did anything worry them? And what did everyone enjoy about being away? Perhaps they liked being with their friends, trying new skills or eating new food.

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.

Rubbish and recycling

All items should be clean and suitable for this activity.

Gardening and nature

Everyone must wash their hands after the activity has finished. Wear gloves if needed. Explain how to safely use equipment and set clear boundaries so everyone knows what’s allowed.

Food

Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.

Adapt the activities to the experience of the group and add in favourite games with a rainforest twist.

Make sure that anyone who is upset or anxious has someone they can talk to. If there’s anyone who doesn’t want to stay overnight, they could take part in daytime activities.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Nights Away Staged Activity Badge

Think about the ways you could work to improve some of the issues you talked about after the night away. For example, you could try more Fairtrade recipes or start growing vegetables. This could be the start of a project for the Community Impact Staged Activity Badge.

Encourage young people to choose, design and lead the activities so they focus on the issues important to them.