Personal Reflective Presentation

For my community challenge, I volunteered at my local Brownies group to lead activities and
help with the team as they needed extra help due to the number of staff being limited. I
supported the children by leading activities that helped them to develop their interpersonal
skills and logical thinking, whilst also educating them about relevant and pressing issues such
as diversity and basic biology to broaden their knowledge, building off the foundations of
their basic understanding of the world. It was relatively convenient for me to volunteer at
this particular location as I used to be a member of the 2nd Lisvane Brownies when I was at
that age. It is also local and within close proximity to where I live so transport was easy as
well as being familiar with the community and the surroundings. I also undertook activities
with smaller groups of children as well as the group of around 23 girls as a whole, ensuring
that each child received equal amounts of support and one-to-one session times. The
activities that were completed included drawing pictures of certain animals to create an
individual animal that represented their thoughts, feelings and personalities; as well as tasks
which included finding people with the same facial features or hobbies as them. Each activity
provoked a subliminal message in attempts to allow the girls to think more deeply about
certain matters and that everyone is different and unique, but we should all be treated
equally. These messages laid the foundations of good virtues that the Brownies community
preach, including Christian virtues of doing good deeds.

I wanted to choose Brownies as it was local to me, so it was easy and convenient to
commute to and from the location. Moreover, I used to be a member of that specific
Girlguiding group as I have grown up in the area, so I would feel welcomed back into the
community. I also knew a few of the other team leaders as they had been there since I was
younger. However, I had never led a scout group before, particularly a large group of
children of that age category, so it would be challenging for me to find my footing and
provide an authoritative figure for the girls. Moreover, it’s not easy to communicate with
children as they may not listen to what you have to say, it is also not easy to communicate
with them as they need clear instructions to ensure tasks are performed correctly, however,
this was a skill I simply had to learn whilst being there. Being at Brownies allowed me to
utilise the opportunity of gaining leadership and authoritative skills whilst also exuding
interpersonal skills and ensuring that there is clear communication between the members. I
also was able to give back to the community that provided for me when I was in Brownies,
which is a key virtue that the Girlguiding community express. Although, there was a chance
that the girls may not be happy with the activities planned and would therefore not be
willing to cooperate, which is something I had to consider when planning the activities. For
example, one of them was simply learning content about plants and animals which I had to
turn into a more inclusive and entertaining activity as they would lose interest if the activity
was simply to just be talked to about plants and animals. It could not also be guaranteed
that the girls would listen and follow instructions accordingly and could misbehave. I also
wanted to create a supportive and encouraging space for the girls whilst leading them
through the activities. The strengths of volunteering at Brownies outweigh the weaknesses,
therefore I chose to volunteer here.

Volunteering at Brownies