We celebrate the 10th year of The Rock this weekend!

Over the ten years of The Rock, Schools work has been at the heart of who they are! Their work has grown immensely from their first weekly team building session, at Whaddon Youth Centre, to now more than twenty schools working with The Rock since then. The activities have developed with primary-secondary transition work, bike maintenance, archery, young leadership, nail art and music production just a few examples of striving for the best. It has been amazing to see young people becoming their best, whether that is confidence in moving to secondary school or motivation and skills for their future career path.

How it began

We are always very grateful for the time volunteers give to the work of The Rock and for our young people. The Rock has always been a place where volunteers are key for the work to happen with some of the sessions that have been created being guided by the gifts of our committed volunteers.

Developing our volunteer team

We have been blessed with a volunteer team with an array of great gifts and talents; individuals, some coming from partnerships we have with the University and Gloscol and others through corporate partners like Tesco’s and Barnett Waddingham. One particular volunteer has developed an amazing weekly Archery session that sees around 15 young people a week learn the skill of Archery in a safe environment where they can grow and flourish. We have seen Half-Term music workshops come from a passion for music that one volunteer has, with a fun and talent filled performance at the end. Volunteers have also pushed and developed cooking activities and a menu for Make lunch serving up amazing food for our young people that attend these sessions, and through Cooking Club giving the young people the gift and skill of cooking to take home and use.

Impact

The impact of our volunteers is massive! We have seen young people from within our schools and evening work grow, learn and develop into great young adults, with some coming back to be adult volunteers, a testament to the work and input from volunteers and staff. One of our young leaders said about a volunteer, “he’s just like a big brother, he will sit and listen to my moaning, gives me advice and makes me laugh, whenever I need it!”.

Where it’s going now / next?

We want to grow our Volunteer team now more than ever. We don’t just want numbers we want input. If volunteers come with a passion or idea we would love to look into it and see if it is something that could be grown at The Rock to benefit our community and young people. Could you be the next volunteer to pioneer an amazing new session that brings confidence, acceptance and achievement to a young person?