Our 8 step process to setting up a Woodcraft Folk group
Be a part of social change and help spread Woodcraft Folk values to children and young people. Join our large network of volunteers by setting up a new Woodcraft Folk group in your local area and help young people to learn more about the world around them, put them in touch with nature & involved in environmental sustainability, form lifelong friendships and explore big ideas through fun activities.
We’re excited that you’re considering opening a Woodcraft Folk group. We appreciate that this may feel daunting, however we want to reassure you that by following these 8 steps you’ll be surprised how easy you found it. In addition to this guidance our staff team are on hand to offer support and advice. You can contact our team at membership@woodcraft.org.uk.
We also have our new group journey guidance which offers a bit more detail about how Woodcraft Folk works. To read this guidance document go to woodcraft.org.uk/resources/new-group-journey.
1. Tell us about your new Woodcraft Folk group
“I want to set up a Woodcraft Folk group”
Once you’ve made your decision to set up a new Woodcraft Folk group you should log your interest with us so that we can begin to support you along your journey. This will also mean that any outreach activities or taster sessions that you run before you register your group can be covered by Woodcraft Folk’s insurance. You can complete an ‘New Group Starter Form‘ online.
2. Volunteers & Membership
We recommend that you need between 2-4 committed adult volunteers to get a group going, sharing the responsibility of running group nights and managing the administration. You’ll also need to make sure you have enough volunteers to meet our minimum adult to child ratio – one adult leader to every 3 Woodchips, 5 Elfins, 8 Pioneers or 10 Venturers at each session.
We require the following roles to be identified in your pool of volunteers:
Group Coordinator – The main contact for enquiries and oversees the work of the group. Ensures the group follows policies & procedures, programme planning and helping to recruit, induct and manage volunteers.
Local Safeguarding Lead – Main contact for any safeguarding concerns, create local safeguarding plan and supports the volunteers training and understanding of our safeguarding policy & procedure.
Local Health & Safety Lead – Main contact for any safety & wellbeing concerns, recording/reporting any incidents and ensuring risk assessments are in place and suitable for the activities undertaken by the group.
It’s up to you how you divide up the tasks involved; roles can be shared. Just make sure you all have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what.
Membership & Vetting
All volunteers are required to be members, all those working with children and young people need references, all volunteering regularly need and enhanced DBS.
It’s important that your volunteers begin this process as soon as possible as you’ll need a minimum of two fully vetted volunteers to register your group, run outreach and apply for funding. We also require a minimum of two volunteer members to be present at every group night.
3. Find a venue
Finding a suitable venue is important as this will be where you will host a large amount of your programme. Most of our groups use an indoor space, with some opting to meet outdoors during the spring/summer months. Possible venues include church & school halls, Quaker Meeting Houses, community centres, libraries and hub spaces . It’s always a good idea to try to find a venue which has space for running games. Other factors to consider include cost, proximity to members and accessible green space. Guidance for finding a good venue is available here.
Most venues will ask to see evidence of our public liability insurance before renting space to your group. All registered Woodcraft Folk groups are covered by our annual insurance, which includes public liability cover of £5 million. A copy of our certificate can be found here.
4. Plan an open day or taster session
We recommend that you hold at least one taster session before you start your group. You can hold your session either indoors (e.g. in the venue you plan to use for regular sessions, or outdoors in a local park when you might attract families to join in. The aim of the session is to run activities for the children and give them an idea of what they can expect at a group night. Take this opportunity to introduce parents and carers to Woodcraft Folk. This is a great way to recruit children and helps you to build experience and develop programme. Programme ideas can be found here.
Publicise your event . Word of mouth can be very effective, but don’t stop there when publicising your taster session.
We suggest:
Leaflets– Flyers can be requested from head office, we have leaflets to help you target families and advertise your sessions, which you can download here.
Posters – use posters to advertise your sessions at local libraries, community centres, cafes and schools. Template posters can be downloaded here.
Social media and WhatsApp – Use social media to get the word out to local families, and share information via parent/carer WhatsApp networks to advertise your group and introduce Woodcraft Folk.
Local schools – Advertise your taster session to local schools: handing out leaflets to parents and asking to pop a poster up on school notice boards.
5. Staying Safe
All groups need to complete a local safeguarding plan. This plan outlines the steps everyone needs to take to ensure the young people in your care are safe from harm. Find a template to adapt here. Writing the plan is usually the responsibility of the Local Safeguarding Lead with the input of the other volunteer team.
Most importantly you need to make sure that everyone knows who to talk to if they are worried about a child’s safety. Give everyone the contact details of the Group Safeguarding lead and share our Safeguarding pocket guide.
First Aid
You must ensure that you provide adequate first aid cover for every group session, camp, residential or other activity. You will need to ensure you have access to suitable first aid supplies whenever your group meets, and record all accidents using a first aid log book and or our incident report form – recording any treatment given, and share this with parent/carers where appropriate.
For more details on providing First Aid and the levels of training required see our guidance here.
Writing a Risk Assessment
Assessing risk is an important part of safeguarding against preventable accidents. Write a risk assessment that covers all the activities you do on group nights and trips. Update your assessment when new activities are identified or circumstances change. Make sure that all adults and young people are aware of the risks that have been identified, and how you will minimise them. Guidance on completing a risk assessment is available here.
6. Publicity and Outreach
Once you know where and when your group will meet, you will want to start regularly publicising your group to recruit children and families. Social media, parent/carer group networks and local websites can be very effective in attracting new families. You will find guidance on how to use social media safely here
- You may wish to set up a Facebook page, Instagram account etc. to advertise your group.
- parent /carer networks on whatsapp have also been effective in finding families and volunteers.
- Promote your group of online networks of like-minded organisations and local community groups
- Contact local schools – you could offer to hold an assembly, taster activities after school or provide leaflets.
Woodcraft Folk Comms manager on hand to offer help to publicise your group. Email lauren.penny@woodcraft.org.uk.
7. Finance
Groups cover their running costs by asking parents to pay ‘subs’, on a weekly, monthly or termly basis. These help meet the cost of hall hire, materials, and other expenses. To calculate how much you need to cover typical costs check out our Groups budget calculator here.
Being financially sustainable is really important for all of our groups. We’ve found the groups that are able to meet their expenses are the ones that are proactive in their collection of subs and priortise fundraising for one off projects and camps.
For new groups in new areas we’re operating a young member registration scheme, which is our online payments system for parent/carers to pay their weekly subs and annual registration to Woodcraft Folk. For more information read our leaflet.
Open a group bank account
Groups are welcome to open a bank account to manage the money that they will be responsible for. All Woodcraft Folk groups must bank with the Unity Trust bank. To find out about how to apply for an account click here.
As an alternative, new groups are also welcome to bank in-house with Woodcraft Folk. Our finance team will manage payments and bookkeeping on behalf of the group. This reduces the administrative burden on our volunteers to manage bank accounts, reconciling income & expenses and making bank transfers. For more information email leanne.powell@woodcraft.org.uk
8. Register your group
Once you have agreed on a venue, decided on your official group start date and have appointed volunteer roles you’ll need to make sure you are fully registered with Woodcraft Folk’s Head Office.
This is absolutely vital- you’re not a Woodcraft Folk group without it. It details where and when you’ll be running activity so that they can be insured and identifies the main contact persons for head office.
Click here to complete our online new group registration form.
On receipt of your new group registration form, your group will receive: a contact page on our website group finder, an @woodcraft email/gmail account and access to Groop our online group management system.