Venue: Community Centre Jacksdale, Main Road
Tuesdays 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Jacksdale Community Centre, Main Road, Jacksdale
For girls aged 5 to 7 years
Any girls interested in joining the 1st Jacksdale Rainbows should contact Lynne or Kathryn via the email address below.
[email protected]
Jacksdale Rainbows - One Year Old!
Wow, what a year for 1st Jacksdale Rainbows! We opened our unit- the first one ever in Jacksdale- in September 2013. We have tremendous support from parents, the local community and very enthusiastic Rainbows!
We meet weekly at Jacksdale Community Centre, in our unit in the past year we have had a Halloween party with Westwood Brownies, had a pretend camp, had many themed evenings such as birds, baking, water activities. At Easter we also held a fundraising evening for Save the Children, where Jacksdale Rainbows did a sponsored activity to raise the amazing sum of £132. Our outside the unit activities have included a (rainy!) party in the park, a visit to the Space Centre, a trip to Treetops play area and a night walk around the village.
Thank you for all the support from everyone who has made our first year memorable, we have 21 Rainbows ready to start in September so long may it continue!
Rabbit, Badger, Hedgehog and Slug (1st Jacksdale Rainbow Unit Leaders)
Rainbows: Who are we?
Girlguiding’s youngest members attend Rainbows, we have girls from age 5-7.
What do we do?
Rainbows gives girls a space where they can be themselves, have fun, build brilliant friendships, gain valuable life skills and make a positive difference to their lives and their communities. They can move on to Brownies (age 7-9) Guides (age 9-13) and Young Leaders (14-16). They can then become Leaders.
From a Leader- My first 12 months as a volunteer – By Kathryn Corbett
I’m one of the Leaders in 1st Jacksdale Rainbow Unit (the girls call me Rabbit!). The opportunity to start the unit up came due to the fact there was a huge waiting list for all of the local Rainbow Units, and my daughter wouldn’t have had a place for another year. After chatting to a friend who is a guide leader in Kimberley, she encouraged me to talk to a lovely lady who is an Assistant Leader (called Badger) at Westwood Brownies and we decided to set up our own Unit. It took about 3 months, lots of hard work, grants from Girlguiding, local council and others but eventually we started with 12 girls.
Time wise, at first I was concerned how much time and planning co-running a Rainbows Unit would be, but after the initial setting up its been easy enough. I’ve had to put extra time into completing my Girlguiding Leadership Training which I completed at Easter, and attending a first aid course. I had a mentor who was a Rainbows Leader for many years to support me.
Overall, as a volunteer I cannot speak enough praise for the support I have received from Girlguiding, from my leaders who run the unit with us, to the regular updates from the district commissioner, and also the fantastic opportunities that are available to adult volunteers both nationally and internationally – in one update recently I
saw an opportunity to accompany Guides to sail tall ships for a week round the British Isles, it looked wonderful! My year has been so rewarding, seeing the Rainbows enjoy themselves and getting to know them, and I feel that I have gained more confidence in myself and what I can do too.
In our local area at the moment we have girls who want to join guiding, but unfortunately not the adults to support them. Girl Guiding needs more volunteers to enable Rainbows, Brownies and Guides to be accessible to more girls. Currently we have 21 girls in our Jacksdale unit, we have a waiting list but cannot fit anymore girls safely into the Unit. Local units at Underwood, Eastwood and Langley Mill are in a similar situation. The Brownies in the area have the same issue.
If you could spare anytime in your week to help at a local Rainbow or Brownie Unit, or even consider setting up your own, then please get in touch. I would definitely recommend being a volunteer with guiding, my experiences have been so positive.
www.girlguiding.org.uk This is the main website, if you enter your details you will be put in contact with the person most local to you.
For more information on guiding visit:- http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/home.aspx