We’re looking back on our first year running a DofE group in the Youth Club.

In 2022, we were granted funding from DofE, under their Access Without Limits programme, to run three years of DofE that would see three cohorts of young people complete their Bronze award, and beyond. This funding aims to give more young people access to the programme, who might not be able to afford to via school or who might not have been offered the opportunity.

During our first year, we learnt a lot from our programme and going forward, we have new ideas on how we’ll approach it differently to ensure that the young people can balance their school work, extracurriculars and social life while completing this award. This post is a dive into what we got up to and what we’ve learnt from that crucial first year.

As we gathered the group together, we found that young people were initially sold on the Duke of Edinburgh’s award by its sought-after position on a CV. The DofE award is divided into Physical, Volunteering, Skill, and Expedition sections. Initially, this was a daunting prospect as the young people expressed that they were busy with after-school clubs, youth clubs, and studying for mocks and exams. Through discussions, we were able to ease this feeling by outlining what counts towards each section, finding that most of them already do something that can be used to fulfil the requirements. For the expedition section, the idea of camping without much staff supervision was an exciting one. The hiking part didn’t seem to phase them this far out, and they seemed to often forget that they needed to carry their kit on their backs. When reminded we were met with, “I can’t, that’s too hard” or “I’m too weak!” More on this, later.

Within the youth club programme, we’re usually running activities that fit into at least two of these sections at once. For example, young people can take part in gym sessions for their physical section, cook with us on Friday nights for their skill section, or take part in a social action project for their volunteering section. This helped the young people find something for their sections they hadn’t already sorted, and most took to our Fencing or Cheerleading programmes for their physical.

To get ready for their expedition in the Essex countryside, and to check in on how they were progressing, the group met once a week for a year. The sessions were geared towards team building and included elements they’d need once they were braving it alone such as cooking on Trangias, pitching tents, and navigating by map and compass.

We found these weekly meetings useful when learning the skills needed for the expedition, but not so well when using them as a space to upload evidence and answer questions. Young people are already stressed about exams, mock and graded, and with revision taking place alongside their extra-curricular activities they couldn’t commit to another weekly session. Going forward, for our second year, we’ve revised our approach so that weekly sessions are just for young people to learn skills, but that 1-1 slots are available to ask questions and get help when needed.

The assessed expedition took place in October Half Term. The group were ready to brave their planned hiking routes alone. Preparations of the routes took longer than anticipated and were harder to motivate the young people to complete. Going forward, this will likely be broken down into smaller batches.

As they set off, they soon got a bit lost. They had to channel their excitement into concentration and adapt their map-reading skills to this new location. However, by lunchtime, they were in the swing of things and didn’t need our help from then on.

Throughout the expedition, Jake and Michael were supervising them from afar, making sure they were safe and on track. We found that little intervention was needed, only to keep them on time and to adjust their routes to match their actual walking speed. They adapted well to these changes and hiked on undeterred.

After two days of hiking and camping, the group made it to their end point: Brentwood station to come home. A wave of relief swept over the group, both because they’d completed the expedition and because they could get their phones back. Despite feeling tired, they were excited and chatty on the journey home, discussing with Jake what they got up to and how they felt about it. Even in the months since, they’ve asked when they can start their Silver award and do the expedition. They now dream of more remote places, asking for the Peak or Lake Districts.

“When can we do our silver? I know it’s longer but I think we can do it”

Lily

Jake and Michael are so proud of the group’s achievement. They proved to themselves, that they can achieve things they once thought of as too hard or impossible. Despite the aforementioned concern about their ability to hike with all their stuff on their back, they persevered and completed the challenge. The groups worked remarkably together. Problem-solving as they went, dividing out tasks, and collaborating on their decisions. Groups who got lost soon found their way back to the path and any who began to find it difficult were quickly supported by their teammates to share the load.

“It was super fun being able to camp and hang out with your friends without any adults.”

Ash

We’re entering our second year now and currently recruiting a new group of young people to take on the challenge. We hope the success and positive experience of the 2023 Cohort speaks to

While we don’t have recorded routes for the young people, below is the route that Jake took assessing both groups.