Welcome to SpanThatWorld.com! The online home of the District Fellows Movement, the 16-20 age group of the cooperative children and young people's charity The Woodcraft Folk.
Videos
What We Do
As members of the co-operative and young people’s charity The Woodcraft Folk, many DFs are involved in volunteering within their district.
Districts are the backbone of the Wooodcraft Folk and where the majority of Woodcraft activities happen, including district camps and the weekly group nights of different age groups (Woodchips, Elfins, Pioneers, Venturers and DFs)
Here are some DFs talking about what they get up to in their local districts…
Kyrran Cunningham, who’s 17, leads a Pioneer Group in Southwark District. He’s been doing this for a year, and before that was helping to run a Woodchip group, so he’s got an impressive history of Woodcraft involvement.
Kyrran reckons it’s easy to run a group, although TREE has plans to support young leaders who aren’t quite so confident. See Something for Everyone if you are interested.
‘I joined Woodcraft Folk when I was 12, and first got involved in leading a group when I was 14, because there wasn’t an active Venturer group in my area. I thought Woodcraft Folk was a cool place to be, and it was easy to make friends there. I’ve found it easy running a group, and just attended one training weekend to learn about safeguarding – I knew loads already just from being in Woodcraft. You can get friends to help you, and there’s always someone to support you in Woodcraft Folk. Yeah, I’d recommend it to others – it’s fun, and you don’t know what it’s like till you do it. If you’re worried about whether you’ll be any good at it, just remember that you don’t have to be perfect – you just do it to the best of your ability. I thought our first summer camp would be so hard! But it was easy. Two mums help run our group, and another DF called Peter. We recently took the group to London Zoo, and we’ve run sessions on things like anti-bullying and what young people think about the recession. We’re going to get to know other Woodcraft groups, starting with a Hallowe’en night we’ll do with another group. Scary stories and camp fires…
Kyrran is pictured over there in the middle
Fiona is 16 and from Norwich, here she talks about how she got involved in Woodcraft and why she likes helping out with an elfin group.
“I got into volunteering with the woodcraft kiddies through my DofE and after I completed my three months I just couldn’t stop attending, I had so much fun with the little ones (mainly because I acted as a climbing frame to them) I felt that I had built a bond with them, the adults were also really friendly and the whole group gave me a chance to fit in and become one of them I even got my own woodcraft name.
My being a volunteer I think really helps the group out with an extra pair of hands so while things are being planned for a session I can play indoor games with them for a while. Joining the Woodcraft Folk has benefitted me in two ways my physical health has picked up, i’m a lot fitter than I was before and I have also been able to complete my bronze DofE.”
Zoe helps with a woodchip group in Ealing -
“When I began volunteering with my local Woodchip group I was given two pieces of advice, one being that it is much like herding geese. This I soon discovered to be very true, they have a habit of scattering themselves randomly making it necessary for you to usher them the right way, they also seem to waddle on their little legs. Essentially they lack direction, but they’re also at the age where they can amuse themselves, this where my second piece of advice comes in: even if you have set them an activity, they will find there own variation of it. For example a harmless drum making session ended up with a bunch of 3-5 year olds trying to hilariously jam both their feet into a carpet tube. Although they’re only little, they’re already showing themselves to be independent, freethinking (very) young people, and it is a pleasure knowing that I am helping to shape the future of the Woodcraft, and encourage others to do so too.”
