‘Be Prepared’ – to help out

After health and safety laws put an end to ‘bob-a-job’ week 20 years ago, the Scout Association have decided it is now time once again to encourage young people to help out their local communities.

Bob-a-job week was a long lived scouting tradition in which our knot tying friends helped out people in their local community in exchange for a small payment.

Unfortunately, bob-a-job week came to an end back in 1992, after health and safety and child protection concerns were raised.

Two decades on and the Scout Association has decided its time to start encouraging young people to help out once again and are soon to launch Scout Job Week.

There is one minor change however, scouts can expect not to receive any payment for lending a hand, as Scout Job Week is focussing on volunteering and is designed to help youngsters develop both helpfulness and entrepreneurial skills.

A series of volunteering projects have already been developed around the country, with scout groups in Milton Keynes dedicating their weekends to building a garden for Physiotherapy patients at their local hospital, and scouts in Nottingham delivering food and medicine to local residents during bad weather.

Come next May when the project is officially launched, some scouts will be returning to the same volunteer projects, whilst others will choose to help out around their local community.

UK chief scout and TV personality Bear Grylls has said that the revamp of bob a job week will ‘put volunteering back at the heart of scouting’.

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