- Mentor 7-11 year olds at Saturday activity days
- In person in and around Southampton
- To be confirmed.
- No experience needed
What is Branch Up
Branch Up activity days bring University of Southampton students and 7-11 year olds together for fun, free activity days. This year some of the days we have planned include a trip to the beach, a visit to the zoo and a day on campus learning about different cultures.
The programme benefits young people by developing their social and emotional skills, building new friendships and growing their self-belief – ultimately improving their expectations for life. The programme will also benefit your engagement with the world around you, wellbeing and key skills such as confidence, resilience, leadership and teamwork.
My time at Branch Up as been an extremely positive experience for me and has improved my mental wellbeing dramatically. Taking time away from the bubble of university helps put life in to perspective. As well as this, making a positive impact on children gives me hope that we can make social change for future generations. Branch up has also provided me with skills such as reflecting on your feelings and accepting that you don’t have to push things down and ignore them.
Emma Watts, Branch Up volunteer 2021-22
What you’ll be doing
As a Branch Up volunteer you are expected to join at least six activity days this academic year. Our dates and plans will be confirmed soon and updated here.
How to get involved
To apply you need to complete an application form to let us know why you’re interested in Branch Up, your availability for training and which series of workshops you want to take part in.
Once we’ve heard from you the next steps will be:
- Attending an information session
- Attending introductory training
- Attending project specific training, including child safeguarding training
- Completing a DBS check
- Attending day briefings where you will hear about the plans for the day
If you have any questions, or require any support to get involved, don’t hesitate to contact us at hello@southamptonhub.org.
FAQ
There are loads of benefits for you if you get involved with Southampton Hub. These include:
- Having an impact in the community. You can make a difference and support access to engineering
- You will develop key skills including teamwork, leadership, resilience and confidence. This will be supported by the professional training you receive and the support you get throughout your experience
- A certificate recognising the commitment you’ve made, which you can put on your CV and share on Linkedin
We’ve assessed the accessibility of all our opportunities and are able to discuss these with you prior to you starting your placement, this includes any reasonable adjustments we can make. All accessibility information will also be sent to you prior to your placement as standard. If you have any questions about accessibility, or want to make request a reasonable adjustment, please reach out to us at hello@southamptonhub.org
Some examples of reasonable adjustments we can offer include:
- Using an expensed taxi service to aid mobility conditions
- Making sure there is seating with no arms
- Extra time to complete activities in training, as you would get in exams
Our activities are all open for everyone so if you’ve not been involved in social action before, or you’re apprehensive about getting involved, reach out to us at hello@southamptonhub.org. All of our opportunities practice a safe space policy meaning they are supportive, non-judgemental and always willing to listen.
We will be in touch as soon as we’ve read your application. We will let you know about upcoming training, our available opportunities and other key information to support the application process such as expectations to complete safeguarding training and get a DBS check.
DBS stands for Disclosure and Barring Service. These provide a UK criminal records check and are required when individuals are working closely with young people or adults at risk, or have access to sensitive information. In order to get your DBS check you will need:
- Your address history for the last five years
- Your national insurance number
- Your passport, driving license or other form of ID
Southampton Hub pays for the check and will support you at every step of the process. If you have a question about this check or want to make a self-disclosure about a criminal record please reach out to Sapthi at sapthi@southamptonhub.org.
In order to support you to be confident working with young people as an Invent Plus volunteer we deliver comprehensive training covering:
- Safeguarding, to ensure both you and the young people you work with are kept safe
- Advice on delivering the workshops, to ensure you share key information in an engaging way
- Working with young people, to give you the confidence you need to communicate with pupils and manage behaviour
It’s natural to feel nervous when you try new things, but don’t let you put that off. If you want to talk to a member of our team before applying or attending a session you can email them. Or if you’re not sure who to speak to email hello@southamptonhub.org and we’ll get back to you.
Some things we recommend often include joining the programme with a friend – you could sign up together and come to the same session so that you’ll have a friendly face. Alternatively, you could arrange to meet a member of our team before a session so that you get to know each other 1-1 and can travel together. We’ll work together to find a solution which supports you to get involved, whatever that may be.