Activity for volunteers: Our Volunteering Culture and me
Reflect on your own behaviours within Our Volunteering Culture with the About Me activity
Activity outcomes
- Self-reflect – think about aspects of your own behaviour.
- Identify areas for development – be open to continual improvement.
Activity details
- 15 minutes (or longer)
- Indoors/outdoors/in person/online
- Any volunteer team
You'll need
- One double-sided printout of Our Volunteering Culture Activity Prompt Cards
- A pair of scissors
Before you begin
- If your team needs a light refresher on Our Volunteering Culture, share the link ahead of the activity.
- Print and cut out the prompt cards.
The activity
- Spread out the prompt cards face-up for all to see [See variations if done online].
- Each Team Member thinks of two prompt cards - one they feel they’ve recently applied/lived, and one they find challenging. Here, 'challenging’ means difficult or something they’ve not lived yet.
- One by one, each Team Member shares the prompt card they’ve recently applied/lived and their reason for picking it. When everyone has shared, invite general comments, observations and thoughts.
- Repeat the previous step, this time with the challenging prompt cards. Again, invite general comments, observations and thoughts.
Activity variations
- As an alternative to prompt cards, print out the PDF version of Our Volunteering Culture and cut out the statements.
- This can be done as a short reflection activity, to start off a team meeting or as a longer team review exercise. The duration of the activity depends on the size of your team and the time given over to reflection.
- If done online, the facilitator can either display the prompt cards on the shared screen or email to the Team Members beforehand.
- This activity can also be done on your own, for self-reflection.
Reflection
This activity asks us to reflect on our own behaviour. Being in a team means there’ll be other perspectives and experiences to draw from.
What thoughts are there on how to approach the challenging prompt cards?
Were any prompt cards picked by more than one Team Member (perhaps for the opposite reasons)? Were any prompt cards not selected?
Is there a next step that any Team Member feels they can take?
If using the prompt cards, see the reflection points on the opposite side.
- To bring the team’s focus onto specific behaviours, like the statements under the heading ‘As a volunteer in Scouts we’ll trust you to’, base the activity on a smaller, pre-selected, number of prompt cards.
- This activity is based on self-reflection and sharing. It requires a level of comfort and trust within a team. It’s important that comments and observations from Team Members are kept both general and respectful. This can be made easier by letting everyone share before reflecting as a full team.
- To give people time and space to think, the self-reflection can be done separately. Perhaps do it before the activity, leaving the group session for sharing and observations.
- Be aware that different people may engage with this activity in different ways, reacting or processing their insights differently.
- The activity is not about being right or wrong. Its purpose is to give time to reflect.
- This activity would benefit from being done on a recurring basis within a team. Try to have a regular reflection on Our Volunteering Culture, stretching discussion to points you haven’t covered before.
- Now try another Our Volunteering Culture activity.
Activity for volunteers: Reflecting on our strengths
Reflect on, acknowledge and celebrate aspects of Our Volunteering Culture your team does well.
Try the Well Done You! activityActivity for volunteers: Opportunities to improve our Culture
Reflect on and acknowledge aspects of Our Volunteering Culture that your team can improve upon.
Try the Challenging Ones activity